Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[ChickChuck22]

I only yesterday got my first ever marans, a POL French wheaten and a POL French copper black. I am soooooo excited, and have waited so long for them and they're finally here!
Although I will not be showing either, what are peeps' opinions on them. I will try and get some better picks but for now:

 

[snowbird]

just wanted to show off my black splash pullet

This looks more like a Marans mix with something else.

 

[JRNash]

young but colorful

 

[cosorrells3540]

This looks more like a Marans mix with something else.

She was just fluffed out in the pic she had ruffled her feathers. She is also very young still.

 

[MaLoTu]

My one Marans started laying white colored eggs during the winter. They were very sporadic, but I am certain they were hers because they slowly gained color over time and now they are back to chocolate brown. Is that a normal occurrence?

 

[Sessie]

Hello. I'm new. (new here, and new to chickens) I just bought my first chicken from someone local who had too many roosters from her last straight run. He is a Black Copper Marans and she told me that he is six months old and from the Jeane/Grisham line. She says she only got 3 (or 4?) females and the rest were males, but she only has 2 pullets left because the other one (or two?) died. She's got 8 or 9 (well, since I bought one yesterday morning, she's got 7 or 8) left for sale. One is very, very small and totally black; he's nearly the same size as the silkies a neighbor up the road from me has. The others are all roughly the same size as the one I bought. (BIG!! Well, I know next to nothing about roosters, so maybe they're supposed to be as big as he is. He stands about 22 inches high (I am very tall and have a long inseam, and he's just over knee high to my leg), and he looks filled out. (unlike the runtly little black roo)

Ironically, the little guy is THE LOUDEST roo in her yard - and she's got her own mixed breed rooster, as well… Holy moly, that little guy scared the dukey out of me! While I was bent forward, talking to the rooster I finally chose, and the others were lined up behind him, eyeing me curiously, the little bantam-sized guy sneaked up from behind me and planted himself right underneath me, between my legs, and he let loose the SCARIEST and LOUDEST crow I've ever heard… and I've heard plenty since lots of folks hereabouts have roosters! I jumped out of my skin. I let out a slight squeak, managing not to scream. lol And then, all of the roosters crowded around me politely, and I swear they were all laughing at me - very loud and busy clucking that sounded similar, but a bit different, then the hens' clucking did. Were they all laughing at me?! The little guy strutted off to the far side of the rooster pen and turned to face me, and kept crowing loudly for a while. He was clearly quite proud of himself.

I have some questions, and I tried reading through this entire thread, but I just can't! Good grief! Perhaps someone can help me out a bit? Besides wanting more about the French Black Copper Marans breed (these BCMs all have lightly feathered legs and to my untrained eyes, they appear to look like the breed is supposed to), I'd also love to know more in general about keeping chickens (especially BCMs) safely and well.

I can't find any BCM hens or pullets for sale locally. The closest breeder is a bit over 2 hours' drive away (maybe a little bit longer). I'll go there if I must to get some BCM hens or pullets.

My goal is the lovely eggs, but I'd also like to learn about breeding them and try it myself. I am a city gal who just moved to the rural countryside 6 months ago (August).

I don't want to knock anyone, and perhaps this happens to chickens with larger combs all the time in places with very harsh winters like we get - but all of her roosters (including her own mixed breed) have a little frostbite along the tippy-tops of their combs. I know this might preclude my being able to show my rooster - but he should breed true, right? She keeps her chickens in one large pen divided down the middle, fenced about 6 to 6-1/2 feet high and covered over the top with sturdy bird netting. Same fencing runs down the middle of her back yard, with more fencing to make two coops inside the pens or runs, but the actual coops are made of wooden slat walls with plenty of openings between the slats. (think about wood pallets with every other slat removed - that's what it looks like) She has solar lights over the top inside the netting (about the size of those clio-on solar flag lights) over the middle of each run. No other electricity, she said I was lucky to have electricity to my chicken coop, and just a large blue tarp tossed over the roof of the coops and draped down the sides of the coop walls; the run walls are left open. I live in the far southwestern corner of Sussex county, NJ - and it gets REALLY COLD here. Often the nighttime lows are low minus single digits - like down to around -7°F or -9°F, and there is often a good amount of snowfall here, as well. I'm wondering if this is ok for chickens and am I worrying about winterizing my own chicken coop far too much, or if I should be doing what I am doing with my coop? There already was a chicken coop here on the edge of my property that the last n=tenants had built. My landlord lives on a horse farm down the road, and his wife keeps chickens. He gave me permission (written into my rental agreement) to have chickens, I asked him to specify and he specified both roosters & hens. I recently asked him for some advice regarding a little work that must be done on the coop here. He describes it as "a large chicken coop". It's about 8 ft wide by 15 ft deep, set at the far edge of my side yard, which is about 40 ft wide by 20 or 25 ft deep. The yard is sandwiched between my house and the chicken coop. It is set up on a hill, high above the road. The house is built into the shale hillside; I live in the Kittatinney Mountains Valley. The last tenant ran a electricity (had a licensed electrician do it) from the house out to the coop, and set a large wooden pole into cement into the ground, and there are motion sensor security lights on it, about 7 feet up. Inside this coop there is a people door set into one long side of the coop (facing the house) and a window, and along the opposite long side, thee is another window and 5 nesting boxes built into the wall. The front short side (facing the road) has the chicken door and a ramp down into a smallish run that is only about 4 feet tall. It is around the front short wall and the long wall furthest from the house. There is a wire fenced area (a supply area?) of about 8 ft wide by about 6 ft deep/long at the rear of this coop, and one bare light bulb inside, affixed to the rafter of this supply enclosure. Or is it a breeding enclosure? I don't know. shrug The coop interior walls are bare wood, outer walls are wooden clapboard, and roof shingles on top. This coop has stood empty for close to 2 years, now. A few vines from the next-door neighbor's garden have climbed up over the run wire fencing and down into the coop roof (or the higher part of the wall?) in one or two places. I need to weather to break for a few days before I can investigate. This week is supposed to be in the mid- to upper-70s. Should this coop be insulated? Or heated somehow? The summer can't be too terrible, because although it can get quite hot, I live on a hillside that is like a wind tunnel; the wind nearly always whips 'round the rear corner of my house on the coop side, when it blows at all. It's decent in the shade, even when temperatures soar to the upper 90s or a hundred-ish degrees F.

