Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

Hey Vicki, the little silver marans are starting to feather in now on thier wings. The one that is all yellow looks to be feathering mostly white with one gray band. The yellow and black down one is feathering in cuckoo but with more white than black. I will try to get some more pics. The chicks that looked cuckoo that hatched from the silver eggs are feathering in cuckoo. Sadly I lost one of the yellow and gray marked silvers on the third day after he was born. I think there was something messed up with his digestive system after his egg yolk dissolved and he would not eat or poop. Darn!! I tried everything...So now down to 4 Silvers but they all seem healthy.

My cuckoos that were born same day as the silvers are feathering in much faster and have long wings and tails now. The silver hardly have any tails at all and not much on the wings in comparison. Kinda fun to watch the differences. Still have 9 cuckoos.

 

[flgardengirl]

Christi, on your breeding question... Sometimes when people breed blue to blue continuously, the blue gets a washed out color so people use a dark blue or black bird to add more color to the blues. Same for splashes...breeding splash to splash can end up getting washed out splash so breeding back to blue can help darken up the splash tones in the whitish birds. A nice medium to dark blue bird with good lacing is very desirable in the blues. A black bird cannot produce a splash chick.
I am not sure on the black x black "producing the best blacks" but if they are both genetically pure blacks that bred together would only produce black, it makes sense. Pure blacks are hard to come by so some people think you should only mate to black so maybe that's what the author of what you read was referring to.

 

[Christie Rhae]

Christi, on your breeding question... Sometimes when people breed blue to blue continuously, the blue gets a washed out color so people use a dark blue or black bird to add more color to the blues. Same for splashes...breeding splash to splash can end up getting washed out splash so breeding back to blue can help darken up the splash tones in the whitish birds. A nice medium to dark blue bird with good lacing is very desirable in the blues. A black bird cannot produce a splash chick.

I have been studying about blue andalusians. Breeders of andalusians seem to prefer blue to blue. I think because they want that ice blue with dark lacing. It really stands out. And also when you are breeding for lacing you can only really tell if you have a bird with good lacing if it is blue.

I have some splash birds (not marans) that came from a splash only pen. And you are right... two of them are totally white. I know they are not really white but there is not a single other feather color on them...totally white. To the untrained eye one would think they are white. I tell my husband that they really are black birds...just with 2 copes of the diluter gene. I think he stops listening when I talk like that though.

I know a black cannot make splash but some people seem to run blue black and splash all together in the same pen and hatch out what ever comes. I think I am going to have a dedicated black pen, I am thinking of my ameraucanas too, and try breeding blue to blue to perfect lacing.

I love all this... I am kinda stoked that I have years of breeding fun in these birds. I sure won't get bored of it very quickly... too much to learn!

 

[Christie Rhae]

Pure blacks are hard to come by so some people think you should only mate to black so maybe that's what the author of what you read was referring to.

I think I read it on the marans yahoo group. I think they meant black copper, I was just saying the black part..lol I am gonna have to go back and find that post. There are actually 3 marans yahoo groups that I get updates on. Gotta go wade through and find that thread....

 

[Christie Rhae]

Found it! The thread was started by our very own Barngoddess.

Yahoo group.. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Marans_Chicken_Club/message/32689
Don't know if that link will work if you are not logged in.

Here is a quote from that forum..


Quote:

Generally speaking, when breeding exhibition blacks, of any breed, it is not advisable to breed them with anything other than exhibition black bred blacks. Exhibition blacks have been selected for their dark colour, usually over many generations. They have more melanisers & their depth of black is noticeable when compared to a black from a blue breeding.

I do not understand the logic of the idea that breeding black to splash gives better blues than breeding blue to blue. Someone whose knowledge of genetics is well respected, wrote the opposite. He wrote that when breeding for blue, one is better able to select for the colour one wants in ones offspring, if one can see what one is selecting. Thus one is more likely to achieve the desired shade or colour if one selects blue parents of that shade & colour. The melanising genes present in any black or splash can be highly variable, thus it would seem to follow that breeding black to splash would seem likely to give very variable results.

Regards
Krys

This makes sense to me.

 

[Debbi]

Ok I need some help. Here is a lil girl from my bunch. She is supposed to be black I believe. But she does not have the green sheen to her feathers. They are dull more like a blue but I have counted my chicks and all my blues are accounted for. Could there have been a mix up in labeling? She has one copper feather that I can see in her hackles.

