Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[BevDavis]

Quote:
Thanks all - finally got an e-mail - seems I won 5 awards:

"Your top set took Best of Black Coppers, Best Overall and People's choice. Your second set ... the spotted ones, took second BC and Overall!"

Funny thing is, though they are still laying after months of triple digit heat and humidity a lot of their paint chutes are empty and they are laying eggs without any coating on them. I managed to get two sets that I thought were worthy of competition but not up to full capability. I didn't even take pictures before I sent them off. One set was very dark brown and had tiny black specks on it. I thought they were the prettiest but seems the judges thought they were not consistent enough (so I've heard - I haven't seen score cards yet). They were more "egg" shaped, with a pointy end but not excessively so. The second set, I didn't really think was that great. They were a reddish brown but nice and oval. Seems the judges prefer that look more. I didn't think they were dark enough to compete. Shows what I know...........

Time to feed my "girls" some extra scratch - they are real crack heads.

Congratulations Ruth, you did do well!

Bev

 

[Davlyn]

I would like 2 Blk cooper Marans, 2 Salmon Faveralles, and 2 Russian orlup (or what the name is lost my note ) 2 polish would B sweet too. Don't think the little coop I can get will take that many..

so some thinking to do on what to do

 

[BevDavis]

Quote:
No, I didn't think they would win, I just wanted to enter something to get an idea of where they "stood" in comparison to other BCM eggs. I knew that they were lighter than normal since the girls are winding down on laying and/or painting their eggs.

This is a photo of one of the three darker, pointed end, eggs that took Second Place and Overall but apparently all three weren't exactly the same size/shape/color. I also can't ever take a decent photo - they flash out too much and look off on color or too light:

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/eggs2-1.jpg

I didn't take a photo of the lighter set of eggs that actually won but they were pretty oval with no real pointed end/round end that you could distinquish. And they were more of a reddish brown instead of a chocolate brown like the above eggs.

All eggs came from different birds and since almost all are "off" on laying/quality this time of year - I didn't think I was going to get even one set of three to submit but got enough at the last minute for two totally different "looks" and spent $36 dollars overnighting them to someone who took them to the show for me (thanks so much Donna).

I'm still waiting on the Marans Group to post some pictures from the show.

Hi

I have tried all different surfaces and lighting, flash on and off. The best pictures I have of eggs is when they are taken in bright sun light.

Bev

 

[BevDavis]

Quote:
Thanks for the input. I will try to get a better picture of them, but it's awfully hard when they are all running in different directions! I was afraid I was only seeing one that was significanty darker, and hoping to be wrong about that. It would be about my luck!

Of the wheatens, I saw some discussion that the males have black spot on the wing. Originally, I thought maybe I had one of each in those, but they are both looking pretty similar now, with more of a light grey color on the wing. Any thoughts on that?

I also had a couple of genetics questions:
How does the feathered leg trait work? 5 of the 7 have it
I was also wondering about the potential negative aspects that can come up from wheatens that are produced as recessive sports from a cuckoo or BCM line. I assume they hold a double recessive gene for that color to display it, so if they were bred with another wheaten the offspring would be all wheaten in color, but other incorrect things, controlled by other genes might show up?

Just curious, I'm not sure that I would ever go down that road, but I like to understand it. And if I pass them on to someone else, I would like to be able to inform them as well.

Thanks,
Tracy

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/51426_100_0919.jpg

this is a picture of 3 of the chicks the one that looks all yellow is the White pullet she's beautiful getting close to point of lay the other 2 are cockerels one was yellow with a touch of gray in the wings at first and then feathered out with the cuckoo pattern. Your darkest chicks are pullets they have only one copy of the cuckoo gene as it's sex linked males have 2. The yellow chicks look very much like Golden Cuckoos too at hatch though I've never had Goldens with that much yellow on them...I was hoping that I had a Golden from that hatch when I saw that chick...

Here's another of him last week those feathers that look white are barred poor bird I'm always catching him and looking at his feathers I cannot wait for him to finish

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/51426_100_1276.jpg

I'm hoping that the tail feathers stay all dark but I can never tell that those tail feathers are going to turn white until they are 6 months old at least

Hi

There are three genes involved in the leg feathering, two are dominant and the third is recessive. The best way to get the feathering is to always use a feather legged male.

Once a barred bird is crossed with a wheaten it's very hard to get the barring out because you can't see the dot on it's head when a chick. The only way you could do it is by test mating each bird. Most of the golden cuckoo birds that we have at the moment are carrying wheaten.

Bev

 

[math ace]

Who let the dogs out ? ? ?
Who, Who, Who

This is TWIZZLER. She is mossy and has too light of blue coloring. There is not enough coppering on her hackles. She MOSSY and there are tiny white feathers near her comb.

 

[math ace]

Who let the dogs out
Who, Who, Who

This is Truffles. She is MOSSY and has very light coppering in the hackles

 

[math ace]

This is TRUTLE . . . .

She has a FLOPPY comb, a Crooked Toe and is one MOSSY girl. The only thing good about her is the coppering in her hackles

 

[chicken stalker]

I give up! My 3 hens still haven't layer a single egg. I check about 50x a day. They were hatched jan 29th. I just don't get why they hate me. I give them fresh greens everyday and say nice things about them and yet they totally diss me.

 

[shay20]

hmmm the dark on the feet and legs on the blue maran is that normal?

 

[geebs]

Okay Math Ace.. Show me the mossy and I mean a close up... I see a hen that is first round bred back for copper... Needs another breed back to develop.. I saw noooo mossy... Show me!!!

Breed the lighter one back to black copper to develop both a darker blue and also a nicer copper... A dark mahogany male with lots of melanizer would be fun to try on her... You could get possibly a spectacular colored bird... Am I correct in my thinking Bev??? Pinkchick???