Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[winniem13]

Quick question...am I correct to assume that egg color is solely based upon the female? As in, a marans rooster bred to any hen will not make the eggs darker, or am I wrong? Or can the rooster contribute to the color of the egg too????

 

[flgardengirl]

Rooster egg color genetics are just as important as the hen's.

 

[pinkchick]

Quick question...am I correct to assume that egg color is solely based upon the female? As in, a marans rooster bred to any hen will not make the eggs darker, or am I wrong? Or can the rooster contribute to the color of the egg too????

Hi! Welcome to the Marans thread!
Egg color genetics come from both female and male. It is very important that the roosters hatched from a dark egg as well as the hens to keep good egg color in the offspring.

 

[desertmarcy]

Not to go off current topic, but I just got some great photos of very brown underfluff on some birds that I hatched out on NYD 2012 and thought I would share some photos of 2 of the mature birds from that hatch.
Just to be clear these birds are not my birds and not from any of my birds, they were suppose to be from the same lines as my most beloved and terribly missed, Bill, but thankfully I found out that they were not from Bill's lines shortly after hatch.
I have these 2 females back right now because when I hatched them out and they started feathering in, I didn't want them. My best friend wanted them instead for their dark eggs and let me say this, these 2 lay some very nice colored eggs, though they haven't given any up since they got here a month ago. Anyway, my bestfriend asked me if I would breed them to my Blue Copper boy Lil' Bill because she would like some blues and doesn't care what the bird looks like, just wants the eggs.


#1 as a chick

Now as an adult...............
note the brown fluff, shafting and what seriously looks like LACING on the upper breast.





#2 as a chick

Now as an adult..............
note the red eye color, may not look very red in the photos but trust me her eyes pretty red, also the white feathering around the head and face. She also has brown underfluff but it is not nearly as much as the other one.

Pinkchick, what is the white looking stuff on the comb of that last hen pictured? I have some birds with combs that look like that and am concerned it is a fungal infection--favus or yeast--I just got finished treating my two Black Copper Marans cockerels for suspected favus and now I'm completely paranoid and looking at all the combs. I'm seeing white flakey stuff on combs that look just like that, what it looks like is skin peeling off like after you have a sunburn. It sure has slowed down my breeding program, having to wait until the males' combs look okay before I put either in with my blues. I'd already put one male in with the BCMs and so far everything seems okay, but I sure don't want anything going through all the birds.

 

[flgardengirl]

Is it yeast or just dry skin? If dry skin, organic coconut oil (you can get it in a jar at walmart for like 7 dollars) works really good. Or you could use vaseline or bag balm. For fungal infections the generic yeast infection cream or capsules (melted down) seem to work really good. I had a roo that got a yeasty white stuff in the fold of his earlobe and someone told me to get the ladies yeast infection cream and it worked!!! LOL I have also heard of people using it for sour crops that are due to fungus.

 

[pinkchick]

Pinkchick, what is the white looking stuff on the comb of that last hen pictured? I have some birds with combs that look like that and am concerned it is a fungal infection--favus or yeast--I just got finished treating my two Black Copper Marans cockerels for suspected favus and now I'm completely paranoid and looking at all the combs. I'm seeing white flakey stuff on combs that look just like that, what it looks like is skin peeling off like after you have a sunburn. It sure has slowed down my breeding program, having to wait until the males' combs look okay before I put either in with my blues. I'd already put one male in with the BCMs and so far everything seems okay, but I sure don't want anything going through all the birds.

I have no clue what it is but I can say as I have been watching these 2 birds grow and mature at my bestfriends house, their combs have always looked like this. These are the only 2 birds that she has that have this. It does not seem to go from one bird to the other in her flock, it is something I am watching, haven't seen it change for the better or for the worse. I have not seen it peel like a healing sunburn...it has always just looked like this. Time will tell if it will be transferred to my male that I just put in with them. I have them locked up far away from the rest of my birds and if I see anything on Lil' Bill I will treat him for it.
The Splash Copper hen I just got back from her that I gave her a couple years ago has a perfectly normal comb.


Have you treated your birds that show this with anything for it? Just wondering if have and what you used if you did.



Also......would love it if others would chime in about it if they know.

 

[pinkchick]

Is it yeast or just dry skin? If dry skin, organic coconut oil (you can get it in a jar at walmart for like 7 dollars) works really good.  Or you could use vaseline or bag balm.   For fungal infections the generic yeast infection cream or capsules (melted down) seem to work really good.  I had a roo that got a yeasty white stuff in the fold of his earlobe and someone told me to get the ladies yeast infection cream and it worked!!! LOL  I have also heard of people using it for sour crops that are due to fungus.

Thanks for posting this Flgarden! I was wondering about an anti fungal cream if it is a yeast infection, I have some Tinactin foot cream that I could try on it just to see what it does. What do you think?
I also thought dry skin, but it doesn't flake. Shouldn't it flake at some time or another if it were just dry skin.
Wonder if I should try just a cococut oil first and see if it helps and if not, then try the fungal cream.

