Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[OneMountainAcres]

Ok FBCM question. When do Wattles usually begin to come in or start turning red? My two obvious roos have had large red combs and Wattles for the past two weeks. They're all just over 6 weeks old now and one of the two that I believe to be pullets is starting to get pink Wattles. They're still very small but turning pink. The boys Wattles are fairly large and very obvious. Should I expect that she is also a he or that she's a fast developing she?

 

[ladycat]

Ok FBCM question. When do Wattles usually begin to come in or start turning red? My two obvious roos have had large red combs and Wattles for the past two weeks. They're all just over 6 weeks old now and one of the two that I believe to be pullets is starting to get pink Wattles. They're still very small but turning pink. The boys Wattles are fairly large and very obvious. Should I expect that she is also a he or that she's a fast developing she?

I can usually tell them apart by looking at their combs and wattles by the time they're a month old. Some of the roosters will be obvious before then, but by a month you can pretty much tell them all apart.

 

[tbmorgan]

Hi All,

I've been lurking on this thread for quite some time, ever since I got my first Marans hatching eggs. I want to know everything I can about this breed I have chosen! That being said, I have a question about a few of my chicks and it may have been addressed in this thread but it would take me too long to go through almost 50K posts to find the answer! I was told by the man I got my eggs from that they are from Bev Davis's line and that he got his original Marans directly from Bev herself and has had a closed flock for the past 5 years. That being said...I got about 6 or 7 eggs each of black copper, blue and splash, the black copper eggs being the darkest (about a 7.) Almost all of them hatched out and I got a nice combination of blacks, blues and a couple of splashes. BUT....out of 3 of my darkest eggs (supposedly black) came these gorgeous chipmunk colored chicks! I did some research and found that the Golden Salmon color looks like that as chicks, but how would I get that out of a (supposedly) pure Black Copper pen? And also, what do they look like when they start to feather in? I'm posting a pic of one of my chipmunk kids at birth and at 3 weeks, with feathers coming in. Just trying to figure out what I've got here!

One of my chipmunk chicks (I have 3) at 2 days old:


and today at 3 weeks, feathering in. What the heck is she??




Any insight is appreciated!

Thanks,

Katja

 

[ladycat]

Hi All,

BUT....out of 3 of my darkest eggs (supposedly black) came these gorgeous chipmunk colored chicks! I did some research and found that the Golden Salmon color looks like that as chicks,



Katja

I can't answer your question but I wish some Salmons would pop up like that for me!!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Hi All, I've been lurking on this thread for quite some time, ever since I got my first Marans hatching eggs. I want to know everything I can about this breed I have chosen! That being said, I have a question about a few of my chicks and it may have been addressed in this thread but it would take me too long to go through almost 50K posts to find the answer! I was told by the man I got my eggs from that they are from Bev Davis's line and that he got his original Marans directly from Bev herself and has had a closed flock for the past 5 years. That being said...I got about 6 or 7 eggs each of black copper, blue and splash, the black copper eggs being the darkest (about a 7.) Almost all of them hatched out and I got a nice combination of blacks, blues and a couple of splashes. BUT....out of 3 of my darkest eggs (supposedly black) came these gorgeous chipmunk colored chicks! I did some research and found that the Golden Salmon color looks like that as chicks, but how would I get that out of a (supposedly) pure Black Copper pen? And also, what do they look like when they start to feather in? I'm posting a pic of one of my chipmunk kids at birth and at 3 weeks, with feathers coming in. Just trying to figure out what I've got here! One of my chipmunk chicks (I have 3) at 2 days old: and today at 3 weeks, feathering in. What the heck is she?? Any insight is appreciated! Thanks, Katja

I'm still new to chickens especially marans so don't take this to heart but she looks an awful lot like my little Princess who is a Brahma/marans cross. The breeder that I bought my marans from just gave her to me extra(probably because she's a mix). She was a little chipmunk too. Here are her pictures for weeks 1-4 and the last one is today at 6 weeks old.

 

[ladycat]

I have two Black Coppers from one bloodline that have been laying the darkest eggs of all my BC's. Near the beginning of their lay cycle, the one on the left got very close to a #9, and the one on the right was about #8. The eggs held those colors for a long time. I have been VERY pleased.

