Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Maybe it's just small time crazy old Canadian me but seems to me if we culled according to that list of faults and DQs, we wouldn't have any Marans at all. The perfect chicken simply does not exist and certainly not in a variety as new as Marans.

Surely we have to pick our battles and work on eliminating the problems a bit at a time?

Barb, If you never plan on showing it would not make a difference, we are just trying to show faults and DQs so the new people will know what to look for in the future. With all the breed I have ever had I believed in culling heavy and eliminatinh everything I could each year.

I have yet to see a perfect bird at a show as well ...

I think it's absolutely wise to list faults and DQs. I am all for it. And to criticise ALL birds - honestly and thoroughly. But I also think we need to remember - the perfect bird doesn't exist. I think it's also important for us to discuss how to improve our breeding programs using less than perfect birds - especially when we don't necessarily have hundreds of birds to work with. What faults/DQs absolutely HAVE to be culled and what faults can we attempt to work with.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Middle toe feathering and twist on comb ? ? ?

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I didn't know about the crooked toe clause... I had a chick who got his toe caught in the hardware cloth and broke it at about 1 month of age.
How would you go about proofing that you KNEW it happened after hatch. Is this like an honor system kind of thing ? ?

 

[slick4591]

Quote:
Middle toe feathering and twist on comb ? ? ?

Yep.

 

[SD_Paulo]

Is the AMERICAN MARANS SOP based on or identical to the French version?

I would hate this beautiful variety going the way of the English Bulldog. A dog that make a better doorstop than anything reminiscent of a canine.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
It is based on, not necessarily identical to.

Can't comment on the rest of your comment.

Although I will say, there are a lot of folks in North America showing less than perfect Marans quite happily and working toward perfect Marans that meet the brand new APA SOP description - and defining more. Hard to say what will happen in the end. Except that I don't think perfection will be reached any time soon. Doesn't mean we shouldn't keep striving for it, however.

 

[desertmarcy]

What about combs that flop over to the side instead of standing straight up? I have a couple of hens like that.

Quote:

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:

Hens in lay with flop over combs seem to be tolerated at this point.

 

[Chinchilla2]

Quote:
But the term fits soooo well and covers more than just Carnation.

 

[stoopid]

PLEASE everyone, give Don a break, he is trying to help us, and as soon as he tries to do something, we are nit-picking him apart.
If he walks away from his efforts, we will all be back to the beginning of this mess.
I belong to MCCA, and APA, and find all the standards very confusing, as well as hard to find.
We need to take this slowly. We aren't going to fix this overnight.