Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

You guys are killing me! I haven't taken baby Birchen photos yet.....but I do have a couple photos of Baby Jane Dough. 1 goatie baby looks like all I'm going to get. Loosey and Jane are doing great. Went down to check this morning and there she was.

Birchen photos will follow sometime today.

Have some errands to run in town and must go get silly things like feed and groceries.

Had a semi good hatch with the Copper Marans and a good hatch with the Barnies too. One of the Birchen babies seems to have a get up and go issue, not splay leg, but close. I am going to hobble it this morning and see if it helps.

Okay....hoping the Mods don't mind and I don't get in trouble for posting these in the Marans thread....but Bill was right outside the door the entire time I was with the goaties so it almost counts as Marans related. LOL!
She looks just like her Mommy.



Her size compared to my hand.

Too cute! She was worth the wait! ....... NOW run to the storeS and get feed for you and critters. but hurry!

 

[pinkchick]

Lets all give a shout out, along with many hugs to our Marans friend Seabreeze. She has had a rough few days and suffered a loss of a very beloved animal and its baby.

 

[gilavina]

Lets all give a shout out, along with many hugs to our Marans friend Seabreeze. She has had a rough few days and suffered a loss of a very beloved animal and its baby.

yeah, I read that on facebook late last night.... such a hard loss, I can't even imagine!

 

[Christie Rhae]

see on that first boy where he has the red matte type feathers in the wing bow and on the breast? Thats sure not gold, I think if you had absolutely nothing else to work with, you could test mate with him, but think he will give you many more headaches than you'd want to even think about. The second one, if he doesn't start developing more copper than he has you could try to test mate him and see what you get. I've found with the birchens and leakage, there is no guarantee with anything. And when you think you are doing great, it can crop up again, so I just pick the best of the best, even if that means I only keep one or two birds in a season.
The third boy is more the color you want, so working to get that color onto some offspring will help put you in a good direction, and then you will have to work on the body type, but that's much easier than the leakage when you are first starting out.

Ok... very interesting stuff. So that copper in the chest is copper leakage? Number 1 does have more of that than number 2. Number 1 cockerel is king of the pen...beats up everyone. Kinda want to get rid of him just for that. lol. I have sort of been favoring number 2 lately. Maybe the copper leakage situation is why number 1 has more yellowish hackles and number 2 has more silver hackles. I am just fascinated by the genetics stuff. I think I will keep number 2 for some "educational" breeding.

And I will use my little silver blue guy to start my blue birchen project. I need more pens...my husband is going to freak. lol.. actually what I spend on chicken pens is nothing compared to his boat so I think I am still in the black.

Thank you!! I will give everyone a rest before I flood this thread with pics of my many black copper cockerels. heehee


@ Arielle
Hello! Yes my husbands solar project is going well. We have installed half of the 35 solars hot water systems for low income families so far. One more month of craziness to go! lol

 

[pinkchick]

Thanks. She is adorable. Looks like since she is a she and not a he.....dear hubby says she can stay and I don't have to sell her.

Vicki~ I cried when I read the email from her about her mare and foal. So sad!

 

[cherylcohen]

Lets all give a shout out, along with many hugs to our Marans friend Seabreeze. She has had a rough few days and suffered a loss of a very beloved animal and its baby.

So sorry for your loss Seabreeze, hope you can find some joy in your chickens today

 

[gilavina]

Thanks. She is adorable. Looks like since she is a she and not a he.....dear hubby says she can stay and I don't have to sell her.

Vicki~ I cried when I read the email from her about her mare and foal. So sad!

Yahoo on keepin the baby!

And yeah, I cried too when she put up the pic and read what she wrote about them. Just breaks the heart.

 

[pinkchick]

Cheryl~ Those Lavenders are BEAUTIFUL!

 

[cherylcohen]

Cheryl~ Those Lavenders are BEAUTIFUL!

thanks Kim

I guess they really are Self Blue - but since most peeps don't know what that means, I'm choosing to call them Lavenders. I'm really impressed with the feather quality so far. Can't wait to see them grown!

 

[snowbird]

Has anyone on here ever built a trapnest with roll out front . Been looking at some old poultry books and see several that I think would be handy in a breeding program. Thinking about 1-2-4 holes nests. Anyone have any experience would like to hear. I have the wood working experience.