Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Oopsie post... sorry.

 

[pinkchick]

HEY! You stole my chicken! LOL. She's pretty. I have a girl who ALMOST looks like her, only she's a blue cuckoo. Her barring is not well defined though, which I personally am happy about. I hate being dizzy. She's a fat girls she is... And this is Strutter. I have never been so impressed with a roo since I have my Mr. Fluffers, a faverolles... Strutter very nearly Matches him in personality. Very laid back and gentle. He will stand up for himself though. He's between 12-15 pounds I'd say, stands as high as my knee.

DON~ Is this a good example of the narrow hackle stripe that you were talking about?

 

[desertmarcy]

This is sprigs, I believe this is from the Penedesenca blood that has been mixed into the Marans in the past. Aka: Carnation comb or King's Comb.
This is very hard to cull from your flock. It took me almost a year and a half to eliminate this. What was sad, is that it came from birds that I brought in to my original flock to add new blood and silly me.....I trusted the recommendation they came on and then BLAMMO!!!! Carnation combs everywhere.
I had to single mate everything and everyone...........I ended up culling all but just a few of my birds and am still rebuilding very slowly. I still keep my eye out for that comb and since then it is the very first thing I watch for.

Carnation comb, that is the term I was trying to remember. I do not see it listed in the SOP, though, so is this a made up term, or am I missing it? Basically it is just a form of sprigs you are saying? Sending you a PM.

 

[NovaAman]

I got Strutter from a friend. I do not know where she got his egg from. I traded a faverolles boy and to buff laced polish for them.

 

[SIMZ]

What do you guys think of my guy here? He is now about 22 weeks old.

Things I think I see: Good -He seems to have a nice, wide stance. Not so good -He has that "halo" thing going on with his hackles.

Questions: How is he type-wise?

Thanks for any comments good or bad!







He is missing the very back part of his comb. One day it was hanging off in a straight cut - we think the other rooster got him.

 

[blackbirds13]

I had to cull my Marans flock a couple months ago. I am wanting to restart and have ordered some BCM eggs to incubate. HOWEVER I am contemplating Splash Marans also. I was wondering if anyone could recommend some breeders (you can PM me) as I would like from different sources. I am NPIP and that's proving problematic. From what I have researched the best examples do not have the gold in the hackle. How difficult or problematic is this to breed out or find a flocks without it or is it really as big of an issue as I read? If I were to mix my flock that's what I would be getting if I had a Black Copper roo over the Splash girls, correct? But what if I did a Splash roo over Black Copper and Splash girls then I could maintain a splash flock still have some darker BCM eggs with Blue and splash offspring but I'd have to buy hatching eggs each spring to maintain the black girls. Does this sound like a good idea? Thanks.

 

[desertmarcy]

I had to cull my Marans flock a couple months ago. I am wanting to restart and have ordered some BCM eggs to incubate. HOWEVER I am contemplating Splash Marans also. I was wondering if anyone could recommend some breeders (you can PM me) as I would like from different sources. I am NPIP and that's proving problematic. From what I have researched the best examples do not have the gold in the hackle. How difficult or problematic is this to breed out or find a flocks without it or is it really as big of an issue as I read? If I were to mix my flock that's what I would be getting if I had a Black Copper roo over the Splash girls, correct? But what if I did a Splash roo over Black Copper and Splash girls then I could maintain a splash flock still have some darker BCM eggs with Blue and splash offspring but I'd have to buy hatching eggs each spring to maintain the black girls. Does this sound like a good idea? Thanks.

It does not sound like a good idea to me to get hatching eggs each spring. Why would you need to do that, the hens will lay for years. And every time you bring in new stock/different lines, you introduce variables into your breeding that do not always produce the best results. You'd be opening up a new can of worms each time you did that.

 

[3riverschick]

Quote: Desertmarcy is correct. Marans are now emerging from years of "creative" breeding ( which included some poorly thought out crossbreeding to other breeds). The last 6 years ,dedicated breeders have done a wonderful job of setting traits in strains and winning at the shows in top competition. Mixing strains like you want to do is a step backward because of the color balancing in the BCM and the need to set traits if you want birds which show consistent breed type..
Pick a show strain and line-breed it. The Texas Trivimerate of Peggy Taylor, Ernie Haire and Beverly Robertson are just 3 of these breeders who have worked so hard to create show quality Marans in several colors. April Howington of TX is also tearing up the shows with her Marans.
Beverly Robertson Marble Falls, TX ; http://maransunlimited.com/
Ernie Haire , Arp, TX ; http://www.poultryshowcentral.com/tx-marans.html
and http://marans2xl.com/index.html
Peggy Taylor at Rocky Springs Farm in Huntington, Texas ;
April Howington of TX is really tearing up the show wins. All these folk know each other.
You can get contact info for Peggy and April from Ernie and Beverly.
----------------
2013 Show win pics: http://maranschickenclubusa.com/2013showresults.html Browse thru the months and see who is winning. Looks for repeated wins by the same people. Look for Ernie's " Best Continental Black Copper Pullet" show hen. Just stunning show type. This is the kind of breed type on which you want to line-breed. Contact one of these breeders and listen to them. Buy what they say and if they suggest, strain-cross with one of the other 4 as they suggest. By the time you get 2-3 generations into your breeding program, with their guidance, you will understand how to manipulate the birds' genetics and should have some nice show winners in your flock. " Build the barn first", then paint it. Breed Type counts for much more than color.
Best,
Karen
-----------
"Best Continental" is the same as a Group 1 win at a dog show.

 

[dajen]

2013 Show win pics: http://maranschickenclubusa.com/2013showresults.html

Went to the site and looked at the national pictures. Pretty disappointing that of 195 Marans exhibited that all they could show is 6 pictures. This is a National Specialty!!!

 

[blackbirds13]

I understand fully about the breeding issues. Maybe I was not being clear.
I initially had a BCM flock and rooster I was very happy with but due to some unfortunate circumstances I had to cull.
I am contemplating now restarting with Black Coppers but have been interested in the Splash since speaking with someone who has them, so I was thinking of keeping a Splash flock for now to see if I liked them and hatching out BCMs until I could find a decent enough rooster and hens to start with and then decide if I have the desire to keep both a splash and a black copper flock. I would buy hatching eggs for the BCM until I got birds I wanted to start with since I cannot get to Black with Splash and have no desire for the Blues. Last year I hatched out a ton and was not really happy with a single hen despite the egg color of 2, only my beautiful rooster I hatched from my original GFF birds. It took me 3 years to get to the rooster I had to cull. He was not perfect but he was the best I had ever hatched so I know the journey is not an easy one. I don't mind breeding a splash roo to the black hens in addition to the splash hens as locally the blues will sell and the prices here are pretty low for any chicken but folks like Marans. I just was curious if for splash there was an issue with the gold hackles as I only intend to keep the splash birds from these initial matings and am not interested in Blue Coppers or if the colored hackle in the Splash is an issue if I was dealing with BBS Marans and not Copper Marans. I'm looking to start with the best I can if possible. I really did not want to get into a debate on how my personal breeding choices would affect the wider world of BCM breeders and the like especially as there is no standard for Splash and I fully grasp the BCMs issues. I thank you for the responses but it's not quite where my musings were going.