Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

congrats how many are you expecting did you hatch or is mama hen hatching

Sorry for not catching this sooner. Thank you and I had Silver Black Birchen eggs shipped in and put them in the incubator. I might would have put some of them under a broody if I had had one at the time.

 

[pinkchick]

Slick~ That bird has nice copper and nice feathered legs and it looks as though he has some good size on him. The white feathers in the tail are most likely going to be a problem. I had white show up in my old rooster Gnarles after he was 1.5 old. They did change back to blue after a molt, but then came back white just as quickly as they had gone. He didn't have one stitch of white on him prior to 1.5 years.

Do you have more Marans roosters?

 

[Mountain Mel]

Brrrrrr......54 here this morning. Rain forcast for tonight & tomorrow, but sunny & 70 on the 4th! Hi, Pinkchick!

 

[slick4591]

Slick~ That bird has nice copper and nice feathered legs and it looks as though he has some good size on him. The white feathers in the tail are most likely going to be a problem. I had white show up in my old rooster Gnarles after he was 1.5 old. They did change back to blue after a molt, but then came back white just as quickly as they had gone. He didn't have one stitch of white on him prior to 1.5 years.

Do you have more Marans roosters?

That's what I was hoping not to hear, but I need to know, so thanks. Yes, he has some good size and I think good conformation, which is why he was retained. He is my only Black Copper. I have a Blue Copper rooster from the same place and he has the same white problems, except he has a white undercoat, too. I'm just used him on the Ameraucanas and will cull him soon as I get my OE's that I want.

If you know, why do these feathers start out the correct color then change to white? The blue's did the same way.

 

[pinkchick]

I have already culled any males that had brown/copper in the breast as my understanding is, the blacker and less color in the breast, the better. I hope I am right on that!!

Black Copper Marans males can have up to 10% copper in the breast area and this is acceptable per the standard for Black Copper. It is said that copper in the breast of the males helps with the copper coloring of the females.

IMO, there is a difference between copper and brown that is a stippled looking with a very light noticeable feather shaft.

This photo below, IMO, is not what copper in the breast should look like. To me...this is shafting and is not what is desired.



Will look for a photo of what, IMO, Copper should look like in the breast of the males. May take a while as I have many many many photos to go through.

 

[Hens and Roos]

That's the thing. He didn't have them until after the juvie molt. They were black, then just started turning white and appears as though it's climbing towards the end of the feather. The toe feather he's had since the molt too.

I noticed with a cockeral of one of our other breeds that he developed a white feather- he was the lowest on the pecking order and was stressed out by the others- his white feather actually got worse- we culled him as he had other faults too.

 

[pinkchick]

Morning Mel! Hope all is well with you. Now......STOP TALKING RAIN MISTER!!!!!!!!!! I'm not going hear it!

You are scaring the fish away with that kind of talk. LOL!

We went fishing yesterday afternoon and stayed at the river until almost dark ...caught nothing so we came home. We woud have stayed longer, but we biked it so we had to get started back so we had enough daylight left to see where we were going. No street lights out here don'tcha know!

20 minutes after we got home my neighbor stops by with a half of salmon that he just pulled from the water not far from the spot we were fishing.

Wouldn'tcha know it.

 

[slick4591]

I noticed with a cockeral of one of our other breeds that he developed a white feather- he was the lowest on the pecking order and was stressed out by the others- his white feather actually got worse- we culled him as he had other faults too.

I can't blame that on either of my guys as they were separated before these became a problem.

 

[pinkchick]

Slick~

I don't know what causes the white feather. Fact, I don't think that anyone truly knows why they change all of a sudden, but do know that sometimes it can be contributed to an injury as Hens is talking about. in the case of an injury the feather should turn back to its regular color.

 

[pinkchick]

Barb~ What's the word from under the broody?