Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Quote:

You funny girl! I don't have a second car, so I'd just take the tractor!

The tractor works too, this would be considered a very fun mode of transportation in my book.....soooo many buttons and levers, yah buddy! DH thinks he bought his tractor for him but the day it was delivered I was the first to start it up and use it.....matter of fact I am the one who uses it the most, but my all time favorite rig is the trackhoe, now that is one fun piece of equipment and never gets a flat. Give me some dirt to punish!

 

[Debbi]

Quote:

You funny girl! I don't have a second car, so I'd just take the tractor!

The tractor works too, this would be considered a very fun mode of transportation in my book.....soooo many buttons and levers, yah buddy! DH thinks he bought his tractor for him but the day it was delivered I was the first to start it up and use it.....matter of fact I am the one who uses it the most, but my all time favorite rig is the trackhoe, now that is one fun piece of equipment. Give me some dirt to punish!

Ooooo! I could use one of them about right now!

 

[Debbi]

n.smithurmond ~ You sound like you are asking for a guarantee in things genetic? It doesn't work that way. Just when you think you have something figured out, you can end up with a surprise you didn't even see coming! Do some test breedings and see what comes out, and have some fun with it. If you don't get the desired results, take another path.

I have one cockerel that displays some of the WIs, but so far, no white fluff in the tail or hackle area. That said, he is young, and after his first molt that may change. If it does, I won't use him. I also have very dark pullets that I want to improve in the way of hackle color. My plan is to breed him to the dark girls at least one time to see what I get. Then I'll take the best pullets from that breeding, and breed them to another roo that does not display any of the WI signs. It may work, it may not. I may gain some good color in the first cross, only to lose it again with the second cross. Just something that I'll have to try. No genetic genius here for sure, but I've had lots of luck in the past watching for signs and listening to my gut. Not in chickens, but in the dog breeding world. Haven't bred anything for over two decades, so I'm struggling with trying to pull any past knowledge I may have had from the old memory banks! In the end, it's all about what makes you happy, and hopefully making improvements as you go. Have fun with it!

 

[flgardengirl]

I have bcms from 4 different sources. So far I don't have any wheatens popping up in any of thier chicks. One group isn't old enough to breed yet so I won't know about them until next spring.
I have a few pure wheatens but keep them penned separately.

I have a question for someone knowledgable about the wheatens.. Are the females supposed to be the darker or lighter wheaten color on thier backs etc.? I think both are pretty but which one is the correct look?

 

[n.smithurmond]

This IS fun!

The endless possibilities are what make genetics so darned interesting!!

What direction I go in with my breeding program at this point won't be determined solely by what others are culling for anyway since I only have what I have and if I waited for perfect birds to start I'd never get started! That said, I'd like to start with the best of what's available to me to save myself a lot of trouble in the long run. I'm sure as I move forward and learn my breeding goals will evolve and I'll have a better idea of what to select for and which genetics to add or avoid. In the meantime, I'm going to bulldog you folks to try and learn from your experience!

 

[pinkchick]

n.smithurmond :

This IS fun!

The endless possibilities are what make genetics so darned interesting!!

What direction I go in with my breeding program at this point won't be determined solely by what others are culling for anyway since I only have what I have and if I waited for perfect birds to start I'd never get started! That said, I'd like to start with the best of what's available to me to save myself a lot of trouble in the long run. I'm sure as I move forward and learn my breeding goals will evolve and I'll have a better idea of what to select for and which genetics to add or avoid. In the meantime, I'm going to bulldog you folks to try and learn from your experience!

Agreed...it's the endless possibilities that are the most fun IMO.

Bulldog away my friend as this is how we all learn.

 

[Cowgirlgrace]

My first batch of BCM was from Wade Jeane and Bev Davis and hatched from nice dark eggs. The roos showed no wheaton traits but the combs needed work, lots of red in the chest and a few other things I can't recall, the hens some were nice but lots of blacks, a few black eyes but they layed nice dark eggs. Well wanted to improve on both roos and hens so culled them all but 2 hens and bought eggs from a breeder that said they were breeding to the standard, culling heavily and only bred the best and they showed nice dark egg color. Well, darn both roos I chose have white in their tail and one has white undefluff in the hackle. And the hens don't lay as dark an egg as the first group. So much for breeding to the standard, wish I had my first group back but they went in to someones stew pot.

APA question. So the APA is cooking up standards to judge the BCM (or brown red) by and they are different than the French. And those that breed and show in the USA will be breeding for the APA standards. My question is, why is the APA coming up with different standards when there is already a set out there? Seems they have been around for a while. After all, France is where the breed originated from. Do they not know anything? Why does the APA not agree with the French? Are we starting from scratch? Maybe it's so hard to find birds that can meet our standards because we are trying to re create them.

 

[TheSpiceGirls]

Two weeks ago, I picked up 4 baby chicks, Buff Orpington, Jersey Giant, Ameraucana and a Coco Maran. The Maran was a tad larger than the others so I assumed she had probably hatched a few days before the others. Well, here we are two weeks later and she's HUGE. She's three times the size of the other three. I can't decide if she's just that much older than the others or if Maran's grow up that much faster?

It's funny to watch because the little Buff Orpi trys to get under her like she's the mom. And she is kind of a bully, flying around and landing on top of the other chicks. Not sure if she's really trying to mother them and discliplin them or my other fear is that she's really a roo and trying to dominate them.

I figure if anyone would know the answer to these, it would be this group.

I have to chuckle when I watch them because the Jersey Giant who's the smallest today, will grow up to larger than any of the others, the Maran included. So I just shake my head and saw to her, "You just wait, cuz you won't be the dominate hen forever!"

 

[geebs]

I just popped on to give a Huge Shoutout to Bethel Farms... Congratulations on your win in Ohio...Nice trophey... I would love to come by and pet it... Hope to see you in Newnan!!! LOL

Charlie's girls are just starting to produce under lights... I am thankful that the dark egg gene moved forward nicely to the new generation. not much time for pictures in my life right now... But Hi guys.. I lurk a little in the eve.s but for the most part am not even getting the post read properly...

Hi Pink

 

[6littlechickies]

HI All!

Just got a chance to download and edit my pics from the Ohio National this past weekend. I have more, but they are non Marans related so I'll hold off on posting those (if anyone is interested, I can send you the link on photobucket, just let me know).

FYI, most of these were from Friday night (except the egg and show floor pics), made the mistake of giving DH the camera on Saturday so he could take pics of all the birds and well, let's just say I've learned NOT to do that again! GRR, not ONE pic of marans! There only a couple there when we left Friday around 9:30pm. We ended up bringing the kiddos (ages 7,5 and 3) so I didn't as much time as I would have liked to take pics. anyway, here's a few I did get..

MCCUSA table pics:

Egg show entries:

Exhibition floor:

sale area:

and now, some bird pics:
Cuckoo Roo #1

Cuckoo Roo #2

Cuckoo pullet, I actually think the first two are of one and the next three are of another:

BCM pullet, pretty sure it's all the same girl (only saw the one Friday night):

I didn't get pics of them but on Saturday I did see several roo's on display, two in particular I remember seeing white feathers in their tails. I only remember this b/c I recall discussion on here about it and I've not seen it in person (as of yet none of our boys have white feathers).