Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Quote:

The last time you looked at birdie websites you got me in trouble!

Whatchu lookin at now?

 

[Debbi]

BOTH of you behave!!

And don't post any pics of pretty birds!!!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:

The last time you looked at birdie websites you got me in trouble!

Whatchu lookin at now?

Marans and Wyandottes...and I'm also looking for a website I saw for a place in Washington state that has solid blue marans, but I for the life of me can't find it now. I saw it earlier this fall, and have not been able to find it since. They had some of the nicest looking ones I've seen. I kind of wonder if they took their website down

 

[chick-among-us]

Ok this may not be the place for this so I think I will ask first, then see what ya'll say. We are just getting into the Black copper Marans. We intended to get one or two Roosters and evauate them for temperment body all that..(with byc help) See this way I can cheat! WELL here is the delema. We intended to get two roosters for genetic diversity. This first lady had two boys very close to each other, and REALLY wanted us to take both, SO took both even though TO me one had prettier color I know from reading with ya'll and lurking this is most likely overmelenized? (prolly spelled that totally wrong!)and the other had better carriage and body style...the other pretty colored one, suppsedly the same age, seems like an under developed cockrell with a terrible ugly comb! But the lady from these two roos claims excellent bloodlines. WELL anyhow I have those two...

THEN because We had intended to only get one, I talked to a guy, now a friend, that is working on a Maran project of his own and of course has to many roos....they were fighting mercilessly over the hens and breeding rights! nope they arent seperated at all..(ALso got a dozen maran eggs! from both places)! anyhow these roos were fighting badly all together and being in this hen house together with all the roos...so we took two roos that really seem like good quality. But these second boys seem to have better color, carriage and body type.
It is our fault for not "knowing" before we went...

I TRULY understand this as I do the horse thing...have my whole life. I can go to an auction or sale and reliably know what im getting conformation and evaluation issues I am sure would be similar, having knowledge is key in horse buying and if you dont have it take someone who does! I tell my friends LET me find you one please!!! (less work for me in the long run) I have more than once had an owner proudly say isnt he beautiful?? and its the worse looking specimen you have ever seen, actually an animal I could NEVER consider pretty...SO I get it! I can only hope we did well, for Maran novices!
SO I would like to know of the four birds which one is best...ALL the eggs are REALLY dark I think they are a four from the second set... But where is this standard? the first ones are pretty dark also...I can post pics of the roos if ya'll can help me and also the eggsin the incubator...we need hens....

I also have a ton of questions... but will try to keep it simple... 1. Isnt a Copper color desired one a bcm? with no gold? that is considered leakage? 2. can someone post a standard, like they do on other threads? So that I can select my best hens once they hatch do you only select hens born from the darkest eggs?. 3. is there a way to reliably sex chicks? or do we wait like some other breeds until they grow out?
I TOTALLY understand that we should have done more reasearch and been able to be more knowledgable BEFORE obtaining birds or taken someone who knew ,even though I know no one who is a chickenholic! like us! I can tell you We learned and I will never go buy birds that I intend to breed and make better over time and sell eggs and such without KNOWING about them better. So given that I know this and understand my own idiotness, will ya'll help me make the best of this, if I show pictures, can you tell me who is best? Also I think these are some good quality birds in this second set and with nice hens that lay nice dark eggs I should be able to improve my line quickly. Thank you all in advance, sorry for the book.

 

[CayuseRanch]

Ok...maybe I should start over from the basics here. Now I am wishing I would have taken pictures of my cuckoo hens this morning before i left for work.

Let me point out that I have no intention of being a big time breeder, I like the maran egg color, will eventually get more BCM so that I can have the darker eggs. Right now just have a cuckoo roo. I want to breed for egg color, not show, I will never show so have no reason to breed for show. BUT I also don't want to breed trash birds, I want them to follow the acceptable standards even though I am not looking to have top quality. Does that make sense? To me its like breeding dogs. Who wants to breed a chihua to a lab on purpose? So with that being said, please be honest in what you see of my birds, you certainly are not going to hurt my feelings. The more informed I am the better.

So here is my Roo...after our conversation last night I walk out look at him and think....okay...thats some Gold leakage.... Also, I don't think his comb is right...Thoughts?

These are my BCM girls...They have very very little feathering on their feet, never really been happy about that, I love feathered feet, And only the second one has just a hint of mahoghany in her colar. Thoughts?

Will get some pics tonight of the cuckoo hens.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:

The last time you looked at birdie websites you got me in trouble!

Whatchu lookin at now?

Marans and Wyandottes...and I'm also looking for a website I saw for a place in Washington state that has solid blue marans, but I for the life of me can't find it now. I saw it earlier this fall, and have not been able to find it since. They had some of the nicest looking ones I've seen. I kind of wonder if they took their website down

Was it Lisa Cree? Cree Farms?

 

[Debbi]

Post away!! Pics are the best way to critique a bird online. Hands on is much better, but good shots of profiles and frontal stances will help us to pick out your best roos. Oh, and as far as that person told you, "they are from excellent lines", trust me, take that with a POUND of salt!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
this might be totally off subject of the girlies and leakage, but on that cuckoo boy..if you have a side pic and front pic you could get of him, its lookin to me like he has a narrow back. I have found this seems more common with the cuckoos. If you have some girls that are nice and wide all the way to the tail, they might help you get some width on some male offspring

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
this might be totally off subject of the girlies and leakage, but on that cuckoo boy..if you have a side pic and front pic you could get of him, its lookin to me like he has a narrow back. I have found this seems more common with the cuckoos. If you have some girls that are nice and wide all the way to the tail, they might help you get some width on some male offspring

I was going to say the same thing about the male and also add that he also may have squirrel tail or too high of tail set.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
this might be totally off subject of the girlies and leakage, but on that cuckoo boy..if you have a side pic and front pic you could get of him, its lookin to me like he has a narrow back. I have found this seems more common with the cuckoos. If you have some girls that are nice and wide all the way to the tail, they might help you get some width on some male offspring

I was going to say the same thing about the male and also add that he also may have squirrel tail or too high of tail set.

true, true... I'm getting distracted by lookin at pretty birds elsewhere. I'm so freaking tired its not even funny