Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[snowbird]

Quote: KingBee, If you would like post one Marans at a time and post about four pictures and will tell you what I think. I do not know as much as some of the others but will let you know what I see. Now would be a good time to post as the threads are a little slow at present.

 

[gilavina]

Vicki, I really like the picture you have posted lately. Seems as though you have a gold mine with the Marans. Very hard to comment on Marans here unless you want an argument. I have mostly been quiet.

haha I took a break for that reason for a few months. I just had too much going on elsewhere in my life to handle it in the place I came to learn and relax. I'm glad you like the cockerels. I've been working really hard on the males in particular because I've always had good luck with pullets. The consistency across the Black, Blue and Splash coppers has been very good. I do have a question about the coppering on the breast, at what point would that be an advantage if it was under the 10% as described in the standard for Black Coppers? I've not found a correlation with it in my breeding program thus far, and am going by instinct mostly, but just wondering. I had a splash copper cockerel I almost kept with coloring on the breast, but went ahead and culled because I have two others that I really liked. Just curious if they tick all the boxes in the other areas I'm looking for, would you use a male with the over coloring?

 

[snowbird]

Quote: Vicki, The 10% copper in the breast was only in the original draft for the SOP and was taken out later.
I like to use a male with a lot of Copper on the chest if I am going for more color on the female. You would have more cull male from this though. When I hatched all the BC three year ago I had about 80% with good copper Hackle and a lot of the males went to the asian market, all of those female were sold as layers.

 

[DMRippy]

 

 
Start posting picture of front top and side and also from behind and I will help with the culling. After they are feathered the majority of faults will show up.

Thank you Don for the kind offer and I certainly will of the feathered birds but I don't want to impose on anyone too much.  At this time we have about eighty chicks from three weeks to seven weeks and was wondering if there were some general rules of thumb like clean legs, eye color, particular markings, etc I could go by so as not to be bothering ya'll too much.  One of our three month cockerels has gold instead of copper on its neck,  I am guessing an obvious cull but is that a common trait to see?  I will get you a pic today, thanks again!

KingBee, If you would like post one Marans at a time and post about four pictures and will tell you what I think. I do not know as much as some of the others but will let you know what I see. Now would be a good time to post as the threads are a little slow at present.

Don I think you cracked another JOKE. haha

 

[AK FLOCK SWAP]

Can they be improved ..?You think with better lines added eh? Would you just star over,,,?

 

[AK FLOCK SWAP]

In my opinion these birds do not have the proper body type I would use. They are very narrow all the way around it makes them look gamey. If you look the legs are set to far back which maks them front heavy. This is my opinion, your decision.

Can they be improved ..?You think with better lines added eh? Would you just star over,,,?

 

[Broad St Farm]

Vicki, The 10% copper in the breast was only in the original draft for the SOP and was taken out later.
I like to use a male with a lot of Copper on the chest if I am going for more color on the female. You would have more cull male from this though. When I hatched all the BC three year ago I had about 80% with good copper Hackle and a lot of the males went to the asian market, all of those female were sold as layers.

Snowbird,
I thought months ago when everyone was discussing ways to add color to females you didn't feel that a male with excessive color was the answer? I do believe you were dead set against it, that you felt having a solid black chested male with flames was the type of male you preferred? If this is not what you said no biggie. I just thought it was your opinion that having copper in the chest was never your belief for females.

 

[DMRippy]

As I recall snowbird was the one that suggested using a male with copper on the breast to improve color in pullets. not sure who was the opposing view.

 

[MandyFitch]

honestly, I would not worry about what the person said. If they do not know that there are Blue Copper Marans, then I would question how much they can actually tell you about what they should and should not have. Blues can have edging to them, but should not be confused with the genetic term lacing, because there are different factors as play when it is actual lacing. Edging in blues is indeed difficult to get right. I was raised on all types of blue breeds, and getting the tone of blue and edging to the feathers is difficult, but not impossible. Here is a couple of examples of my Blue Coppers with edging.

Gilavina, thank you! Your Marans are gorgeous!

 

[KsKingBee]

KingBee, If you would like post one Marans at a time and post about four pictures and will tell you what I think. I do not know as much as some of the others but will let you know what I see. Now would be a good time to post as the threads are a little slow at present.

Thank you! we will. DW, aka Okie Queen Bee has the ability to post pics so we will have some posted this evening.