Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

I guess it probably only takes a generation or 2 to mix things up if careful records and marking of birds isn't done.
2 of the cockerals from this group are solid blue in appearance, 1 has the wave in the comb and the other 1 looks to have a straight comb. So if one was to test to see if they had copper or were true blues would you mate them to another chicken breed - say for example I could use an Andalusian hen- hatch out some eggs and see if copper pops out? I'm guessing that I won't want to use one of the splashes from that hatch as she could be a copper carrier and that won't tell me for sure?

that would probably work fine. I test mated the offspring from the cross as well and there was still no leakage in any of them..I did it just cause I wanted to make sure... splash might be hard to gauge indeed...my only splash copper that shows coppering is my roo.

 

[Hens and Roos]

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well that gives me more to think about

 

[gilavina]

indeed...seems there is no shortage of thinking when it comes to the Marans

 

[ChickChickChicky]

Well, I jumped in to the Marans world yesterday when I went to pick up my first 6 BCM chicks. I was supposed to get all 4.5 week old chicks, but he didn't have enough of what he thought were females, so I also got one 2 week old (you can barely make it out in the middle of the bigger ones). They are supposed to be from Bev Davis and Presley (sp?) lines, and the fellow claimed he selects for at least 6 on the color chart, so hopefully they will be good stock. Tell me what you think!

 

[Hens and Roos]

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Welcome ! They are sure cute, you'll have to share more pictures as they get bigger

 

[culler]

Just to clearify , If you do the Brother-sister matings you would never want to start with DQ's and major faults. Nowhite feather in wing and tail, fowl must have feather shanks and feet. No sprig or Carnation. If you have these faults then do not waste your time with inbreeding, as each generation will show up much worse than the original fowl.

Most people with Marans should just stick with the linebreeding for the present time and after a few generations you can try some single mated brother-sisters.

Good luck to all for the breeding season and hope you accomplish some of your goals. Don

 

[Hens and Roos]

Just to clearify , If you do the Brother-sister matings you would never want to start with DQ's and major faults. Nowhite feather in wing and tail, fowl must have feather shanks and feet. No sprig or Carnation. If you have these faults then do not waste your time with inbreeding, as each generation will show up much worse than the original fowl.

Most people with Marans should just stick with the linebreeding for the present time and after a few generations you can try some single mated brother-sisters.

Good luck to all for the breeding season and hope you accomplish some of your goals. Don

Thanks for sharing, this helps with putting thoughts together as what direction to take.

 

[stoopid]

Hi Don, I got one for you.
I have some "very special" birds from a top breeder, that's as far as I am going to say.
Alot of them have feathers on the middle toe, should I keep them and just breed to sparsely feathered mates, or do you see a problem with them?

 

[culler]

Hi Don, I got one for you.
I have some "very special" birds from a top breeder, that's as far as I am going to say.
Alot of them have feathers on the middle toe, should I keep them and just breed to sparsely feathered mates, or do you see a problem with them?

Hi, I would not breed these unless you absolutely had to in case of nothing else. I would not breed the females at all. If you had some female like most everyone with very little feathering you could put one of the males over. This is one of the draw back to getting the feathering real nice like is required. If you breed these back together they will only get worse. I would cull anything with stubs and fuzz between the toes on the web.

I should also say that most of the judges will spot this , and you will have wasted a lot of time and money.

 

[stoopid]

Too bad they weren't this furry when I bought them.
Thanks, Don.