Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Missa Chickabee]

Ha! Was just out by the coop. That's twice now I've seen a white leghorn going after his foot-feathers. Going to smear the feathers with bag balm and let her get a good taste of that.

 

[desertmarcy]

A couple of this year's Black Copper Marans pullets are just starting to lay. Here are the first few eggs laid:

How do you grade color when the background is light but there are dark speckles all over it like this?


Here are some darker ones, but so far, nothing beyond a "4" to my eye:

 

[pmessner]

Hi all,

I'm a big marans fan...

Can someone tell me what I am looking at here??? silver cuckoo? They are soooooo pretty

 

[desertmarcy]

I finally took some photos of my Blue Copper Marans cockerels. I held back 3 to evaluate and hopefully one of these will be good enough to use. Unfortunately, they are all different ages, so if makes them hard to compare. #1 is the oldest, #2 is in the middle, #3 is the youngster. Opinions please? I culled quite a few blue copper cockerels when they were really small due to too much copper leakage on their breast. These are the only ones that were half way decent.

Here is #1. He is wearing peepers to try to stop him from bullying but I don't think it has worked. He has some copper leakage on his breast and I don't particularly like the way his tail is coming in. He has lots of middle toe feathers as well as the outer ones. He looks like he has a nice wide chest to me.






Here is #2. So far I like him better than #1 but he is so much younger, it is hard to tell how he will fill out. So far his eyes are still dark.



Here is #3. He is relative baby still. He seems very light when I pick him up. He is in with #2 and is starting to get picked on by #2, so I need to decide if he is worthy of keeping to watch? He will need his own enclosure soon if that is the case, or cull now?



Here's #2 and #3 together. #3 is actually a LOT smaller than #2, it is just the perspective of the photo making them look similarly sized.

 

[gilavina]

Hi all,

I'm a big marans fan...

Can someone tell me what I am looking at here??? silver cuckoo? They are soooooo pretty

Thanks! These are my newest marans color. They are Silver Marans, they come from some cuckoos, but very rarely. I'll paste the website of the couple from over in the UK that has some history on them for you. I've been drooling over them for about 5 years, and finally just this spring got some chicks and will be working hard to improve them this next spring.

http://www.artandverse.com/marans.html

 

[gilavina]

Evenin Debbi Doodles!

 

[Debbi]

Evenin Debbi Doodles!

Good evening! Nice here today, too bad I felt like crap, and got nothing done. Took a two hour nap, which to me is sinful, and went to town to buy some piddly groceries. Tomorrow will ve coop cleaning day whether I like it or not! Thanks for the brine details, it may be put to use here soon.

 

[gilavina]

Good evening! Nice here today, too bad I felt like crap, and got nothing done. Took a two hour nap, which to me is sinful, and went to town to buy some piddly groceries. Tomorrow will ve coop cleaning day whether I like it or not! Thanks for the brine details, it may be put to use here soon.

that's no good lady! I hope you get to feeling better asap. It was a beautiful cool fall day here, and even got about 5 minutes of rain. I'm still fiddling around with the brining recipe and seeing what I like best. I for sure am going to be trying out brining in a mix of rosemary, thyme and then roasting it with potatoes, onions, and carrots in a roasting bag and slow cooking. Its making my mouth water just typing this!

 

[Connie Marie]

Hi all, is it ever normal for young cockerels (10 weeks) to have white tail feathers or fluff? Any chance they will molt them out or should they all be culled now?

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
At 10 weeks it is way too soon to tell. At the juvenile molt, at around 6 months, is a better indication. Even then, they may not molt out those feathers until their adult molt at 9 months to a year of age. Be patient, and at least wait until the juvie molt. JMO