Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Sure hope you get some! We have a few smaller chances coming up too. I fear the grass is gone for this year...

yeah, I think you are right about the grass being gone. The pasture is all just brown, so have been feeding baled hay from my uncle for most of the last two months. We've been giving lots of branches we've been trimming so they can eat the leaves, particularly elm they go nuts for and gives them fresh forage.

The wind's coming up now and lightning like crazy just to the north of us

 

[Arielle]

I hope some of the rains hit your area--this has been a tough year.

 

[allmychickens]

When do BCMs start showing the copper? my 4 weeks old have so far come in all black but the olive eggers have copper necks

??

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: I have had some that show it very early and some not really show their real colors till about 4-5 months. They change so much.... patience.....

 

[sfinhill]

We have a Cuckoo Maran cockerel that we can no longer keep due to city ordinances. We purchased what we thought was a hen and....surprise. We are trying to find a home for him with no luck. He is a 4-1/2 month old wonderful bird. He watches over our flock and has a great disposition. HELP!

 

[Cadeau]

hey lady, I must have missed these somewhere. Got any more pics of the first girl?
Also, how's the rest of the culling going?

I can get some - probably tomorrow!

Working on it - going to try your trick of moving them around and seeing who "fits" and who doesn't!

This cull, I'm working on keeping the chunky ones!

 

[Cadeau]

So I went out to the coop this evening and looky what I found. I dont know which of my girls laid it but Im excited to finally get an egg. When I got rid of my 6 Barred Rocks my eggs where gone with them. Im interested to see who laid it. One of the Blues or the Blacks. Im it will be fun to watch them darken up. Totally caught me with my pants down. I thought I had another 3-4 weeks.

Congrats!!

 

[Cadeau]

Hoping you get a good soaking, Vicki!!

 

[desertmarcy]

Hi all, I've been reading and catching up with this thread but haven't posted lately. The lady with the 2 Black Copper Marans cockerels I posted pics of a while back is back from vacation, so I went over there today to look at her birds. But I did not bring either one home

. However I did take some photos to share with you all and hope for honest critique. Her cockerels are 6 months old and I do believe they are not as beefy as mine at 4 months old. She did show me the eggs from her pullets, and they are darker than the eggs I am getting. So....is it worth getting one or both of these from her to try to improve on the egg color of my stock, or do these cockerels have so many issues that I'd likely cause more problems if I used them? They both have some serious twists at the front of their combs. Neither has great leg or foot feathering, it is not entirely absent, but sparse, but my hens would make up for that, I think, since mine are heavily feathered. Their color looks good to me, nice even copper on neck and saddle feathers. They both have a few copper breast feathers which I don't like. I couldn't tell their wing set, they were both really hot (close to 100 degrees when I was there). They look a little short, as Wynette noticed with the earlier pics. They don't feel like much meat around the breast bone yet, but then neither do mine. The lady really just wants to trade for some chicks when I have some later this fall and wants both of these boys gone soon since they are too hard on her hens (she has a mixed flock with some smaller hens). Thank you all for taking time to read this and look at these birds.
Here is her cockerel #1:













Here is cockerel #2, the subordinate one who got his hackle feathers pulled out:

 

[3riverschick]

Ok, here's what I have to contribute. Your boy is 1/2 your flock. The texture of the skin on the comb and the shanks is indicative of the texture of the rest of the skin on the bird's body that you can't see. This is the type of skin he has to pass on to his get. Now a good meat bird needs a skin that is fine and smooth in texture. A good laying hen needs skin that is fine and smooth in texture for 2 reasons.
1. it allows the skin to stretch as the reproductive organs swell when laying starts. This makes it easier for the hen to lay her eggs.
2. Coarse-textured skin tends to have a build-up of fatty tissue underneath it. This fat keeps the skin from stretching when the hen starts laying. Both the coarse skin and the layer of fat, singly or together, keep the bird from being a better layer.
So , if you want to produce better meat and egg chickens, don't use these boys. The comparison of their comb and shank skin to what proper skin in these areas should look like, is akin to comparing burlap with fine silk.
Best Regards,
Karen Tewart
Waterford English Sussex.