Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Chickendeal~
Mossy is when on the blue or black body plumage (usually down the back and on the wings) you see a brownish kind of stippling. In some lines of Marans the mossy disappears as they mature and in some lines of Marans it does not go away. I personally will not use a bird that is mossy for breeding. Many believe that it is linked to another variety of Marans or another breed that has been crossed into the Black Coppers.
I have had a few of them when I had birds here from other lines and what I can say is that from my experience the females grow out to be lacking in copper most of the time and have lots of brown underfluff....but they do lay some nice colored eggs. The males I have had have grown out to be too light in the hackles, like brassy and the males I grew out and the one photo'd below matured with a cinnamon wing triangle and white in the hackles. The cinnamon color in the wing triangle told me there was Wheaten crossed into the mix somewhere in the genetic background of that particular line.

Here is a photo of some mossiness on a male that I had that I from a line that produced all sorts of unfavorable traits.

 

[pinkchick]

Donna~ Good news about your dad! YAY! Glad he is home and doing okay.


Don~ Good to see ya around again. Hope all is well on your end!


Vicki~ What lovely little chunkies you have running around! Great hatch!

 

[gilavina]

Mornin Kim! Got your email, I'll get those seeds out to you now that I have your address.
Glad you like the chicks, I took the last three out this morning and shut off the incubator. I'll get it cleaned and start collecting eggs for the next batch. I just wanted to wait a bit so that I could stagger the hatch a bit more and so that the last of the hens would be cleared from their old pens for collecting. I really love what I'm seeing!

 

[pinkchick]

2 Blue Copper chicks hatched from the 6 eggs that I put in the incubator from the Splash Copper hen I borrowed back from my BFF. They are adorable and have good markings and the leg feathering is WONDERFUL! That Willie boy of mine sure does throw nice shank feathering.

She is now on clean out and will single mated to Lil' Bill my Blue Copper male.
The Blue Copper gal that I also borrowed back has just started laying again and she also needs a bit of help in the egg color dept., however they are heavily speckled, which I love, but the overall egg color needs to be just a smidge darker.

 

[gilavina]

2 Blue Copper chicks hatched from the 6 eggs that I put in the incubator from the Splash Copper hen I borrowed back from my BFF. They are adorable and have good markings and the leg feathering is WONDERFUL! That Willie boy of mine sure does throw nice shank feathering.

She is now on clean out and will single mated to Lil' Bill my Blue Copper male.
The Blue Copper gal that I also borrowed back has just started laying again and she also needs a bit of help in the egg color dept., however they are heavily speckled, which I love, but the overall egg color needs to be just a smidge darker.

Can't wait to see pics lady!

 

[pinkchick]

Mornin Kim! Got your email, I'll get those seeds out to you now that I have your address. 
Glad you like the chicks, I took the last three out this morning and shut off the incubator. I'll get it cleaned and start collecting eggs for the next batch. I just wanted to wait a bit so that I could stagger the hatch a bit more and so that the last of the hens would be cleared from their old pens for collecting. I really love what I'm seeing!

No hurries! Just remembered that I hadn't sent the address yet. Things are a bit crazy around here right now.

I too am waiting for another couple weeks for clean out to be over with the 2 hens from my friend.

If time allows I need to get updated shots of those Blue Coppers you asked me to mark and watch. They are growing like weeds!
I believe I have 4 pullets, but a couple of them are super huge, so the jury is still out. The other 3 of them are DEFINITELY cockerels.

 

[gilavina]

No hurries! Just remembered that I hadn't sent the address yet. Things are a bit crazy around here right now.

I too am waiting for another couple weeks for clean out to be over with the 2 hens from my friend.

If time allows I need to get updated shots of those Blue Coppers you asked me to mark and watch. They are growing like weeds!
I believe I have 4 pullets, but a couple of them are super huge, so the jury is still out. The other 3 of them are DEFINITELY cockerels.

Sounds great, would love to see them! I sure hope that they get some nice copper on them for ya

 

[pinkchick]

I have 7 goosie eggs in lockdown right now due to hatch on Monday.....after that I need to break down the 'bator clean it and hopefully will have some more eggs to put in for some test matings.

I should have broke it down after the last hatch, but still had all those goose eggs and the eggs in there from the Bettyz......so I put it off for another day.


My goslings that hatched 2 days before Easter were stolen from me by their father when I had them out in the yard on Easter. LOL! Hoping he will adopt the ones in the 'bator too.......why should I raise them if he is willing to do it.
Wish he would raise the chickers too.....

 

[Madra Olc]

I did of experimental breeding out of curiosity and have a few hens i really like. Only problem is describing them to a friend I realized I didn't really know what color they were

. And before any tangents start about crossing colors understand I don't show and I breed for genetic fun, and the occasional pretty chicken. Tell ne what you think of them please. And they look a little beaten but my rooster is a bit of a go getter. Thanks!

 

[gilavina]

Mornin Everyone!

Got the last three chicks out of the incubator and have it shut off, now onto workin on getting the garden planted with all the cold tolerant plants. Taking a lunch break quick and will head back out. Its just a beautiful day here! Cool enough to work hard, but warm enough to enjoy it, just perfect for working.