Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Sorry... that really sucks. When will you fire it back up? Look on the bright side.... The eggs will be bigger and the babies will be too....... no having to brood babies over these cold cold winter nights. And you will have more to hatch in the SPRING RIGHT????

What color is it????

They were the eggs from the egg show I had permission to hatch. There were 4 solid black and 3 solid blue eggs I was praying would hatch so I could have a male to work with.

Ill definitely be hatching in the spring from my own stock.

 

[gilavina]

I was lookin at the calendar and think I won't be starting the incubator til sometime in later February to beginning of March Donna. It all depends on how the winter ends up looking by that time tho.

 

[DMRippy]

I was lookin at the calendar and think I won't be starting the incubator til sometime in later February to beginning of March Donna. It all depends on how the winter ends up looking by that time tho.

Wish I had the will power to do that. I just set those DARK Marans eggs

I don't even know if I can see in them. I am just doing SMALL batches. Helps that most are not laying.

 

[desertmarcy]

Just one more thought on the males. These are perfect example of the mixed up colors when you breed the Black copper and Blue Copper and do not know the proper combination to use.

Well it is a learning process, isn't it? One has to start somewhere, and I started with less than perfect birds :/ especially the Blue Coppers I started with. If you could elucidate on proper combinations to use, that would be helpful.

 

[gilavina]

Wish I had the will power to do that. I just set those DARK Marans eggs

I don't even know if I can see in them. I am just doing SMALL batches. Helps that most are not laying.

I hadn't heard anything about the dark eggs. Did you post photos somewhere?

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
No, I should take some. My new pullets are laying some good dark eggs..... very happy about that and the copper on the pullets. I still have things to work on like eye color. Not going to throw the baby out with the bath water. I have already cull the ones with DQs and faults I don't want to work on, most had more than 2 issues.

 

[ramzroost]

I have 3 Black copper marans. Not planning on showing them. They are just sweet pets and used for egg laying. Meet Happy the roo and my girls are Sunshine (aka Sunny) and Ruby. The eggs were given to me and I was told they were black copper marans. I incubated and brooded them. The girls lay the dark chocolate colored eggs. I'm really not sure if they are "french" or not???. They all three have the feathers on their legs and feet. They are 6 months old and just recently started laying. They are very friendly. Sunshine often jumps into my lap. Ruby hangs around my feet. Happy is a very good protector of my small backyard flock. he has only challenged me once. Since then I just hold him every chance I get.

 

[gilavina]

No, I should take some. My new pullets are laying some good dark eggs..... very happy about that and the copper on the pullets. I still have things to work on like eye color. Not going to throw the baby out with the bath water. I have already cull the ones with DQs and faults I don't want to work on, most had more than 2 issues.

I hear ya...step at a time

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Just wondering what standard everyone is using to breed the Blue Copper. The proposed standard on the Marans site is really liking in details and will be changed before acceptance. IT would be nice if the Marans club would updates these details so folks trying to breed them would have some guidance.

I don't think the Club has really decided on the details for Blue Copper yet, hard and fast, so it will be up to those serious about breeding them and getting them approved to work together and communicate in order to move forward. I think acceptance of Blue Copper is a LONG way down the road. Blue Copper was only just recently accepted in France.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

I am still having a lot of picking problems with my Marans. Only the Marans, and I have a lot of other breeds. They are in the same size pen with about the same number of birds (or less) than my other breeds. They just seem to be very vicious. I lost a Black Copper Marans pullet a couple of weeks ago because the others picked out her butt. I've been really busy here and haven't had the time to sit and watch them. Well I took some time, peering in the pen from outside, and it didn't take long to see one pullet zeroing in on the others. You could see her little eyes almost slit down, she would lower her head and run over and yank feathers out of another's tail. Then she would do the same to another pullet. I immediately took her out of there. I think there may have been other culprits, so I put peepers on all of them.

Then just this morning, I found one of my Blue Copper Marans just in time, she has an area on her side picked really badly, about a 4" X 4" area, quite large. Now she was the one that had been picking earlier, as she was the only one in the pen wearing peepers! I had most of the 7 of these pullets separated out in different pens for several weeks as I was monitoring which ones were laying what color eggs, but needed those pens to isolate some birds going to a show this past weekend---so I put them all back together again. 7 pullets in a big 10' X 25' pen---guess someone did not like this girl.

I bet a lot of you are getting ready for Thanksgiving, but I hope some of you are online and can answer. Is this a common problem with the Marans? Or is it just my bloodline? They just are so vicious to each other. I've been struggling so hard to get my Marans to the Standard and feel like I'm making progress. I took one of the two Black Copper cockerels I ended up keeping out of about 45 I started with to the show in Tucson this weekend. He was the only Marans there. Dave Anderson from CA judged him. I asked him what he thought and he thought he was pretty good (but wasn't going to beat out the nice Polish that were showing!). Apparently Dave judges Marans a lot in CA, so his opinion counts. But this behavior issue with the breed is making me wonder if I want to continue with them.

Sorry for the long post! My basic question is, and please be honest, do others notice picking issues with this breed? I am wondering if it is just my bloodline that is the problem. I have a friend who had terrible picking problems with some hatchery Silver Laced Wyandottes. She just had to get rid of them. Now she has some new ones from a different hatchery, but too early to tell yet if she will see the same problem with them. I have enough things to work on with the Marans, if I have to cull for behavior also, well it just might be too much.

I had a terrible time with Marans feather picking. Mine have loads of space and free-range. After doing tons of research and inquiring, I switched them to a more "gamebird" type diet - much higher protein, not just supplements - and the problem has gradually gone away. Thankfully! I also make sure to use meat based protein and not vegetable based protein that is so trendy right now. The only caution with that, I've had to be careful growing out my young stock. The protein has to be carefully controlled/monitored in their youth so they don't grow too fast and end up with leg problems.