Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

So Bill (my very dark Blue Copper male) would have additional black enhancers, right?

 

[pinkchick]

Qball~

I am not an expert in anyway and was stating what I though was correct information as I have read it in the past. I love this thread and the different opinions, advise and information that are brought to it. I never stop learning here and trust me......I learn something new here on this thread almost everyday. Very glad there are those that come along and correct me when I misunderstand or relay it incorrectly to others and offer their own advise and/or new insights.

 

[aceschix]

Where did the twist on the front of this guys comb come from and how come it popped up seemingly overnight? The slight twist on the blade I have been watching for sometime....but the front twist is brand new.

What gives???????

So glad you posted this!

I have been trying to get pictures up here of my up and coming roos...one blue birchen and a few blacks. Your picture depicts a question I have. See on the right of his (in this picture) comb at the base - how it "dips" in? One of my guys has that. Is that a thumb print?

 

[3riverschick]

I have a question for those breeding Marans. We are into our last cull, I have been growing out the pullets with the best feathering color, body size/shape, ect. I have 2 that have great overall coloring, size and shape BUT they have yellow legs (these are Golden Salmon Marans). Do I keep them and try to breed them or do I just use them as laying hens or cull? I don't know how hard it would be to breed the genetics for the yellow legs out of the flock if I use them. I don't want to be spending alot of time on it if it isn't possible or going to be a huge headache.

Thanks

Can you send pcs of the 2 with yellow legs? I suspect a Welsummer cross manifesting here, (quote from the Welsummer Club breed Standard:
"IN BOTH SEXES AND COLOURS Beak yellow or horn. Eyes red. Comb, face, ear lobes and wattles bright red. Legs and feet yellow. Undercolour dark slate grey." GS Marans should have white legs with a pinkish cast. Remember GS is wildtype. Only 1 locus(e+/e+) and one gene (s+/s+ in males ; s+/s- in females). anything else added corrupts it and it is no longer GS.
Best,
Karen in western PA

 

[Cadeau]

The Bopsy Twins.


One of which is starting to molt.

Love them!

 

[Cadeau]

It was Sigrid Van Dort I was reading (Genetics of Chicken Colours) and she most definitely states that purple sheen is reflecting red - which can be genetic or food, illness, stress, lack of water, cold, etc.

Sigrid also says that ER based chicks (Birchen, which our Black Coppers are supposed to be based on) can be born with "purplish" down. I wonder if down colour is related to sheen later in life.

Thanks for finding that info for us!!

Makes a lot of sense!

 

[3riverschick]

I have a question for those breeding Marans. We are into our last cull, I have been growing out the pullets with the best feathering color, body size/shape, ect. I have 2 that have great overall coloring, size and shape BUT they have yellow legs (these are Golden Salmon Marans). Do I keep them and try to breed them or do I just use them as laying hens or cull? I don't know how hard it would be to breed the genetics for the yellow legs out of the flock if I use them. I don't want to be spending alot of time on it if it isn't possible or going to be a huge headache.

Thanks

If I may make a suggestion... .. The lady in Barnesville, Georgia has a GS cock ( she got hm from FL and he is not from GS parents. Not from Black Coppers either,... he only throws BTB and GS get when bred to GS hens) which won a couple of years ago at Newnan, Georgia show.
Here's what I would do if I wanted to get started in GS Marans. Go see Jesus illano in Florida. He also breeds dogs and has a website for them, but not his Marans poultry. Now Jesus is working on breeding a White Pyle Marans. To that end, part of his foundation flock was GS. He has them turn up occasionally as part of the Mendelian ratios in his breeding program. Now from what I recently read, these GS should be pure e+/e+,coming from White Pyle parents. Ok, get both sexes from him and get some eggs from the Barnesville GA lady. This is getting into the GS color thru the back door. Hatch out the Georgia eggs and throw out any chicks not specifically GS.( all the males should be wrongly colored). As I remember, you should only get GS females from the Barnesville eggs. You will also get BTB females which you can sell to other BTB breeders). Not a problem. Now raise up the GS females.
1. Breed the brothers and sisters from Florida together. Keep the best GS chicks of both sexes (because you won't get a proper male from the Barnesville eggs and you want a back-up male for your original FL boy.).
2. Breed the GS females from Barnesville to the original male from FL.
3. Cross the get from that union with the get from the breeding of the FL brothers and sisters.
4. Breed the get from this union back to the original FL male.
5. Now linebreed. Create 2 lines, one which is Barnesville/FL and one which is pure FL, crossing the two lines at the proper times( see linebreeding charts).
At this point you should have breed out any troublesome autosomal red and have pure breeding GS Marans without having to wait on the doorsteps of the 3 closed pure flocks which don't want to share their birds..
Best,
Karen in western PA
P.S. Do not use GS from Black Copper, they carry melanizers which will haunt you for years. Do not use GS from Welsummer crosses, they carry MH which sticks like a tick to the genotype, will pollute your GS flock with Mh, very tough to irrradicate. \
GS from a GS/BTB alliance can be used. GS and BTB have an uneasy genetic alliance. Just breed the GS resulting from such an alliance get back to each other for 2 generations and the BTB should drop out and leave you with pure-breeding GS Marans. Sell any BTB or GS/BTB which look like BTB... to BTB sellers, always noting to the buyer , they came from a GS/BTB alliance.
Do not use the Wheaten {eWh} color in making GS. It is the third partner in the uneasy genetic alliance between GS/BTB/eWh. It is also a tougher color to breed out than BTB when winnowing the trivumerate for pure GS)
P.P.S. GS is not a Red Duckwing (which has a Mh gene added to wildtype).
Nor a Gold Duckwing (which has a silver gene added to wildtype)
GS is not a Golden Duckwing (which has a Silver Gene added to wildtype.
According to Hancox/Van Dort book, GS is not wildtype ( which is e+/e+ s+/s+ Ml/Ml).
Instead it is "wild brown" which is simply e+/e+ s+/s+ (s-). We have 2 names for this variety. "Golden Salmon" and the more descriptive " BBR cock with the salmon-beasted , stippled hen.".

 

[Cadeau]

So Bill (my very dark Blue Copper male) would have additional black enhancers, right?

I don't know the answer, but I was just wondering the same thing!

I know my dark, navy blues have a sheen (can't remember...maybe it's just shine?) - what color SHOULD it be?

 

[desertmarcy]

Where did the twist on the front of this guys comb come from and how come it popped up seemingly overnight? The slight twist on the blade I have been watching for sometime....but the front twist is brand new.

What gives???????

That comb looks similar to the comb on my Delaware. I wasn't able to get a pick of mine straight on like that, he would not look straight at me look enough for me to focus the camera.

 

[annabell254]

Beautiful Roo!!!!

Ok so these are not show special babies just hatchery babies and meant to be pet that make us breakfast

preferably dark brown ones

but they are 3 weeks old today and I just thought I would post some pictures of them, as I am very excited about them

....they are very tame and confidant and never shy away and dont mind being petted at all I hope they get more white with age, as they age as right now they are mostly black



what a look!!! O yea, the food was gone!!!



another wondering why I brought so little treat! haha



and two more...you can see how dark these are


and here is a pict of one with my other 3 breeds of chicks so I had to snap the pict! Speckled Sussex, Silver Spangled Hamburg, and Easter Eggers

I'm hoping/waiting for a basket full of different colored eggs