I read stuff all over so sometimes do not remember where I read it. But this is something I have been reading about... black should only be bred to black to get the best blacks. Could this chick be an example of why blue/black/splash should not come out of the same pen?
I am leaning toward the opinion that blues should only be bred to blues to get good blues. (Obvious by product is splash) To get the best color of each we should not breed them all together.

Thoughts anyone?

Christie, She looks like a Blue to me.

 

[gilavina]

Hey Vicki, the little silver marans are starting to feather in now on thier wings. The one that is all yellow looks to be feathering mostly white with one gray band. The yellow and black down one is feathering in cuckoo but with more white than black. I will try to get some more pics. The chicks that looked cuckoo that hatched from the silver eggs are feathering in cuckoo. Sadly I lost one of the yellow and gray marked silvers on the third day after he was born. I think there was something messed up with his digestive system after his egg yolk dissolved and he would not eat or poop. Darn!! I tried everything...So now down to 4 Silvers but they all seem healthy.

My cuckoos that were born same day as the silvers are feathering in much faster and have long wings and tails now. The silver hardly have any tails at all and not much on the wings in comparison. Kinda fun to watch the differences. Still have 9 cuckoos.

Awww that's too bad you lost one of those chicks! I hope those 4 stay good and healthy for you! I never thought to ask, but I wonder if those chicks are sex link? hmmmm....I'm really curious to see what I end up getting sent to me!
Should be right at 2 weeks now til I get mine! Also, I gotta get some shots of those ameraucana chicks I hatched from my uncle. They are cute as the dickens. I did send 8 to the sale. They were the ones that came from the eggs my uncle accidentally put in the carton instead of all blues. So, now that they are out of there, I have a nice batch of chicks!
I just came back from dropping off birds at the local sale barn and am down another 41 birds, mostly chicks of various ages, but am so relieved to be keeping a tight ship around here. I'm loving what I'm seeing in my oldest grow out pen. There are for sure 4 cockerels that will go, but I'm feeding them out to process them for a local british lady, she loves home grown birds for roasting. But beyond them, I believe that leaves me with 20 out of 40 chicks left to grow out some more til its time to sort and cull again. Most of those are birchens this time around

 

[Debbi]

Found it! The thread was started by our very own Barngoddess.

Yahoo group.. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Marans_Chicken_Club/message/32689
Don't know if that link will work if you are not logged in.

Here is a quote from that forum..



This makes sense to me.

Don and Walt both have been telling us this all along. It makes sense too, with the fact that you can bring in other problems that the other color varities may carry, whereas your blacks may not, and vice versa. Also, if you breed Blue x Blue, you will get Blacks, those are the ones they say not to breed back into the BCM flocks. Blue X Blue = 50% Blue, 25% Black, and 25% Splash.

 

[gilavina]

Sigh... beautiful!
I have so many plans of how I want to use my marans. I want blue copper... I want blue birchen... I want.. I want... This is gonna take me years... lol

Thanks Christie! I do love the copper I'm seeing come in consistently on my chicks. You know what I think....you should do both coppers and birchens in the blues! We need all the people workin on the birchens we can get! They need lots of love!

 

[Debbi]

Awww that's too bad you lost one of those chicks! I hope those 4 stay good and healthy for you! I never thought to ask, but I wonder if those chicks are sex link? hmmmm....I'm really curious to see what I end up getting sent to me!
Should be right at 2 weeks now til I get mine! Also, I gotta get some shots of those ameraucana chicks I hatched from my uncle. They are cute as the dickens. I did send 8 to the sale. They were the ones that came from the eggs my uncle accidentally put in the carton instead of all blues. So, now that they are out of there, I have a nice batch of chicks!
I just came back from dropping off birds at the local sale barn and am down another 41 birds, mostly chicks of various ages, but am so relieved to be keeping a tight ship around here. I'm loving what I'm seeing in my oldest grow out pen. There are for sure 4 cockerels that will go, but I'm feeding them out to process them for a local british lady, she loves home grown birds for roasting. But beyond them, I believe that leaves me with 20 out of 40 chicks left to grow out some more til its time to sort and cull again. Most of those are birchens this time around

Atta girl!! Loved those Blue Copper young ladies you posted, especially the first one! Stick a fork in that goat, I say she's done!!