Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[ladycat]

I wanted to get some Black Copper Marans and finally bought them from My Pet Chicken on 4-17-13 and some Blue Splash also. Two of the BCM began laying some beautiful
small dark eggs on 9-15-13

I also got Black Copper and Splash Marans from My Pet Chicken. The Splash do not lay dark eggs.

 

[motherhubbert68]

He is 1/2 your flock. He should be very healthy. Never sick a day in his life. A chick which popped  lustily out of its shell. She should have a masculine silhouette. Great breed type. From a line-bred flock of years duration. From a flock which wins regularly in quality competition.  He should have a clear eye, and properly feathered legs and color of shanks and feet.  His tail elevation should be proper.  Not too high and not too low. Proper tail elevation will help in proper angle of the back.  The BCM is a color balancing breed. It will make things much easier if the cock has extremely proper color in his hackle. It is indicative of how easy it will be to balance color on the rest of the bird. Not side springs on his comb or in any of his ancestors back 3 generations. About a month before you start breeding him to your girls, put him on a daily dose of 1 cubic inch of sprouted forage oats. This will help him create more robust sperm to help him produce more robust chicks. Give the same to your hens too, to bring them into lay. See directions on several BYC threads. Feed them   "green feed" sprouts, which are 4 thru 7 days old. The younger sprouts are called grain feed and won't have the same result.
 best,
 karen

Karen how much feathering on the feet is to much or not enough? What colors am I am looking for Bo' s I believe are black should their be any white feathers on the feet or toe? Do you know where I can find a picture or image of proper coloring and color balance?

Heres a picture of Bo other than the starburst or halo around the neak is this the coloring I am looking for

His eyes although they dont look like it here are a clear amber.

You can't really see it that well in the piture I took but their is coppering here you can just catch a hint of it in the photo.

No white in the feet or leggs but do have a youngster with a sprinkle in the foot feathers

 

[pinkchick]

These are some of our 8 - 4 week old chics and there parents trying to learn how to cull the best chic out for bteeding to french standard ... what should I be looking for?

8 week old roo hatchling

Same roo with sisters will be seperating them soon.

One of last weeks hatchlings.

Proud popa , Bo, No relation to breeding hens.

Bo and his lady loves.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this male has a bad comb. Look at the blade (the very back portion of the comb) and you will see sprigs, many of them. This male should not be used for breeding Marans. This comb issue will spread like wildfire in your flocks if he is used and it is extremely difficult to breed out. I would also take a look at all of the females in your flocks to see if they show any signs of this comb.
Sprigs can happen in any breed of chickens, however, the amount of sprigs this male has and the pattern on the blade of the comb in which they are present is highly indicative of the "Carnation or King's Comb" coming from the Penedesenca breed of chickens. Some Marans have Penedesenca blood in their lineage, but it should not be there.

 

[DMRippy]

a Marans should not have any white feathers....not on the legs toes anywhere. has he gone through his juvies molt?

I can't put a link up but the best coloring I have see came from a male Vicki had. maybe someone can post a link to her pics. she has a black copper with very nice color and type. I think his name is gigantor or something like that. I saved his pic on my computer as as a goal.

 

[Runawaylobster]

OK,,, I am obsessing about brownish underfluff now we had a discussion on the blue copper marans thread..

I am wondering does the fluff get lighter as the hens age? i am sure mine had darker fluff when they were younger,
also i have a cuckoo marans who has gone brown barred after her molt and she was black before!!!

how black does it need to be, I have roos from a couple of sources and none have jet black.. and the
roos are definitely darker underfluff than the girls. I also have my all black hen showing no copper, i was wondering
if crossing her with a really colorful roo might bring back the copper and keep the darker underfluff, but even she has
a brownish tinge to it.

i would love to see some pics if possible that show what is acceptable underfluff color and what is not.. does anyone
else have these observations..

i am wondering if my girls are normal or if their fluff is too brown..

 

[DMRippy]

I am not an expert but I know if you free range they will turn brown in the sun. I have some birds molting but they didn't molt every feather and still look half bad. pretty blue feathers next to old feathers.

 

[pablolucas]

Thanks for the reply, I was aware of that, just bought them because they are so beautiful.!!
Have a great day.!!












Proud owner of a lot of chickens, bronze turkeys, african geese, guineas, 4 cats and 2 beautiful dogs, in sunny (raining a lot) Miami, Florida.

 

[Runawaylobster]

Quote:
now that makes lots of sense to me.. they spend most of the time outside.. and also my blues are getting paler as well so this explains alot. I should have thought of that, i mean being in south florida sunshine is pretty much a given.

 

[Nikki816]

I everyone I'm new to marans. I just got some hatching eggs inthe mail. 17 blue copper/splash copper and 18 black copper. Plus almost 2 dozen black/ blue copper arriving next week ( it was 12+ but he couldn't make it to the PO this week, so he's sending 20 plus on saturday.) I went a little overboard ordering eggs, but I heard shipped eggs can have a lower hatch rate. And i want to keep the best hens and roo i can get. I currently have silkies and just hatched out some barnyard mix for my mom (to test my bator).

 

[gilavina]

Some of the first pullet eggs from this year's hatches. There are black copper, blue copper and black birchen, most of them are birchen eggs. I'm very pleased with the progress on their egg color, especially considering when I started with them, they laid the color of buff orpington eggs.