Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

I am just having one of those weeks in general

but what else is new.

yeah....seems to be going around. I don't know what the deal is....but its starting to annoy hahaha

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
Y'all need to quite taking it out to play with and then you might not lose it!

Yeah I knew there was another part to it!!!!!!

 

[Chickenpoor]

What do y'all think of these birds? would they be considered as meeting the standards and do they look like they really are Wade Jean line? Should I get some of the hatching eggs?

http://greenville.craigslist.org/grd/2979676715.html

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

i posted this in its own thread but didn't get much response so thought i would post it here as well...
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so I'm wondering about creating speckled Marans??? i picked up a trio of speckled Sussex yesterday morning and after i did my brain started its random ramblings lol... i think the colors that are available in Marans are mostly kind of plain... no lacing/speckling/try-colors... i am already working on Lav's and i am just wondering how to get more color/patterns...

i have black marans and im thinking the F1's will be all black with maybe a little red leakage on the males... the F2's is what im wondering about??? would you come out with red speckled and black speckled or would it all be black speckled with red leakage??? and if so would you ever be able to breed it out to get back to the pure black speckled??? or would i end up with a speckled black copper???

I'm just kind of toying with the idea right now and wondering how feasible it is... I'm 28 and i love projects and i think the Lav Marans project i have going is going to take me another 5+ years... so I'm not worried about the time frame just what i would end up with after the years where done...

thanks for your time and thoughts... Elias
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a later post...


ok i finally got the genes for my speckled Sussex e+/e+ s+/s+ Mh/Mh mo/mo (black patterned red duckwing pied/mottled) ... and went and played around with the chicken calculator...

according to it it will work tho ill pro have to breed more of the F2's than i was thinking i would...

so i have another ??? what does this color look like in real life??? (black patterned gold duckwing pied/mottled) can any one tell me a breed that is that color??? (even without the mottled) the little pic's don't really tell me much lol...

it does say i can get (black unicolor pied/mottled) witch is what i was thinking about to start with... and it says i can get more (black patterned red duckwing pied/mottled) as well... im not sure i want to go there tho... to easily confused with the speckled Sussex...

also according to the calculator all 3 of these colors will breed true the 1st generation... I've never seen that before... is that because they are mostly based on the wild type??? i know i would have to back-cross with the Marans a few more times to get the egg color and type but it is making it sound easier than i had thought...

would appreciate anyone thoughts on this... thanks Elias

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

here is another post that got very little responce on another thread...
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Ok a ??? how close is to close to inbreed??? i have hatched about 15 white Marans chicks this year so far and have lost about 1/2 of them within the 1st week... they are the only ones i have had die once i took them out of the incubator... i had mixed hatches 7 or 8 breeds and they where the only ones that have died... they all ate and drank good and seamed fine for the 1st 2 to 5 days then went down hill and died... i have them on medicated chick starter and have not lost any other chicks...

here is y i am wondering if its inbreeding... i got one white hen when i got my blacks... with no white rooster i just put her in with my blacks... hatched about 15 or 20 chicks from her that 1st year... as the rooster had no foot feathers none of the roo chicks did either (still not sure if it was truly a sex linked thing or not) the original hen had great foot feathers and so did about 75% of her daughters... i kept 2 of the best looking hens and no roo over for last years breeders... i bred them to the black roo's again so that was there half brother... i hatched about 25 chicks last year and culled down to 2 hens for this years breeders... once again i did not get a good white roo in the spring but i did get a single barred cuckoo roo that looked pretty good... so this spring i have the 2 hens in with there full brother the cuckoo and they are all out of a half brother/sister the year before... i did manege to hatch a good looking white roo late last fall and i plan on changing him out with the barred roo in a few weeks but he is a full brother as well... then after i get a few chicks out of that roo i plan on putting one of there black half brothers in and getting some from that pairing...

the only other Marans roo i have on the place is a blue roo i just got... now I'm wondering if i should be using him as he is not related in any way...

i know it is better to use father/daughter or mother/son than brother/sister but i have sold or eaten my old breeders every year... its just easier than trying to keep tract how old each hen or roo is...

so what do y'all think???