They've both been laying for a while now, and both started losing color in the last few weeks, but the one on the right started getting significantly lighter over the last couple of weeks.This egg from yesterday is the lightest she has laid.

The one on the left is also getting lighter, but is still pretty dark.

I've been setting all the eggs from both of these hens, but now I'm going to be setting just the ones that are holding the color pretty well, and from those I will choose my roosters for next year.

 

[CarolinaSkies]

Hi All,

I've been lurking on this thread for quite some time, ever since I got my first Marans hatching eggs. I want to know everything I can about this breed I have chosen! That being said, I have a question about a few of my chicks and it may have been addressed in this thread but it would take me too long to go through almost 50K posts to find the answer! I was told by the man I got my eggs from that they are from Bev Davis's line and that he got his original Marans directly from Bev herself and has had a closed flock for the past 5 years. That being said...I got about 6 or 7 eggs each of black copper, blue and splash, the black copper eggs being the darkest (about a 7.) Almost all of them hatched out and I got a nice combination of blacks, blues and a couple of splashes. BUT....out of 3 of my darkest eggs (supposedly black) came these gorgeous chipmunk colored chicks! I did some research and found that the Golden Salmon color looks like that as chicks, but how would I get that out of a (supposedly) pure Black Copper pen? And also, what do they look like when they start to feather in? I'm posting a pic of one of my chipmunk kids at birth and at 3 weeks, with feathers coming in. Just trying to figure out what I've got here!

One of my chipmunk chicks (I have 3) at 2 days old:


and today at 3 weeks, feathering in. What the heck is she??




Any insight is appreciated!

Thanks,

Katja

You are a very lucky Marans owner! Those certainly look like Golden Salmon Marans. The feathered and pink white legs point them to GSM and not Welsummer or something else. They are from the +e allele, wild type, which is recessive to the ER BCM allele. The person that you purchased eggs from must have had a hen and rooster each that were ER/e+. Unfortunately, because they came from BCM's, they will most likely carry the Ml Melanotic and Mh Mahogany modifiers which need to be sifted out to obtain a pure GSM...at least that is my understanding. But, they are amazing to watch go from their cute chipmunk stripes through a funky stage into gorgeous tan, stipled hens with salmon breasts. The same thing happened to me last summer and I'm hearing about GSM's popping out this year. PM me if you'd like to find out more. : ) Very excited for you! Skies

Also, the Marans Club of Australia and the Marans Club of France websites have very good descriptions of them.

 

[lawatt]

speaking of unusual chicks, i took some new photos yesterday of my mystery yellow chicks that hatched from birchen marans eggs -- here's what they looked like at hatch:


and here they are, as of yesterday, at about 5 weeks old -- definitely NOT turning out to be recessive white sports!:




their mom is a birchen pullet but who has some duckwing parentage, and these two have been described as looking like a silver wheaten pullet and a duckwing cockerel (along with one birchen chick, in the first two photos). i will keep following them as they grow -- fascinating genetics!

 

[RorieRiveter]

I've had Cuckoo Marans on 2 separate occasions, from different breeders, and in both cases these girls liked to stray from our yard by scaling a 4' fence, leave poopie in my neighbors' yards, and eat anything even vaguely resembling food, including rat poison from deep inside bait boxes. Their eggs are gorgeous, their wandering proclivities not so much. I have thirty other hens who all seem comfortable in their expansive fenced in yard, complete with varying shelters, shrubbery, greens, and plenty of food and water. If anyone has any Marans not prone to wandering, I'd love to get in on it.

 

[ladycat]

I've had Cuckoo Marans on 2 separate occasions, from different breeders, and in both cases these girls liked to stray from our yard by scaling a 4' fence, leave poopie in my neighbors' yards, and eat anything even vaguely resembling food, including rat poison from deep inside bait boxes. Their eggs are gorgeous, their wandering proclivities not so much. I have thirty other hens who all seem comfortable in their expansive fenced in yard, complete with varying shelters, shrubbery, greens, and plenty of food and water. If anyone has any Marans not prone to wandering, I'd love to get in on it.

That's odd. The very first Marans I had was a cuckoo- not a hatchery bird, this was the real thing and she laid a wonderful dark egg. I had to pen her up because she would wander away for long distances. A neighbor down the road complained.

That was the hen that got me interested in Marans.

I have some cuckoo chicks now, but they will be confined.