Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

Hi Robin, some people prefer a clean leg and some a feathered leg. Some people keep both. If you decide you want the feathering, the feather gene is dominant so you can breed them to a feather legged male to get babies like you want.

 

[WoofMeowCluck]

Quote:
I don't think the wheatens are the scrounge of the marans world at all. The males seem to get very large and have a really striking appearance. The males and females are both very sweet in temperment, I know mine are. My dd is not at all that thrilled with chicks (teenager) but she thinks the male wheatens are the prettiest. She was like, "Wow what kind are those?" A lot of people like thier big 'mane like feathers' the males can be a little lighter in the hackles than the BCMs and get away with it, I think and it is quite striking against thier black feathers.

Thanks flgardengirl! I've seen some wheaten marans that were huge! It will be interesting to see what the final Standard for the marans is.

 

[verlaj]

Hi! Much to my chagrin, the 3 GCM chicks I hatched from pasofinofarm eggs in the spring turned out to be roosters! (So much for the sex-linked coloring - everyone that weighed in on their chick pictures thought I had 2 pullets and a cockerel! If you want to see the chick pictures, see: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=342667)

Well, I at first had ideas of convincing my husband that I should keep the one (ha!) rooster to breed to the 2 (ha!) pullets, because I really wanted this type of chicken and they were so hard to get. Now I have to decide about keeping one or more roosters and trying to get more eggs or a couple of pullets somewhere. I really love these roosters. They are incredibly beautiful and surprisingly calm about being handled - at least now, at 5 months old. I do not want to give these roosters away for food and I'm not going to eat them myself!

I really prefer clean-legged chickens over feather-legged ones. One of the things that drew me to the GCMs from pasofinofarm is that they are clean-legged. I'd like to try to find some more - eggs probably - from a line that has mostly clean-legs. I would order from pasofinofarm again, but I only got 3 chicks from 10 shipped eggs.

I'm throwing this out for suggestions.

2 questions:

1) How is the feather-leggedness inherited? (Maybe this was discussed in the extensive info in this thread or the previous one that was closed.) If I breed a clean-legged rooster to pullets from a line that has feathered legs pop up, will I get all clean-legged birds or not? (I know there is no shortage of people that will take feather-legged GCMs off my hands - at least the pullets!)

2) Are there other clean-legged GCM flocks - closer to me in Florida or even in Georgia to avoid shipping the eggs - that I could get eggs from to hatch and try for pullets?

Thanks for your help in advance, everyone!

 

[verlaj]

Oh - boy - now that I finally got my post up, I see flgardengirl answered my question about inheritance 2 posts up! So I need to find some clean-legged lines of GCMs to get eggs from! Anyone?

 

[math ace]

Quote:
THANK YOU - - that was a great picture. I understand so much better with illustrations. . .

I have never had birds before, so there is a whole new lingo for me. . .

I have never tried to breed anything before either . . .

We have always had animals and usually girls too.

Now Don forgive me for what I am about to say - -- - Don't get your feathers to ruffled

- - -

IN GENERAL, I have found the males of almost every species to be a little more trouble than the females. . .

I had a male dog pee on my artifical christmas tree.
Male pot belly pigs grow tusks much quicker and require more trimming than females.
Male fish tend to be more territorial than the femals.
And I know my one male chicken is a lot noisier than all my females.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I think, just yestday, we were talking about how to get GCM's. If I remember correctly, if you take a BCM and mate to a GCM the off spring will be GCM with poor barring. You will have to take the girl offspring and mate them back to the daddy GCM. Then the second generation from the GCM roo will be GCM with good markings.

If I am right - - - GCM experts jump in here and correct me if I messed up - - - all you need is a clean legged BCM hen and an incubator and you are on your way to a whole flock of GCM. . .

I say clean legged BCM because that is what you are wanting. If you wanted feather legged GCM, you could use a feather legged BCM and you would be in business. . . .

In this area you will have a monopoly on GCM, so you shouldn't have any trouble getting rid of your extras.

Your baby roos were soooo cute. Do you have any update pics ? ?

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
THANK YOU - - that was a great picture. I understand so much better with illustrations. . .

I have never had birds before, so there is a whole new lingo for me. . .

I have never tried to breed anything before either . . .

We have always had animals and usually girls too.

Now Don forgive me for what I am about to say - -- - Don't get your feathers to ruffled

- - -

IN GENERAL, I have found the males of almost every species to be a little more trouble than the females. . .

I had a male dog pee on my artifical christmas tree.
Male pot belly pigs grow tusks much quicker and require more trimming than females.
Male fish tend to be more territorial than the femals.
And I know my one male chicken is a lot noisier than all my females.




Mornin' all!

Lisa, that's funny. I've always had lots of males of many different kinds, and I always find them more predictable than their female counterparts. As long as you know that, 1) they will always defend their territory and mates, 2) they are crazy when their mates are in heat, 3) they are usually larger and stronger willed. Now that's not to say all males are like this, but if you want males of any kind, it's best to think about it before jumping in. All things you listed above are all because they are defending terriotory and mates. Just part of the beast, if you will

 

[verlaj]

Your baby roos were soooo cute. Do you have any update pics ? ?

Yes - well I thought they were REALLY cute when I thought 2 of them were pullets!

My little niece named the "girls" Martha and Maggie after herself and her baby sister! What will I tell her now?

I'll try to get some photos later today of the gorgeous boys!

I'd kind of like to get GCM pullets, if I can. I'm really not set up for generations of breeding. If need be, I will try again with pasofinofarm. (I did lose one egg to a snake and 2 to an accident here, so I guess 3 out of 7 isn't too bad!)​

 

[flgardengirl]

Here is another link on creating the golden cuckoos from the Marans Club of America. The French Marans Club of Australia also tells how I posted that link a few pages back I think. I'm too lazy to look LOL!
http://maransofamericaclub.com/Golden-Cuckoos.php

I traditionally thought males were more trouble but then I had 2 boys and a girl

My dd is way more of 'everything' than the boys lol.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
But isn't lack of leg feathering going to be a DQ?

All they have to do is enter them as English clean leg Marans

Clean legged Marans can be entered, but should be specifically noted as clean legged English Marans and the judge notified that they are just competing in the Non Standard class. If all that is not done, they will be DQ'ed for not having foot feathers.

Walt