Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Wynette]

as i said before we are very limited here in canada, i do like his size, and his colour, tremperment, and he is outa some pretty nice eggs, yes all my birds are french variety like anything they are a work in progress trying to keep inbreeding to a minimal ect, they are not perfect but neither am i , i like him rather than the blue line from witmore Farms they are to upright and scrawny (the ones i have) and yes he does have a lil to much copper on the chest. i am using him with my heavy girls with not enuff copper, and chuck on my smaller set girls from witmore farms the blue ones. anyways i dont mind criticism i have only been into birds for 6 years and i am learning all the time as long as people are not snotty like in the dog world

JJJ - I hope I have not offended; if I have, please accept my apology. Of course, I understand that you need to work with what you have. There is another member from Canada that doens't post often any longer - I don't know if you are near her or not, but you want to reach out to member Barngodess01 - she has black coppers and blue coppers and has mentioned the same thing, that it's difficult to get nice stock in Canada. But, she's doing some nice work with her stock, and is absorbing genetic information like a sponge - you two would likely have lots to talk about!

 

[snowbird]

Just a reminder, If we start with Marans or any other breed and do not that have real bad type and are untrifty you are fighting a losing battle from day one. If I could not get some Marans with good type, width and depth and good length I would not start with Marans if I planned on breeding to the SOP. I hear some talking about it taking five year to perfect a line of fowl, This is simply wishful thinking. If you start with fowl that have a narrow back and weak underside you are destined to fail.

Like I always say junk always produces more junk. Anyone wanting to work with what you have please keep us posted on how it works and how long you keep at it before quiting.

 

[snowbird]

Just a little on the BC leg color. If we just forget the Standard and use the Medium Slate colored leggs as breeder males everything will work out in the end.

There are a lot of instances where you will have to use breeders that are not what the SOP standard says.

In the pictures posted on leg color the dark leg bird does not have enough feathering. The other leg is pretty good and I like the heavy feathered Marans best of all. I will not breed a female that does not have good feathering.

 

[snowbird]

While I am on the subject there is nothing that says you can not work on more than one problem at once. Working with only one problem you will have two show up before you fix the one you are working with. This is something that has to be worked on all the time.

Of all the breeds of fowl I have ever been involved with I use the same method. The best way to work with fowl with DQs and major faults is just cull those fowl out of you breeding plans. The hardest part of breeding fowl is being able to cull out fowl that need to be culled.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Just a reminder, If we start with Marans or any other breed and do not that have real bad type and are untrifty you are fighting a losing battle from day one. If I could not get some Marans with good type, width and depth and good length I would not start with Marans if I planned on breeding to the SOP. I hear some talking about it taking five year to perfect a line of fowl, This is simply wishful thinking. If you start with fowl that have a narrow back and weak underside you are destined to fail.

Like I always say junk always produces more junk. Anyone wanting to work with what you have please keep us posted on how it works and how long you keep at it before quiting.

I'm thrilled with my "type". I just have all these other niggling little issues like a disturbing amount of white underfluff and over-melanization.

BUT, I've got a small crop of young Blue Coppers growing out that I'm VERY excited about.

A handful of them appear to have "it all", so to speak - certainly enough to really work with. Black Coppers are defying/escaping me. (Not convinced I will even continue working on/with the Black Coppers because I'm feeling "fulfilled" by my Blue Coppers.)

(Don, I hope your treatment goes well on the 24th. I am very much looking forward to meeting you in person at Columbus!!!! I will be thinking of you on the 24th and beyond ....

)

 

[Wynette]

While I am on the subject there is nothing that says you can not work on more than one problem at once. Working with only one problem you will have two show up before you fix the one you are working with. This is something that has to be worked on all the time.

Of all the breeds of fowl I have ever been involved with I use the same method. The best way to work with fowl with DQs and major faults is just cull those fowl out of you breeding plans. The hardest part of breeding fowl is being able to cull out fowl that need to be culled.

This is something I often think about - as in, which things are RELATED and which things make sense to work on together.

Here is a picture of a cock bird that was identified as where we ought to be with shank feathering - this bird was hand picked by a judge to show what they view as the perfect amount of shank feathering, per the SOP - this picture was taken at Crossroads show last year. (note white unerhackle and tail - this is a problem!). The feathering goes all the way down the outside of the leg and outside of outer toe - but is not sweeping the floor - there are also no gaps in the shank feathering:



Here is a very young male I have now which I am watching - I believe he's got TOO MUCH shank featheirng, but time will tell, I guess. He's a step in the right direction for me, anyway:

 

[snowbird]

I'm thrilled with my "type". I just have all these other niggling little issues like a disturbing amount of white underfluff and over-melanization.

BUT, I've got a small crop of young Blue Coppers growing out that I'm VERY excited about.

A handful of them appear to have "it all", so to speak - certainly enough to really work with. Black Coppers are defying/escaping me. (Not convinced I will even continue working on/with the Black Coppers because I'm feeling "fulfilled" by my Blue Coppers.)

(Don, I hope your treatment goes well on the 24th. I am very much looking forward to meeting you in person at Columbus!!!! I will be thinking of you on the 24th and beyond ....

)

Barb, If you have good type and body structure the cosmetics things are easy to work with as most are just in culling and breeding forward the better fowl. Isaw some of your Blue Copper you posted a while back and the young male looked real good and should produce in the future.

 

[snowbird]

This is something I often think about - as in, which things are RELATED and which things make sense to work on together.

Here is a picture of a cock bird that was identified as where we ought to be with shank feathering - this bird was hand picked by a judge to show what they view as the perfect amount of shank feathering, per the SOP - this picture was taken at Crossroads show last year. (note white unerhackle and tail - this is a problem!). The feathering goes all the way down the outside of the leg and outside of outer toe - but is not sweeping the floor - there are also no gaps in the shank feathering:



Here is a very young male I have now which I am watching - I believe he's got TOO MUCH shank featheirng, but time will tell, I guess.

Wynette, the wheaten male is still lacking on leg feathering as they say they would like the feathering to be close to the Langshans. I hope the wheaten male did not win anything. Look at the comb as a bad example of blade being turned sideways, also the wattles look small and maybee deformed.

I think the young bird for his age looks just fine on the leg feathering.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: Do you feel the blues are just easier? The the blue gene dilute something else in the Marans other than black? It seems the blue genes act on other things too, even in my other breeds I see that.

 

[Zanna]

None of these pictures showed back and top views. I mention this because I would be looking for the width of the back and the openess of the tail when I made my culling decisions. Like Wynette has pointed out, none of the birds exhibit the correct topline. Either the back is too curved or to flat. The U back needs to be balanced with the tail at a 45 degree angle and the head raising slightly above the tail...

It has been my experience that a short backed bird tends to have a high tail angle. Pair with a long back bird and magic could happen. Select your hen to compliment your male. Since we don't have views that show the width of the birds... look for wide birds.

Of all the birds, my pick would be #2. I do like 2 and 4's bottom line better than the other two birds. However, it appears #2 might have a fuller backside...





Thanks for your input Lisa! A really good reminder of things to look at!