Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

OoOoO she's so pretty!
Isn't it funny how when you cross some of these breeds the resulting offspring attributes are so much better than the individual parents! I crossed phoenix with ameraucana and the resulting males all had way longer tails than the phoenix father's tail. They are just as chatty as the phx males though. They follow us around talk up a storm every time we go outside, jabber, jabber, jabber! They are the 'narcs' of the barnyard- always telling on someone.
Definitely call them Marsex that's so funny

That is going to be a good cross. I have thought about crossing the silver sussex into the birchens to clean them up and give them size as well. The problem here is the egg color on my birchen Marans is not so great in the first place. The sussex would give them size and get rid of the mossiness etc but then I would still have to deal with the egg color which means probably crossing in blacks too. Seems like an awfully long project lol. I do have my silver sussex in with my blacks and blues because she would be lonely otherwise. She bosses all the marans around and pulls out the black male's tail feathers. He is afraid of her, he's such a weenie.

 

[flgardengirl]

I have a few blue hens, like cocoa, that have good lacing but doesn't come through on the males for some reason. Now that I have more blacks to work with hopefully I can get better blue males as well. One of my blue males had really great lacing as a cockeral but it kinda faded away after the adult molt, no clue why...I lost some of my blue hens over the summer too so not as much too work with so I desperately need to hatch out more chicks!!

 

[gilavina]

OoOoO she's so pretty!
Isn't it funny how when you cross some of these breeds the resulting offspring attributes are so much better than the individual parents! I crossed phoenix with ameraucana and the resulting males all had way longer tails than the phoenix father's tail. They are just as chatty as the phx males though. They follow us around talk up a storm every time we go outside, jabber, jabber, jabber! They are the 'narcs' of the barnyard- always telling on someone.
Definitely call them Marsex that's so funny

That is going to be a good cross. I have thought about crossing the silver sussex into the birchens to clean them up and give them size as well. The problem here is the egg color on my birchen Marans is not so great in the first place. The sussex would give them size and get rid of the mossiness etc but then I would still have to deal with the egg color which means probably crossing in blacks too. Seems like an awfully long project lol. I do have my silver sussex in with my blacks and blues because she would be lonely otherwise. She bosses all the marans around and pulls out the black male's tail feathers. He is afraid of her, he's such a weenie.

yeah, that cross is really nice. I processed all the males from the cross at about 3 months and they were so much beefier than both the sussex and the marans are at that age. I'm going to keep working on them and would like to continue working on the blue birchen pattern still. The body type on her is just stellar, a good compromise of both

The birchens are a challenge. I don't know if I would cross onto the sussex if you are looking to improve the birchens. They are in such rough shape in general that I would think it might set you back indeed. I'm starting to see improvements in egg color, but know I still have a ways to go. Will get there eventually tho

 

[gilavina]

I have a few blue hens, like cocoa, that have good lacing but doesn't come through on the males for some reason. Now that I have more blacks to work with hopefully I can get better blue males as well. One of my blue males had really great lacing as a cockeral but it kinda faded away after the adult molt, no clue why...I lost some of my blue hens over the summer too so not as much too work with so I desperately need to hatch out more chicks!!

I agree, definitely need to hatch more chicks!!

 

[mikeypalone]

Some one else that has blue/birchen,so I'm not all alone in the world of blue/birchen Marans. I have been hoping all year to come across these at the shows,but it has been a lonely world. Do any of you show the blue/birchens?

 

[blackbirds13]

Blackbirds13, The BC males does not appear to have any DQs so you should get some nice chicks if your females are nice.

Thanks all for the responses!
I really like him...and the fact that I hatched him from my own eggs does add a sentimental factor that made culling him difficult - glad I didn't earlier. So, I'm gonna have to seek out some more females as I have only 1 that I REALLY like so I'll be seeking eggs and chicks.

Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and happy hatching in the new year!

I love this hobby (okay, addiction) always some new challenge to look forward to!

 

[gilavina]

Some one else that has blue/birchen,so I'm not all alone in the world of blue/birchen Marans. I have been hoping all year to come across these at the shows,but it has been a lonely world. Do any of you show the blue/birchens?

I have been working on the birchens for about 3 1/2 years now, and showed some blue and black birchens for the first time this fall here in Lincoln, NE. Depending on where you are, there may not be many Marans in general. I'm one of the only ones that raises them out my way. Where are you located?

 

[mikeypalone]

Sorry for the delay,had to go to work. Time to plow snow. I'm in north central ky. There were black birchen at the Ohio national but I had the only blue birchen. There are varieties of Marans around here but not too many showing. I took part in 30 shows across 9 states and have not seen another blue birchen. I decided since that variety was not in the s o p yet that most people were not interested in showing them. Next year I'm going to stay with the larger shows and hope to come across some.

 

[pinkchick]

Some one else that has blue/birchen,so I'm not all alone in the world of blue/birchen Marans. I have been hoping all year to come across these at the shows,but it has been a lonely world. Do any of you show the blue/birchens?

I have been trying to get into Blue Birchens for a couple years, couldn't find any and when I did find someone that had them, they agreed to sell me some and then never got back to me. So over the last couple years I have accquired a few different lines of Silver Birchens from a few different breeders and am now finally happy with the birds I have from the last breeder I purchased from. I am going to try my own little project and cross one of the Silver males to my Splash Copper hen to see what I get. It will be a long project breeding out any and all copper and/or gold and cream leakage, but since I can't get the bird/s I need to start with, I am going to give this a go. Got nothing better to do anyway and if I don't like what the birds are producing I can always just stop, right?


hiding back under chair 'cause I just know that Vicki and Don are going to me up long side the head for attempting this project.

 

[pinkchick]

Hi FLGARDEN! Good to see you round these parts again!