Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Marcy~ I myself culled my breeders down again this morning. I now only have 3 hens and 2 roosters in the copper variety and 2 pullets and 1 cockerel in the Birchen variety. It was a very tough choice to make and I hated leaving myself with such small numbers, but upon my recent hatch of single test matings on Monday....the chicks that hatched from one of the females that I culled this morning sealed the deal. I told myself I would rather have 8 good birds to rebuild from vs. having several mediocre or bad birds to breed from.
Now if only the remaining girls would get their rears in gear and give me some eggs again I can start to rebuild. Stingy girls laid non-stop for just over a month and now.....NADA.....ZIP.....ZERO.......Zilch! Bunch of freeloadin' squawk boxes!

 

[pinkchick]

Heres a few pics of my youngsters.
 

Me loves me some these!!!!!!!!!! Pretty babies!

 

[math ace]

OK so if she is nice enough to be that picky I will be happy about it. LOL
Splash, isn't my color... so someone else will have to add info about her color.
Keep in mind that you only submitted a side view of this pullet... A view from the back, top, and front would help tell more.


I'm sorry, I think I explained this wrong. He was a spawn of satan teenager rooster. He got a weekly education on his behavior and is now no longer aggressive or ugly towards people but avoids us like the plague.....I'd rather have this version of him. LOL He got picked up a LOT, feed scoops thrown at him, held down, everything to show him who was the bigger rooster......he was hardheaded about it. He now moves away from me while I'm in the pen but is on high alert and FREAKS if I get near him. Please don't think I abused him or crossed any lines. I do NOT tolerate roosters that don't learn their place and behave. Solid citizens or freezer camp are the choices at my house....

I do not think you abused him, but I do think you thought him to fear you instead of trusting you. It is really hard to undo this once he has established the fear of you.

 

[pinkchick]

Don~ Here is that young Black Copper male that you liked. He is getting some color coming in on the hackle and the saddle, albeit, very dark, but the barn is beautiful and I'll take it! Will work on color and comb later.
If I didn't know better, I would swear that he was my large male, Bill looking right back at me. This male is the great great great grandson of Bill. I'm in love!

 

[pinkchick]

Math Ace~ Thank you for your very kind words.



GEEBSIE!!!!!!!!! Great to see you! How the heck have you been and whatcha got in your breeding pens lady???? Anything Pink can't live without?

 

[pinkchick]

For Debbi~

I think he is part turkey just like Bill was....what say you?

 

[Sylverfly]

I think I have a few somewhat nice birds to work with in this group they are only 14 weeks old or so, I'll let them grow out and see how they look then. Right now they are defiant hoodlums they think the cool spot to loiter is in the nest boxes, everyday I chase them out of them and everyday they are right back at it again, I've explained that the boxes are for the big chickens and that unless you are laying an egg get your pooping butts out of there. My pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears...teenagers, lol.

 

[heath_elisha]

Don~ Here is that young Black Copper male that you liked. He is getting some color coming in on the hackle and the saddle, albeit, very dark, but the barn is beautiful and I'll take it! Will work on color and comb later.
If I didn't know better, I would swear that he was my large male, Bill looking right back at me. This male is the great great great grandson of Bill. I'm in love!

I'll trade you! lol He is handsome!

 

[CluckyCharms]

I'm hoping you Marans fans will be able to explain an egg color question I have. The thing is...I want some Wheaten Marans, but my husband wants *dark* (8s and 9s only) eggs.

Through all my searches, I have found only 1 breeder of Wheaten Marans that are consistently laying 8s and 9s, and that is only due to a sport roo they were blessed enough to hatch out and placed into their breeding program. All the other Wheaten Marans I have seen, are laying 6s and once in a great while I've seen some 7s...but mostly 6.

I'm curious, is this because I simply haven't found enough breeders of this variety to see more with 8s and 9s - or does this lighter egg they are laying have something to do with the wheaten color? If so - what is it and how can you improve (darken) the color on these wheaten eggs? I was also curious about the golden cuckoo Marans, since theirs are also a lighter brown than the FBCMs. Shouldn't the varieties be bred in such a way to be standard not only in type, but egg color production as well - before calling it a variety?

What makes the eggs in certain varieties of Marans so diluted/washed out looking - and are there people out there who are trying to get the eggs of their breeds of this variety darker, or is everyone just going on type and color of the actual bird?

Curiosity questions...glad I'm not a cat.

 

[Hens and Roos]

I think I have a few somewhat nice birds to work with in this group they are only 14 weeks old or so, I'll let them grow out and see how they look then. Right now they are defiant hoodlums they think the cool spot to loiter is in the nest boxes, everyday I chase them out of them and everyday they are right back at it again, I've explained that the boxes are for the big chickens and that unless you are laying an egg get your pooping butts out of there. My pleas seem to have fallen on deaf ears...teenagers, lol.

I have some younger ones that do this too-cockerals too...go figure