Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

Will you go over to the Cuckoo thread and answer my question please?!?!?!?!?

 

[gilavina]

Were you meaning me Donna? I got distracted trying to get ready for company coming tomorrow night. I'll check it out in the morning if indeed you mean me. I'm so tired I could fall asleep standing up I think. haha

 

[DMRippy]

Were you meaning me Donna? I got distracted trying to get ready for company coming tomorrow night. I'll check it out in the morning if indeed you mean me. I'm so tired I could fall asleep standing up I think. haha

Tomorrow is fine... YES YOU!

 

[heath_elisha]

I take that back, I said first love in poultry, I should say first love in all animals. I have always had blue animals of all kinds!

I fell in love with blues too...... my 2 blue coppers (both lacking copper) are always the attention getters when people visit our home, people who rarely see chickens. I am proud of them, even with all their little flaws

 

[heath_elisha]

You are a good MOMMY!

I just finished school a few years ago (at 38 years old) then got married had a baby, bought a house, remodeled it, sold it, had another baby, got chickens ..... and it has been down hill every since

We are working on another house now and THEN we can think about BUILDING our FOREVER Home

I am tired just thinking about it too

Once we get the NEW house I can think about doing things like that FINALLY!

We're trying to buy our dream farm....... but we have some baggage (a house and land) that need to go first. Timing is always an issue! I want that porch to sit on and watch the chickens in the yard...... in the country on a dirt road.... may be a old farm house needing work, but so worth it.

 

[gilavina]

Tomorrow is fine... YES YOU!

Hey Donna,

I see Bev answered your question on the cuckoo thread. I was hoping Lynette would post some pics of her silver Marans too so we could compare ours. I need to get some pics of mine here soon. They are just about hitting the age of laying. I keep expecting to find an egg anyday

 

[DMRippy]

I'll be testmating to make sure and some of the future of a solid project is dependent on getting a solid male out of either this blacks or blue eggs I have in the incubator. I still don't do shipping on eggs or chicks, so if these turn out like I hope they might, a chicken train would probably have to be sorted

This is what I was asking about..... How are you going to test mate to make sure he is carrying SILVER..... what are you going to cross him with to make sure?

 

[gilavina]

This is what I was asking about..... How are you going to test mate to make sure he is carrying SILVER..... what are you going to cross him with to make sure?

The most logical for me would be to cross him onto a birchen and should get all silvers. Then if I receive either all solid chicks or all birchen marked chicks and no copper or gold leakage, it will give me a really good idea of what I'm working with. I can also test mate onto some copper hens that express the copper. A percentage of those should come out with either gold or silver chicks because of mixing with the silver genes. Both birchen and solid blues are made from a silver base.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
I could test him with my coppers, I have an EE that looks like she has silver in her hackles would she work better or is she too much of a mutt to know for sure. I have him with my Reg Cuckoo hen and she is not showing copper, should I just stick with her?

 

[gilavina]

Alrighty, I just went outside and got a few shots of the birchen boy. He's pretty wild from being raised by a broody, so this is the best shot I could get to show the color coming in. He's a beast for such a young thing.




Here's the ladies that I'll be doing more test mating on that I suspect are indeed from solid blues. Its the two blue girls and the splash on the right. The other is a splash that is roaming free with them while I decide what to do with her. She might join the layer flock




A close up of my favorite of the blue girls. She has a phenomenal head structure I hope to breed forward.




Just for fun, here's a shot of a few of my layer flock and their newest additions, the dark splash cockerel and the light brahma pullet in the background (a mistake shipment in with some chicks - she's only about 4 1/2 months old and she's already huge!) They're all waiting for their turn to run out in the pasture

And lastly, for Kim, Here's my baby goaties, now 6 months old and still super tiny. They measure in about 6 inches below my knee. Lola on the left, Ina, their mother in the middle and Lobo on the right. Such sweethearts.