Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

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Hi

You have got an interesting flock of birds, black coppers, birchens and golden salmon. Now all you have to do is to wait to see what egg color they lay. If you need any help with what to breed to what to get better egg color in any particular line please let me know.

Thank you all for your warm welcome to the BYC, I am finding it interesting and learning at the same time.

Bev

Hi Bev Thanks for posting.
I do need some help figuring out what I have. The black copper maran I am just going by the pictures I have of the French Standard.
But I will need some help with the Birchen and the golden Salmon. If you could send me pictures of what i am striving for it would be great. And also info on what to breed to what to get what.LOL My email address is [email protected]. We are all busy so if this takes some time that is fine and if you can't do it I will understand. I will have my Hatchery website up and running in Nov. But you can visit my cabinet site if you would like. www.pinepride.com Thank you for what ever help you can help with. I have some pictures of my Dark cornish on the meat forum if you would like to see them.
 
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Thank you Bev, yeah i knew it was a French site, but the problem is, it's all still greek to me!
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edidted to add the quote, sorry

Hi

Well, you could always ask us what you don't understand and we can try and explain it in a different way. Or, we could all end up just as confused.
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Bev

Thank you! Everyone on here has always been so good(thank you) about answering newbie questions. It's just me, I just dont even know what to ask. Also, I don't want to interrupt, not that anybody has ever made me feel like I am. AND I dont want to ask a question you already answered four pages ago that I missed and take up everyones time. Again nobody had ever made me feel that way here.

Oh BOY do I have questions, but I try to keep them to myself, and sometimes I get tha answer, sometimes not.

This is one I have been wondering about for a while, and I feel a little numb asking it, but here goes....
How do you count the points on the comb, each little nub even on the fat parts or just the long, well seperated ones?

I would like to know more about breeding blues. I understand that it involves the silver gene. How do you know who has that gene? I just saw something about splash carrying the gene, do all splash carry a silver gene? Do normal colored birds still carry the silver gene and you just need that extra silver gene in order for it to express? Then there is the birchen, I think I read on that french (greek) site that they just pop up occasionally in an otherwise normal wheaten flock? Maybe they meant the blue pops up in an otherwise normal birchen flock? Which would make the silver gene to just have to be floating around out there randomly expressing itself? Is the silver gene the key to all blue? How do you know it is not just dilution?
Whoa! I better stop now....sorry. I open the gates and whooosh!
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Here is my first blue Marans pullet egg.....
Thank you for the words of encouragement on the color improving......
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The egg is with a couple of EE eggs, (Blue, light green and light brown)
Here it is.......
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VioletBlueIvy ,

Please don't feel like that here! The only dumb question, is the one NOT asked!! Lordy knows, I've asked my share of dumb ones, but always got great answers! The blue gene is a dilution of the black gene. As for the rest of the genetic equations, I have to revert to other posted articles. Can't seem to retain too much "stuff" any more. Kinda like a computer, only so many files my poor brain will hold, then I must delete the rest!
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Keep asking and PRINT OUT some of the more pertinent answers! That's the only way I am finding myself through the maze, and even then I get lost! Hang in there, and HAVE FUN!
 
I just wanted to brag a bit. I just hatched my first chicks from my flock and want to share them with the world.

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So far it looks like a little cockerel and pullet and I can't wait to see what they grow into.

I have a small and very young flock that lives out in the country with friends and are just starting to lay regularly. I'm going to be doing a lot more test hatches so I can get a feel for what they are going to produce. It's like Christmas!!
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Quote:
Hi

You have got an interesting flock of birds, black coppers, birchens and golden salmon. Now all you have to do is to wait to see what egg color they lay. If you need any help with what to breed to what to get better egg color in any particular line please let me know.

Thank you all for your warm welcome to the BYC, I am finding it interesting and learning at the same time.

Bev

Hi Bev Thanks for posting.
I do need some help figuring out what I have. The black copper maran I am just going by the pictures I have of the French Standard.
But I will need some help with the Birchen and the golden Salmon. If you could send me pictures of what i am striving for it would be great. And also info on what to breed to what to get what.LOL My email address is [email protected]. We are all busy so if this takes some time that is fine and if you can't do it I will understand. I will have my Hatchery website up and running in Nov. But you can visit my cabinet site if you would like. www.pinepride.com Thank you for what ever help you can help with. I have some pictures of my Dark cornish on the meat forum if you would like to see them.

Hi

I will e-mail you.

Bev
 
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Hi

Sometimes I do, I also bought some of those plastic covered wire trays, they are heavy enough not to turn over when the chick hatches. I got some from a dollar store and some from Walmart. I am always on the look out for feather dusters at the dollar store, I put these hanging under the heat lamp so that the newly hatched chicks can go under them. They only use them for a couple of days but it's enough for them to feel secure. It's a warm feathery place for them similar to a mother hen.

Bev
 
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OK - - I am calming down. I can make bags - - that should be a SNAP.

What do you do - - - one egg per bag or all the eggs from one hen in the bag? ?

Do you put something for structure in the bag so that the chick doesn't suffocate with the bag wrapped around it ? ?

How big do you make the bag ? ?
 
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I have LOVED my marans - - -let me offer some insight to what I experienced when they were young.

I had 12 EE's 3 leghorns and 4 marans ALL AT THE SAME TIME as chicks.
Leghorns were crazy flighty things from the beginning.
EE's were EE's - - -not flighty but very active.

THE marans didn't like all that activity. They stayed in the background. As the chicks started to grow, I would offer treats and could not get the marans to come and get them. LIGHTBULB time - - - these birds were not aggressive and did not like the activity of the others. One day - - I locked the other birds and the coop and sat down with just the marans. They came up and took the treats out of my hands. I had to treat them separately. Then I would allow a few of the mellow birds out with the marans and treat time went well. The girls don't like to compete with others. . . . .

NOW they are bigger, MUCH bigger, and are the FIRST to be at my feet for treats. They talk to me non-stop.
They will JUMP up and TAKE food out of my hands NOW . . . Still not an aggressive bird.

MY suggestion - - - try to wine and dine just the marans without the others around. Soon you will have them eating out of your hands. As they get bigger - - - absolutely no way are they going to be "FLIGHTY".

Hi

Have you noticed how they make a noise as if they are talking to you when they are being carried. It would be interesting to know what they were saying.

Bev
 
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I am not culling. I am just not going to further their genes by incubating any of their eggs. My production has been horrid since probably May. Considering they did not start laying until about a month before that . . . .

I seriously think this may be the issue. I am supplementing lighting in my coop SINCE these girls decided to take a 4 month holiday. NOW, if I had two birds that really aren't laying that well to start off with, than that would explain a lot!

So, I will continue to watch the girls, but will only hatch from the two birds that I KNOW are doing a good job of laying.

I found ALL 4 girls in the laying boxes today but only 2 laid eggs. the other 2 left the boxes without laying something after about an hour. I have seen these same two girls do that previously during this week. . . .

I have been watching for signs of broodiness, but they never stay on the nest for longer than an hour. . .

Hi

I think they are researching the nest because they are about to start laying. My birds are coming into lay now which is early this year. Last year they didn't start until after Christmas but October the year before. The weather is crazy but haven't missed the hurricanes this year.

Bev
 

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