Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Walt and Don~


About the NPIP thing and shipping....I will have to find the paperwork that I have from the USDA and federal regulations about shipping eggs and live birds in the U.S. and post it here for everyone and yes you are correct Walt each state is different, but in generalities they each have regulations. California is completely different. I have a sheet that lists the states and their requirements.

BTW: NPIP here in Washington State is ridiculously expensive and not so easy, later when I have more time I will elaborate. I get so mad at Washington State because other states are very inexpensive and easy to get certification in.....fact most of the Southern States its free. My neighboring Oregon is something like $25....not Washington. I would need to take out a loan.


Have a great day friends!

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Kim, on the crow head go to page 18 and fig. 23 of the 2001 SOP.

I am clearly a SOP type person or you could substitute a different letter in the mix . After the first year when I started with Marans in 2007 I culled all Marans that didn't have feathering all the way down the toe. To get a high percentage of feather leg fowl we have to bred to feather leg fowl and cull all that are lacking in feathers. I am a firm believer in correcting all of the faults as we go along in breeding. If we only correct one item at a time we will never get an SOP birds as we will have other faults keep coming forward. I try and correct as many faults as I can each year. This is the reason I have all the single mating pens.

Will say again, I love the over-size Marans

You ate your funnies wheaties this morning didn't you my friend? And I would never substitute the other letter Don, because I don't believe that you are. I believe deep down you are just a big softy.

Thanks for the tip on the crow head...I will definitely look into that.

Oh and to touch briefly on what you said about trying to correct one fault at a time....I agree, if we try to only correct one at a time then the others slip forward. I try to cull for as many as I can at one time, but some things like lack of copper and clean legs don't detour me, however, STUPID COMBS and other worse offenses will stop me in my tracks. I am in no race, because there is no finish line as I see it. We cannot just majically breed perfect birds because then there would have to be perfect birds out there to have started from, I say show me one if someone would like to differ.

But the challenges of this breed keep me coming back for more and the great advise and knowledge of the fabulous folks here on BYC and the Marans groups is greatly appreciated by me and as long as I have these relationships and friends like you to rely on, I will continue to try and improve upon what I have.

The day they all start laying Barred Rock color eggs, I quit because it means I totally messed up.

Kim, just one more thing. I truelly believe if you could come up with a few single mating pens like I posted on the Wheaten thread that your work on improving would be much easier and quicker. The good thing on the single mated fowl you can put all the Pullets in one pen and breed back to a Dad or uncle. With single mating you will raise a lot less and better quality chick.

I am still waiting to see a SOP BC male. I raised a lot of really nice BC pullets this year. Most of the things I have worked on have taken me about three years. I still have not even by accident had a really nice SOP BC male.

In case you missed the cage posts they started on Page 127 and there are seven different posts. on the wheaten thread.

 

[HeatherLynn]

I have a couple marans and really enjoy these gals. I am curious if there are known good breeders of these where I could buy a roo and a few more girls. I am not necessarily looking for show quality, but I am looking for better than hatchery quality. My husband has already agreed to build these their own pen, so I am jumping on his offer and looking for occupants.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
In WA, they never seem to show up at the shows to do the testing of out of state birds. I suppose that is why OR moved their show over to your side of the border.

Walt

 

[Peach2u]

Quote:
Sorry thats the best my cell phone can do. Kids broke my camera. The sunlight seems to make him look yellow. He is bleach white with grey spalshes some of his tail feathers are white with grey shafts. After the fog has lifted I'll take a better picture out of the sun. Then his wet feathers will be fluffy again I'll get one of my BCM hen too she is a doll. I lost 2BCM and 1 Ameraucana hens over the weekend. Dogs are not welcome in my yard! So I'm looking for some more BCM hens {FS} hard to find here. Found some sad looking BCM hens almost all black and no feathers on thier legs I passed at $15 each. My collection of hens goes: 5 Easter Eggers,1 BCM, 2 Ameraucanas,3 Golden Comets, 5 RIR,7 Araucana's and LaMar. Not doing so well this year lost 6 hens/pullets so far this summer. I ended up with 20 rooster! LOL thats how I ended up with the RIR and comets. I traded 2 rooster for 1 pullet X10. He doubled his money at the fair and I got egg layers. So it worked out well.

That's cool and we would love to see your BCM gal. Sorry about the loss of the others. I do like the look of your roo....though of course I am very partial to the Splash and the Blues as you all well know. Can't wait to see more of him.

Well LaMar isn't showing well with my camera. I took it in the shade of the coop this evening but he is so white it is blinding. Maybe on a cloudy day for next set of pix. Now at least you can see he is white and grey. LOL
I'll wait till I replace my camera this weekend and get better pix.

 

[Cadeau]

Hmm - who else has good sized Marans?
Pink - you're sooo far away and I've not had much luck with shipped eggs, even in my Sportsman...

I'll have to get some pics, too!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
That's cool and we would love to see your BCM gal. Sorry about the loss of the others. I do like the look of your roo....though of course I am very partial to the Splash and the Blues as you all well know. Can't wait to see more of him.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/83884_lamar2.jpg
Well LaMar isn't showing well with my camera. I took it in the shade of the coop this evening but he is so white it is blinding. Maybe on a cloudy day for next set of pix. Now at least you can see he is white and grey. LOL
I'll wait till I replace my camera this weekend and get better pix.

I went back and looked at your first pic of your splash boy and then at this one...and I'm not sure if he is a splash birchen...something in me says his hackles and saddle feathers are exhibiting the splash pattern most strongly there....really the only way you'll know is to test mate him and watch the offspring. I'll see if I can get out and get a pic of the hackles on my splash birchen boy for you...Maybe that will be a way of helping you to compare and see how similar he is since your camera is down for the count. I am resting my back for a bit...just got off work and my nerve is screaming at me. But I'll try before it gets dark!

 

[stoopid]

pink, I know these pics are crap, but when I saw "Dale" I thought of this dummy destined for freezer camp...

He wouldn't sit still, is this a color, or is he just a mess? I think since I haven't worked with him, he will be dinner anyway.

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
Are you NPIP? and do you know about how much shipping would be? Oh and is pretty boy clean shanked? Not that I care about clean shanks as they are very easy to correct, just curious.

Kim, maybe you could explain how the clean shank is easy to correct. Half of the Marans on BYC have terrible Shank and toe feathering. What do you think about the crow head this birchen has ?

I'm not Kim, but he doesn't look like a Marans to me...

 

[math ace]

I gave a broody some delaware and marans eggs. She hatched almost all of them. TWO did not hatch and I opened them up to see what was going on. Both had paritally developed chicks. BOTH had poop stains on the outside of the egg from where the broody pooped one day and got some of the eggs in it before I got out there to remove the poop.

QUESTION: WOULD the poop on the outside of egg caused the chicks to die in the shell?

QUESIONT # 2: HOW do you deal with broodys pooping on the eggs?