Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Well....I'm still tryin to get everything done for the show...its lookin like I'll have to scratch a couple that are startin to definitely show signs of molt. Its too bad...but there's always next spring. Its been raining and snowing all day long and is super windy. Its funny, but this always happens everytime there is a poultry show in NE for a long time. It does not make catchin up birds and getting them show ready all that easy.

 

[snowbird]

Calling all Marans experts to step forward. Is it normal for the BC Marans males to have their shank color to lighten up as they age from 1-2-3 years old ? Never had any good enough before to let them age that long.

 

[geebs]

Don: I am by far no expert but I will say this. I have aging hens and roosters that I keep just to watch see how they age... They do lose color in feathers... They get "grey" around the eyes... (feathers lighten) and I will have to go back and compare to see if they actually lose shank color but it wouldn't surprise me... They do lose color in the eggs over their lifetime also.... The first 2 years are the most color productive.. gaining and waining as the season/temp changes.

I actually have a 14 year old barred rock..... (off topic)

Galivina: Cold here too... Just got in from a bicycle ride.... The wind blew right through my Gortex... (didn't know that could happen)... layering up next time. Time to start thinking about winterizing the coop.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Jan, The four males I still have here all had shanks a little on the dark side last year and now they are right in the middle. They have the real nice BC feather color now and they were a little dark last year. These produced all the nice colored BC pullets out of the almost black BC hens.

 

[Wynette]

Quote:
Man, Don, I wish you had a pictorial that you could show examples of all this in. Would be interesting to see, for sure.

 

[stoopid]

Maybe it's just normal for everything to lighten up. With this being a new breed (well, kinda) and all. I mean, how many people actually have a 5-yr old in the show cages?
Or expect great color eggs from a hen that old?

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Man, Don, I wish you had a pictorial that you could show examples of all this in. Would be interesting to see, for sure.

Wynette, that was what I had intended to do with the study I planned on doing before I basically got rid of the BC and wheaten. Someone should do the whole thing, male and female, egg and chick and picture the chicks at least once a month. Maybe someone will come along and do it eventually.

 

[snowbird]

Wynette, I really think it is going to take some documented studies done on the Marans so that people will know what to expect in future years when breeding them. The Genetic Theories are strickly theory and most have never been put to use to see if they work.

Something on this is that the Wheaten Marans will need to be bred differently than other breeds of wheaten chickens. I raised over 50 Wheaten this year and only had one male with about 1/2 of a feather with white, the females were all good colored no white in wing or tail. With the proposed standard you can not breed Marans like this.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Man, Don, I wish you had a pictorial that you could show examples of all this in. Would be interesting to see, for sure.

Wynette, that was what I had intended to do with the study I planned on doing before I basically got rid of the BC and wheaten. Someone should do the whole thing, male and female, egg and chick and picture the chicks at least once a month. Maybe someone will come along and do it eventually.

Don, why DID you turf all your black coppers??? Inquiring minds would like to know .... and you were missed at Crossroads ....

 

[geebs]

I haven't done a month by month but I have taken pictures of the aging process just by documenting other things...... because things change so much a bird that I would have otherwise scrapped several years ago turned out to be a good example after aging... I find the whole process facinating.... It makes me wonder as the color that drives the egg and the color that drives the bird both seem to lose tones. Sorry I am unable to respond very well today.... The internet is very intermittant.

Hey Don: have the eyes made any changes???