 

[Lotsapaints]

Hello All,
These four little Golden Cuckoo Marans were hatched last week, the first three look just like one I hatched a month ago and then theres number four. Is yellow a normal color for a GCM chick?

Thanks, Max

Well that yellow one could be a wheaten based chick that will feather in to look like a regular Golden or it could be white time will tell

 

[Lotsapaints]

Do you vaccinate for Mereks? It could just be something they are not immune to even could be mold....if you rotate your birds and don't keep breeding brother to sister and keep the best old birds and that isn't hard to keep track of you don't need to out cross unless you loose fertility or vigor or hatch 3 eyed chickens.....

here is another post that got very little responce on another thread...
......................................................................................................................................................................................................

Ok a ??? how close is to close to inbreed??? i have hatched about 15 white Marans chicks this year so far and have lost about 1/2 of them within the 1st week... they are the only ones i have had die once i took them out of the incubator... i had mixed hatches 7 or 8 breeds and they where the only ones that have died... they all ate and drank good and seamed fine for the 1st 2 to 5 days then went down hill and died... i have them on medicated chick starter and have not lost any other chicks...

here is y i am wondering if its inbreeding... i got one white hen when i got my blacks... with no white rooster i just put her in with my blacks... hatched about 15 or 20 chicks from her that 1st year... as the rooster had no foot feathers none of the roo chicks did either (still not sure if it was truly a sex linked thing or not) the original hen had great foot feathers and so did about 75% of her daughters... i kept 2 of the best looking hens and no roo over for last years breeders... i bred them to the black roo's again so that was there half brother... i hatched about 25 chicks last year and culled down to 2 hens for this years breeders... once again i did not get a good white roo in the spring but i did get a single barred cuckoo roo that looked pretty good... so this spring i have the 2 hens in with there full brother the cuckoo and they are all out of a half brother/sister the year before... i did manege to hatch a good looking white roo late last fall and i plan on changing him out with the barred roo in a few weeks but he is a full brother as well... then after i get a few chicks out of that roo i plan on putting one of there black half brothers in and getting some from that pairing...

the only other Marans roo i have on the place is a blue roo i just got... now I'm wondering if i should be using him as he is not related in any way...

i know it is better to use father/daughter or mother/son than brother/sister but i have sold or eaten my old breeders every year... its just easier than trying to keep tract how old each hen or roo is...

so what do y'all think???

 

[heritagehabitatfarms]

nope i never have vaccinated for Merek's... all of my breeders are in chicken tractors and i move them about twice a week... they all get the same feed and water... the eggs and chicks are all treated the same way... i very rarely lose a chick once it has hatched... I'm thinking of putting the trio of whites back in the pen with the 2 black roosters and the blue rooster... that would be 4 roosters and the blue is dominant so maybe the chicks would do better then...

Do you vaccinate for Mereks? It could just be something they are not immune to even could be mold....if you rotate your birds and don't keep breeding brother to sister and keep the best old birds and that isn't hard to keep track of you don't need to out cross unless you loose fertility or vigor or hatch 3 eyed chickens.....

 

[Debbi]

What do y'all think of these birds? would they be considered as meeting the standards and do they look like they really are Wade Jean line? Should I get some of the hatching eggs?

http://greenville.craigslist.org/grd/2979676715.html

They could be from the Jeane line, can't say I like the roo too much. He has an extremely short back, and a Squirrel tail, which is a DQ. Can't really see the combs of the hens, but if you can see them, check for side sprigs or Carnation combs. The egg color is nice, but nowhere near as dark as it can be. That can be worked on though.

 

[Debbi]

nope i never have vaccinated for Merek's... all of my breeders are in chicken tractors and i move them about twice a week... they all get the same feed and water... the eggs and chicks are all treated the same way... i very rarely lose a chick once it has hatched... I'm thinking of putting the trio of whites back in the pen with the 2 black roosters and the blue rooster... that would be 4 roosters and the blue is dominant so maybe the chicks would do better then...

Just wondering..are those White chicks from a White x White breeding, or are those some of those so-called "Double Mutant Whites" that come from Black Coppers?? Makes me wonder if there could be a lethal factor there somewhere?