Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[heritagehabitatfarms]

my original white hen came from Dick Dickerson and was part of his project to darken the egg color on his whites... he added a splash hen that layed really dark eggs to his white flock and my hen was her daughter she was pure white but when bred with my black rooster the first chicks hatched looking splash... they feathered in pure white and white with some black leakage... my next generation bred back to another black rooster the chicks all hatched out yellow and this years chicks have all hatched yellow...

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?

 

[laughingclown]

My first try at Marans this spring. Got 20 chicks. 50/50 mix of Black and Blue Copper. I can already see how difficult this selective stuff will be. They are great lines but Im boy heavy and I already have a real mossy girl who is only 3 weeks old! Not to mention the lack of feathers on some!

 

[stoopid]

Some have a "slow feathering" gene. Don't worry about the feathers unless they are being picked off by a buttheaded sibling.

 

[heath_elisha]

I'm gonna go ahead and say keep the birchen! Not that I'm biased or anything

That birchen has nice silver coming in so far....if he keeps getting more of that nice silver, you should have a nice bird. The silver can take a bit more time to come in than other colors. If you don't like him, you could pack him a sack lunch and send him my way!

The birchen boy (aka Rocky) has a good amount of feathering on his legs. I would hope that he would pass that along to his offspring, to offset the lack of feathered legs on the ladies. I guess I thought that because he had such little birchen (compared to his brother who was recently rehomed) that he would have minimal birchen effect on the solid girls offspring.... I am new to the whole "genetics" thing and really should decide which direction to go. Birchen/solids or blue coppers.... I guess we will just have to hold on to them all to wait and see who turns out to be the favorite roo... I am expecting hatching eggs from dmrippy today and hope to have some good choices in the bunch. And if my passion continues- we may have to move to fulfill my dreams lol

 

[gilavina]

The birchen boy (aka Rocky) has a good amount of feathering on his legs. I would hope that he would pass that along to his offspring, to offset the lack of feathered legs on the ladies. I guess I thought that because he had such little birchen (compared to his brother who was recently rehomed) that he would have minimal birchen effect on the solid girls offspring.... I am new to the whole "genetics" thing and really should decide which direction to go. Birchen/solids or blue coppers.... I guess we will just have to hold on to them all to wait and see who turns out to be the favorite roo... I am expecting hatching eggs from dmrippy today and hope to have some good choices in the bunch. And if my passion continues- we may have to move to fulfill my dreams lol

I'd hold onto that birchen boy and see how he colors up as he grows. If he's already got this much color now, he might end up coloring out nicely for you. Picking the color variety you choose to keep might end up being pretty hard! That's why I've got both haha

 

[Debbi]

Double mutant is such a funny term

recessive white does take each parent to have a copy of it and having one copy doesn't show on the bird like getting a child with blue eyes from 2 parents having brown....really not different than having wheatens show up either. That's not to say we couldn't have a lethal gene in any of our flocks and matched up you get birds that die....If I was set on having white marans with the darkest eggs I sure would breed to a dark egg gene black copper and work that dark egg into my flock breeding them just like "splits" Kinda like white silkies you never know what's lurking in their background either

Yes, my sentiments on the odd term too! Always reminds me of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"!

Funny with all the recessive stuff as far as combs go, I never get any odd colors. Guess it's from the small hatches, maybe larger hatches would produce more oddities? Gees, with my luck, I'd hate to think what I may get!

 

[gilavina]

Hey Debbi! How are ya?

 

[Debbi]

The birchen boy (aka Rocky) has a good amount of feathering on his legs. I would hope that he would pass that along to his offspring, to offset the lack of feathered legs on the ladies. I guess I thought that because he had such little birchen (compared to his brother who was recently rehomed) that he would have minimal birchen effect on the solid girls offspring.... I am new to the whole "genetics" thing and really should decide which direction to go. Birchen/solids or blue coppers.... I guess we will just have to hold on to them all to wait and see who turns out to be the favorite roo... I am expecting hatching eggs from dmrippy today and hope to have some good choices in the bunch. And if my passion continues- we may have to move to fulfill my dreams lol

Believe me when I say; even though he has nice feathering, he can only pass on so much of it. In otherwords, if you are breeding him to ladies with no or very sparse feathering, you will get chicks with NO or very light feathering. At least that is what I've found here. Now, breed his daughter back to him, and the shank feathering should make some improvement. It may well take several generations for the shanks/toes to get where you want/need them to be.

 

[Debbi]

Oh, and if you send him packing to Vicki, he has to go through Missouri, so he may just as well stay here and rest up a bit!

I think Rocky looks very promising!

 

[gilavina]

Oh, and if you send him packing to Vicki, he has to go through Missouri, so he may just as well stay here and rest up a bit!

I think Rocky looks very promising!

from Mass.? Are you just trying to redirect him? haha