Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[KirstieJG]

hmm i am thinking now that it might be better to cross him with my blue egg laying columbine for green or blue egg layers. Its always nice to have a multi coloured egg basket

 

[KirstieJG]

I do like the barred hens so I am happy with the offspring being barred and i would really like an olive egg layer.

 

[KF0002]

hmm i am thinking now that it might be better to cross him with my blue egg laying columbine for green or blue egg layers. Its always nice to have a multi coloured egg basket

That might be better if you are looking for green eggs. That cross would probably produce green egg layers. But I'm not really savvy in the easter egger department. You could take a barred pullet from that breeding and put her with a non-barred easter egger roo to possibly produce sex linked chicks? But I could be wrong on that.. this genetics stuff is a pain in the rump. lol

 

[KirstieJG]

the sex linkage was more out of curiousity, I raise them all then eat the males when they get all crowy!

 

[KF0002]

A blue egg layer mated to a dark brown egg layer (Marans) will give you olive eggs. If you like barred olive eggers, you will need to find a dark egg laying line of cuckoo marans and breed them to creme legbars for barred Olive Eggers.

 

[scflock]

I posted on the Cuckoo and White Marans forum but so far haven't gotten a reply yet so I figured I would try here. I am new to french cuckoo marans, and marans in general. The lady I bought my eggs from sent me 13 eggs, all but 2 had very nice fairly dark color. The two lighter eggs were a creamy brown with dark freckles, and I almost didn't set them but wanted to get as many chicks as I could get. Long story short, after throwing out a few early quitters (one of which was one of the lighter eggs) I had 10 that looked good. Then there was a power outage the day before lockdown and I only ended up with 6. Out of the 6, one little dark cuckoo pullet came clean legged. Out of the others that were feather legged there are 2 nicely feather legged roos, 1 sparsely feather legged roo, and 2 sparsely feather legged pullets. In the pictures of the parent stock, the roos have good feathering on their legs and the hens' legs are pretty sparsely feathered. So that needs to be improved in this line for sure. I also want to breed for the darkest egg color I can achieve. That is my goal with my black coppers as well. Mind you, my chicks are just roughly 2 weeks old. I was able to sex them at hatch because barred birds are generally easy to sex at hatch. So far it is looking like I was correct with sexing.

My question is this: Should I cull the clean legged pullet from my planned breeding pen or maybe just use her as strictly a layer? I want to keep the two roos with good feathering on their legs (one in the main pen, and one for a backup), and definitely the two feather legged pullets. I will cull the roo with sparse feathers on his legs. Or would you go ahead and breed off the clean legged pullet just this one year and then cull her once I get a few more feather legged pullets from the bunch? I will be culling any clean legged chicks hatched at birth in an attempt to breed the clean legged gene out of this line.

We are pretty strict when it comes to what goes in our breeding pens for other breeds, so that part of me wants to cull the clean legged pullet. I just want to get the two cents of some experienced Marans breeders.

I would love to hear any thoughts. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

I think keeping her as a layer would work, but I wouldn't hatch her eggs. That's just that many more you have to watch for down the road.
I would really like to see pictures of them. I have cuckoos, but I have hatchery stock. I bought them before I learned about SOP. They are my favorite all around breed I own, but they are clean legged, and lay eggs that sometimes don't even qualify as marans. I would love to see some SOP cuckoos that lay dark eggs

 

[KF0002]

I think keeping her as a layer would work, but I wouldn't hatch her eggs. That's just that many more you have to watch for down the road.
I would really like to see pictures of them. I have cuckoos, but I have hatchery stock. I bought them before I learned about SOP. They are my favorite all around breed I own, but they are clean legged, and lay eggs that sometimes don't even qualify as marans. I would love to see some SOP cuckoos that lay dark eggs

Thank you for your input! I think I agree too. She is the sweetest one in the bunch though so I will keep her around in my layer pen. I don't know how close my cuckoos will look to SOP once they mature but they will be a project for me. The parent stock looked good and healthy. I have fallen in love with Marans and sadly there are not any breeders in my area that halfway care about breeding them to SOP. So it will be my goal to breed as close as I can get to SOP. The BCM I looked at locally lay light brown eggs like hatchery stock and the lady was asking $50 per dozen!! My Marans stock, all chicks 1.5 months to the youngest chicks I have being a week old, have come from breeders I've purchased as eggs and I have some straight run BCM chicks coming in March I have paid dearly for. lol. I took some pics of my cuckoo chicks, and will post more as they feather and mature. I had to look at my calender because I have chicks coming off every week, but they were born Jan 26/27 so a little over two weeks old. I didn't take pics of the cull rooster or clean legged pullet, just the ones I plan on using for breeding. Their legs are still a little yellow from hatch but they are slowly getting lighter. The parent stock was white/pink legged.

Rooster

Pullet

Pullet

Rooster

Same rooster as previous pic

 

[scflock]

Thank you for your input! I think I agree too. She is the sweetest one in the bunch though so I will keep her around in my layer pen. I don't know how close my cuckoos will look to SOP once they mature but they will be a project for me. The parent stock looked good and healthy. I have fallen in love with Marans and sadly there are not any breeders in my area that halfway care about breeding them to SOP. So it will be my goal to breed as close as I can get to SOP. The BCM I looked at locally lay light brown eggs like hatchery stock and the lady was asking $50 per dozen!! My Marans stock, all chicks 1.5 months to the youngest chicks I have being a week old, have come from breeders I've purchased as eggs and I have some straight run BCM chicks coming in March I have paid dearly for. lol. I took some pics of my cuckoo chicks, and will post more as they feather and mature. I had to look at my calender because I have chicks coming off every week, but they were born Jan 26/27 so a little over two weeks old. I didn't take pics of the cull rooster or clean legged pullet, just the ones I plan on using for breeding. Their legs are still a little yellow from hatch but they are slowly getting lighter. The parent stock was white/pink legged.

Rooster

Pullet

Pullet

Rooster

Same rooster as previous pic

Thanks. I would really like to see pics as they grow. I bought my cuckoos and BCM before I learned what to look for. I scrapped the BCM flock and ordered chicks from a breeder this year, but I'm keeping the cuckoos. That rooster is the best I have ever owned, so he stays

I would love to have cuckoos that laid dark eggs

 

[KF0002]

Thanks. I would really like to see pics as they grow. I bought my cuckoos and BCM before I learned what to look for. I scrapped the BCM flock and ordered chicks from a breeder this year, but I'm keeping the cuckoos. That rooster is the best I have ever owned, so he stays

I would love to have cuckoos that laid dark eggs

From what I have been told, hatchery stock cuckoos can't hardly be beat as a staple laying flock. So for that in itself would be worth keeping them around for. When my cuckoos start laying I will post pics of their eggs. Their egg color and leg feathers will be a work in progress, but I can't wait to see their eggs. The eggs I hatched them from were pretty dark for the most part though not the super dark eggs like BCM. I will gladly ship eggs once I get a few batches of chicks from them.

 

[scflock]

From what I have been told, hatchery stock cuckoos can't hardly be beat as a staple laying flock. So for that in itself would be worth keeping them around for. When my cuckoos start laying I will post pics of their eggs. Their egg color and leg feathers will be a work in progress, but I can't wait to see their eggs. The eggs I hatched them from were pretty dark for the most part though not the super dark eggs like BCM. I will gladly ship eggs once I get a few batches of chicks from them.

Besides my AMs, my cuckoos are my best sellers. I just make certain that anyone buying them doesn't expect "chocolate" eggs. They are very reliable layers, the eggs are enormous, and they have the best dispositions of any of my 7 breeds