Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[snowbird]

Marcy, I have not responded much on these males as I had hoped you would only keep one of the males for breeding to the young from the pullets. If you breed any of these males to their sisters you are mostly going to get males for eating on your table. When you have this many faults going on you just have to stay way from Brother-sister matings. If you just want some layers for eggs for the family then by all means go ahead and use B-S matings.

 

[desertmarcy]

Oh that one---I will get some pics and be right back....

OK, here is BCM cockerel #11, full view and close ups of comb. I am looking in the APA SOP, and I am having a hard time differentiating these blade bumps from an actual split since the irregularities don't really look like splits to me, more like indentations. Or would these be considered sprigs? They don't look like sprigs either to me. Help, Don! Also, on the lopped comb, as with anything, I suppose there are degrees to a fault from slight to really bad. Is even a slight degree of lopping, like my #12 has, considered a DQ? Perhaps Don can answer this also. The SOP illustration shows an extreme lopped over comb. Here is #11:

 

[desertmarcy]

Marcy, I have not responded much on these males as I had hoped you would only keep one of the males for breeding to the young from the pullets. If you breed any of these males to their sisters you are mostly going to get males for eating on your table. When you have this many faults going on you just have to stay way from Brother-sister matings. If you just want some layers for eggs for the family then by all means go ahead and use B-S matings.

Do you recommend that I breed the father back, then, and save the best of these to breed to those offspring? He has so much copper color on his breast, I was hoping to get some better ones, but as I said before, he didn't start out with all that color on his breast either, it came in when he was close to a year old.

 

[Christie Rhae]

DesertMarcy,
as soon as you get your cockerels narrowed down I am gonna start posting pics of my 6 boys that I need to thin out. I don't want to overwhelm or confuse these folks with all the BCM pics.

It has actually been pretty informative reading the comments. I go out and look at my boys then come back and look at more pics and read more comments. lol

Is it pretty common advice to keep two roosters of each color variety that you want to breed?

 

[gilavina]

DesertMarcy,
as soon as you get your cockerels narrowed down I am gonna start posting pics of my 6 boys that I need to thin out. I don't want to overwhelm or confuse these folks with all the BCM pics.

It has actually been pretty informative reading the comments. I go out and look at my boys then come back and look at more pics and read more comments. lol

Is it pretty common advice to keep two roosters of each color variety that you want to breed?

I keep at least two of each color variety I have when possible for two reasons. One, in case of predators or some other reason I might lose one and two, I usually try to keep birds that have things the other might not have, or is better on one than the other to use in breeding.

 

[desertmarcy]

Marcy, I have not responded much on these males as I had hoped you would only keep one of the males for breeding to the young from the pullets. If you breed any of these males to their sisters you are mostly going to get males for eating on your table. When you have this many faults going on you just have to stay way from Brother-sister matings. If you just want some layers for eggs for the family then by all means go ahead and use B-S matings.

I wish you would comment. It is very informative. From looking at pics of some other birds that people post, I didn't think these were that bad

but if you think they are, what would be the next step? I have read introducing a different line can just complicate matters. It is costing quite a bit to work with this breed, not to mention the frustration. I am learning a lot in the process, though. Problem is, our freezers--all 3 of them---are already full!

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote: Oh good advice! I was thinking of keeping two clones. Hahaha! That is very smart. Maybe I will start taking some pics of them.

 

[gilavina]

Oh good advice! I was thinking of keeping two clones. Hahaha! That is very smart. Maybe I will start taking some pics of them.

good deal. Photos are always good! Even if I don't always have time lately to comment inbetween all the other crap I've got going, I still try to check in on the thread and see what's going on and there's always plenty of people willing to help out with a second set of eyes!

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
I am still reading the Art of Breeding book I posted earlier. Got to page 15 and there is some interesting dialogue
on eliminating side sprigs. The renowned author saying that changing the size and shape of the comb can
accomplish this. But he says it much better than I can: http://tinyurl.com/d4vmj53

Best,
Karen

 

[snowbird]

Do you recommend that I breed the father back, then, and save the best of these to breed to those offspring? He has so much copper color on his breast, I was hoping to get some better ones, but as I said before, he didn't start out with all that color on his breast either, it came in when he was close to a year old.

Marcy, I would not breed the father back to the female, I would go out of house and get a different male. If you stay within house all you are doing is keeping on with the same faults multiplying each generation. I am sure you have seen Marans males on BYC where your males look better, sometimes the birds are not critique as some do not really want the truth with their fowl.

The last male you posted has a terrible thumb print on his comb and will breed forward. I do not see a split comb on any of the Males. Look at the type outline on the last male and tell me what you really see.