Coconut Oil is GREAT STUFF BY THE WAY......also the whipped Coconut stuff that is like shortening is wonderful. I use that instead of shortening or oils...but boy howdy that stuff in expensive....$28 dollars for a gallon of organic at the health food store.

 

[desertmarcy]

I have no clue what it is but I can say as I have been watching these 2 birds grow and mature at my bestfriends house, their combs have always looked like this. These are the only 2 birds that she has that have this. It does not seem to go from one bird to the other in her flock, it is something I am watching, haven't seen it change for the better or for the worse. I have not seen it peel like a healing sunburn...it has always just looked like this. Time will tell if it will be transferred to my male that I just put in with them. I have them locked up far away from the rest of my birds and if I see anything on Lil' Bill I will treat him for it.
The Splash Copper hen I just got back from her that I gave her a couple years ago has a perfectly normal comb.


Have you treated your birds that show this with anything for it? Just wondering if have and what you used if you did.



Also......would love it if others would chime in about it if they know.

Well this is a long story. I had a lady come out here to visit who is a "chicken consultant" from Chicago and I was showing her my birds and she said, what's wrong with that rooster's comb, she said it looked like favus. This is what it looked like:


Sorry I don't know why that photo came out sideways.

Anyway, I did a lot of reading on the web and BYC and decided she was right. Now my career before I retired was as a clinical microbiologist, so I thought I would do some scrapings and look at it under the microscope and see if there was any fungal elements---but problem was, I had no 10% KOH to dissolve the skin cells (which leaves the hyphae intact so you can see them through the skin cells) so I knew it wouldn't be definitive. Didn't see anything, but based on the look, decided to treat with athlete's foot cream. I used terbinafine hydrochloride because that is supposed to work faster. OK, 4 tubes of cream, $30, and 2 weeks later, after treating twice a day--I thought this just is not working and I can't see doing this for 2 more weeks, so after reading some more I tried the heavy guns approach. This was an old treatment (1918 published) remedy of mixing formalin 5% by weight with melted vasoline, mix, then spread. I treated 3 times, once a day just before they went to roost so they wouldn't rub it off. The problem is, I can't access the original paper and what was said on the web did not say which strength formalin was used--did he use straight 37% or did he use 10% (which is really 3.7%)? And it did not say how long you had to treat, so I treated 3 times and then wait and see. I used 10% formalin, I only had about 5 ml left in a bottle from when I used to work in a lab----but found 37% available on Amazon, apparently used to treat fish, so I ordered that. Formalin is pretty nasty stuff, I used one of those little 3" plastic flat spoons for ice cream samples, I had saved a bunch of those because....well they just looked useful, and I found it to be a perfect spreading device to put the vasoline on their combs without me smearing it on with my fingers and getting formalin on myself, it is after all, listed as a carcinogen. Their combs look a lot better!

Now I am paranoid. I read that this is most common on birds with large combs, well my Marans' combs are huge--I would like to breed them smaller, but for now they are what I have to work with. I'm looking at combs on all the males. A lot of them look dry. I don't know if this is fungal or dryness, but it doesn't look normal. I used CeraVe cream on them which I have for myself, it is a nice moisturizing skin cream. They looked a lot better the next day after I did that. But now they look flaky. I'll try to get some photos. I am spending a lot of money trying to fix this. Ordered some 10% KOH and methylene blue for diagnostic tests, but the KOH won't get here for another 7-10 days. In the meantime, I don't want it to get out of control. Thinking all start smearing vasoline/formalin on combs but I hate to do that unless it is necessary.

Also I wonder where it came from? Those two Marans have only been in two places--a large grow out pen and then they were moved into my chicken condo. This is a big series of 4'x4'x7' high pens that are all linked together in a framework of 1" steel square tubing, welded together. I bought the unit from a local guy who raised and showed chickens for 20 years but got out of the hobby since his kids were all grown and out of 4H, etc. Now I'm wondering if the fungal spores were there. There is no wood in the unit--it is all built with the steel tubing, then either corrugated metal roofing for tops and dividers and sides on some of them, and on other pens he used coroplast (corrugated plastic like election signs are made of). Plus it is so hot and dry here in the summer. It seems like a pretty inhospitable environment for spores to hang out and survive. I don't know how long the pens were vacant before he sold to me, but I think it was a year or more since he had a lot of these he built and he sold the others, and this one he was going to keep but then decided to sell it, too. I've been kinda afraid to call him and ask, Hey did you ever have problems with your bird's combs? I took one of these Marans cockerels to the Tucson poultry show in November, and his comb was fine then.

Sorry this is so long! I know it probably should be in the diseases thread---but you folks are so knowledgeable here! Maybe you have some suggestions.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Auto sexing and sex linked I believe are 2 different things.
I might be totally off and hope someone corrects me if I am wrong, but to my knowledge, no Black Copper Marans are not auto sexing, but they can be used to make sex linked chicks if they were bred to a barred bird.

