Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

Ok...so I don't know who all is involved in the MCCUSA yahoo group, but I came home from work to some interesting emails in my inbox. A few people were talking about what I saw mentioned as silver marans or silver wheatens. One person supplied an attachment to the silver marans in the UK. here is the link.
http://www.featheredworld.co.uk/pages/previews/11/12/sample_2.htm

Well...it got my attention, for this reason.



anyone else see some striking similarities?! Anyways...it was mentioned somewhere I think that someone had posted pics of silver wheaten pullets, but I can't find them. So, if anyone knows where they are, I would love to see them and I'd also love some genetics whizzes to tell me more about these silver Marans in the UK and what my boy is? I hatched two that were identical, but only kept one. The other one is in a friend's layer flock.

That happy accident might turn in to the golden goose! You got any pullets to put with him? What did he come from?

 

[newchickens2009]

I put this under chicken behavior and egg laying but maybe should have asked here?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/625689/whats-wrong-with-my-w-bw-marans#post_8346337

 

[DMRippy]

Did you see this Vicki?!?!?! More of the story he started on that page!

http://www.artandverse.com/marans.html

 

[flgardengirl]

He does look similar. What a handsome fellow. I have a few girls who wouldn't kick him outta the coop LOL!

 

[DMRippy]

I will do some test hatchin' for ya!!! I will come get the eggs....

 

[flgardengirl]

I put this under chicken behavior and egg laying but maybe should have asked here?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/625689/whats-wrong-with-my-w-bw-marans#post_8346337

It could be the time of year or else, sometimes after hens hatch babies and they are hormonal they do not lay for awhile until the chicks are older. (Its kinda like when women are pregnant and don't ovulate and it takes a while even after birth before they ovulate again etc.) So maybe it is a hormonal thing since she was so broody and then got broke of it , now her body is adjusting.

 

[flgardengirl]

Vicki: What was the cross on your silver-looking Marans again? I think you posted it before but I can't remember..

 

[gilavina]

Did you see this Vicki?!?!?! More of the story he started on that page!

http://www.artandverse.com/marans.html

Ok...this whole thing is crazy. When I still lived in Mpls and was researching Marans, I saw this article and was SO intrigued by them. When I started hunting around I couldn't find anything about them in the US...so I moved on and set my eyes on the black coppers and then was educated again when I got my first blue birchens on a total fluke a couple months after I moved back here.

Its funny how I could forget about those birds and then have a couple pop up in my flock just a couple of years later.

 

[gilavina]

He does look similar. What a handsome fellow. I have a few girls who wouldn't kick him outta the coop LOL!

That's NO lie Lenette...the ladies adore him!

 

[newchickens2009]

It could be the time of year or else, sometimes after hens hatch babies and they are hormonal they do not lay for awhile until the chicks are older. (Its kinda like when women are pregnant and don't ovulate and it takes a while even after birth before they ovulate again etc.) So maybe it is a hormonal thing since she was so broody and then got broke of it , now her body is adjusting.

This makes sense and I hope it is just a hormonal thing.
I have had such bad luck with my Marans. This prob with my W/BWM and my BCM still lays a pullet size egg after 4 months of laying? Almost makes me want to give them up