I plan on fencing off most of the side yard (leaving a good strip alongside the house from the front to the rear patio) about 6 to 6-1/2 ft high and use netting on top to keep the chickens IN and the many local hawks OUT. I grow vegetables and some small fruit trees (which overwinter inside) in containers, since the ground here is quite rocky and I am already used to major container gardening as I lived my entire 55 years in one or another big city. (Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, & Newark, NJ)

So, is there anything I can do for this rooster's slight blackened comb edge? He isn't in pain and it isn't sore, or anything. Will it preclude me from being able to show him, IF he's got "it"? I'll have to ask you folks if he's all that, or not.

I couldn't bring him home yesterday because I am still working on the basic chicken coop repairs. The lady who sold him to me is fostering him for me for a couple weeks to give me time to get my coop in order. We put an anklet thingie band around his leg so she knows which rooster I chose and paid her for. I have the receipt. I paid her a little extra to keep him for me for the time being. As soon as I bring him home, I'll get some pix of him and post.

Anyone know where is a good place in my corner of the world I might get some BCM pullets? I'll travel within about 2 hours or so, but can't go much further as I am handicapped with a broken spine and a hyper-mobility joint disorder (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome), consequently can't drive, or even sit in a car, for longer than that.

I'll keep reading this thread. Thank you for more immediate answers to some of my questions.

 

[forgetful]

Hello Sessie! Welcome to the forum and to the world of chicken keeping. I'd like to address all of your questions but don't have much time, so I'll talk about weather proofing your coop.

Frost bite is very hard to prevent on large single comb breeds like Marans. I live in Louisiana and applied vaseline to my Japanese bantams' combs and they still got a little frost bit this winter. It doesn't say anything about neglect or mistreatment. Chicken coops don't need insulation or heating. You want there to be adequate air flow so that there isn't a build up of humidity. The humidity is what's dangerous for a chicken. They can handle cold temperatures very well as long as they stay dry. So you want to figure out if you have air flow in your coop and make sure it won't become moist and humid when your flock decides to roost for the night. Secure gaps where the walls meet the ceiling help to funnel moist air out.

There isn't anything I know of you can do for a comb that is already damaged. Maybe someone else has some insight. Depending on the severity of it, I can't imagine you getting more than one or two points deducted at a show for it. I believe it is judged under conditioning.

I'd love to see photos of your new guy and your coop. We could give better advice on your cockbird and maybe some improvements to the coop and run.

 

[scflock]

My one Marans started laying white colored eggs during the winter. They were very sporadic, but I am certain they were hers because they slowly gained color over time and now they are back to chocolate brown. Is that a normal occurrence?

What kind of marans? I've never seen it in a BCM, but I do have a cuckoo that has gone through that

 

[MaLoTu]

What kind of marans? I've never seen it in a BCM, but I do have a cuckoo that has gone through that

Splash ... I found it odd, as well. They went from chocolate, to speckled tan/chocolate, to tanish white, to pale and then back again... That's the only reason I know for sure it was the marans.

 

[scflock]

Splash ... I found it odd, as well. They went from chocolate, to speckled tan/chocolate, to tanish white, to pale and then back again... That's the only reason I know for sure it was the marans.

What time of year? Mine is just returning to normal after laying an almost white egg in early February. Usually after molt I expect my darkest eggs, but this year was the first time I have seen this happen. The girls are 3 years old now, too, so I wonder if their age has anything to do with it