The only varieties of Marans that are sexable naturally at hatch are Cuckoo. The Wheatens can also be sexed at a very early age, but not at hatch. It takes about a week to 10 days to see the color differences in the Wheatens males and females.

Thank you. Do you know if I breed my BCM to barred rock hens will they be sex linked? Thanks

 

[flgardengirl]

Well this is a long story. I had a lady come out here to visit who is a "chicken consultant" from Chicago and I was showing her my birds and she said, what's wrong with that rooster's comb, she said it looked like favus. This is what it looked like:


Sorry I don't know why that photo came out sideways.

Anyway, I did a lot of reading on the web and BYC and decided she was right. Now my career before I retired was as a clinical microbiologist, so I thought I would do some scrapings and look at it under the microscope and see if there was any fungal elements---but problem was, I had no 10% KOH to dissolve the skin cells (which leaves the hyphae intact so you can see them through the skin cells) so I knew it wouldn't be definitive. Didn't see anything, but based on the look, decided to treat with athlete's foot cream. I used terbinafine hydrochloride because that is supposed to work faster. OK, 4 tubes of cream, $30, and 2 weeks later, after treating twice a day--I thought this just is not working and I can't see doing this for 2 more weeks, so after reading some more I tried the heavy guns approach. This was an old treatment (1918 published) remedy of mixing formalin 5% by weight with melted vasoline, mix, then spread. I treated 3 times, once a day just before they went to roost so they wouldn't rub it off. The problem is, I can't access the original paper and what was said on the web did not say which strength formalin was used--did he use straight 37% or did he use 10% (which is really 3.7%)? And it did not say how long you had to treat, so I treated 3 times and then wait and see. I used 10% formalin, I only had about 5 ml left in a bottle from when I used to work in a lab----but found 37% available on Amazon, apparently used to treat fish, so I ordered that. Formalin is pretty nasty stuff, I used one of those little 3" plastic flat spoons for ice cream samples, I had saved a bunch of those because....well they just looked useful, and I found it to be a perfect spreading device to put the vasoline on their combs without me smearing it on with my fingers and getting formalin on myself, it is after all, listed as a carcinogen. Their combs look a lot better!

Now I am paranoid. I read that this is most common on birds with large combs, well my Marans' combs are huge--I would like to breed them smaller, but for now they are what I have to work with. I'm looking at combs on all the males. A lot of them look dry. I don't know if this is fungal or dryness, but it doesn't look normal. I used CeraVe cream on them which I have for myself, it is a nice moisturizing skin cream. They looked a lot better the next day after I did that. But now they look flaky. I'll try to get some photos. I am spending a lot of money trying to fix this. Ordered some 10% KOH and methylene blue for diagnostic tests, but the KOH won't get here for another 7-10 days. In the meantime, I don't want it to get out of control. Thinking all start smearing vasoline/formalin on combs but I hate to do that unless it is necessary.

Also I wonder where it came from? Those two Marans have only been in two places--a large grow out pen and then they were moved into my chicken condo. This is a big series of 4'x4'x7' high pens that are all linked together in a framework of 1" steel square tubing, welded together. I bought the unit from a local guy who raised and showed chickens for 20 years but got out of the hobby since his kids were all grown and out of 4H, etc. Now I'm wondering if the fungal spores were there. There is no wood in the unit--it is all built with the steel tubing, then either corrugated metal roofing for tops and dividers and sides on some of them, and on other pens he used coroplast (corrugated plastic like election signs are made of). Plus it is so hot and dry here in the summer. It seems like a pretty inhospitable environment for spores to hang out and survive. I don't know how long the pens were vacant before he sold to me, but I think it was a year or more since he had a lot of these he built and he sold the others, and this one he was going to keep but then decided to sell it, too. I've been kinda afraid to call him and ask, Hey did you ever have problems with your bird's combs? I took one of these Marans cockerels to the Tucson poultry show in November, and his comb was fine then.

Sorry this is so long! I know it probably should be in the diseases thread---but you folks are so knowledgeable here! Maybe you have some suggestions.

Thanks for posting this. It is good information to have!!
Does it look that yellow in person? I haven't seen anything that yellow on any of mine. When my roo had something in his earlobe it looked very white.

Pinkchick: I don't think it would have to flake if it was just a little dried out. Some of mine get dry skin especially in the winter when it is cold and windy... but it isn't flaky or yellowish like desertmarcy's roo was.
Love the coconut oil!! Know what the best DEEP conditioner treatment for your hair is??? Heat up about a 1/4 to 1/2 cup (depending on how long of hair you have) of pantene conditioner with about a half teaspoon of coconut oil in the microwave, mix well. It gets hot quick..like 15 secs. Make sure it is cooled down a little just barely warm when you put it on your wet hair. Leave it on about 20 minutes. You will need to shampoo it out and condition as usual. From what I've read, hair is able to absorb coconut oil even better than olive oil or morrocan/argon oil so it works awesome!!

~ back to the Marans Marans Marans I guess you could deep condition their feathers as well lol.