Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

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He looks maybe golden cuckoo crossed with blue. Real pretty coloring. I like that combination. You could put him with the cuckoos... or get some blue girls or some golden cuckoo girls. You will have 'project' birds since they will be crosses of the different varieties of marans.

ETA: Does he have feathered legs? (Hard to tell from the pic)

 

[Hens and Roos]

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I'm test hatching now- we are on day 4 with some Blue Andalusian eggs so if they are good will have some out Dec 6th, if not we will be re-running the testing. DD(10) will be hatching some out for 4-H so we need to know if she will be able to for a begining of Jan 2011 hatch.

 

[pinkchick]

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Hi Spot!

Just me but I would rather work with too many melanizers, a nice tail set and excess white.

 

[marymac]

My goodness this is a long thread. I can't read all of it and probably my answer is in here some place. I am considering getting a couple White Marans pulletts 2-3 mths. old. I know not much about them as I've never had any Marans. Any thing any one can tell me about them would help. Are they a popular breed and are they hard to find, good layers, and friendly?

 

[snowbird]

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The main thing with the White Marans is the size. Most I have seen are small with the High tail set. I bought eggs from someone in your area. Don

 

[pinkchick]

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Math ~
Can you post a couple of photos of them? Unless one of the blues is sooooooo dark it appears black you should be able to tell the difference between the black and the blue birds upon hatch. Post Auntie Pink some pics and we'll get ya fixed up!!!!

 

[snowbird]

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I don't think he said . . . .

geebs, I didn't take anything to Columbus as none were in feather, none of my breeds, I seperated out 40 Buff Brahma female to pick some from and not a fether has dropped as of now, so no Connersville, Indians either. Don

 

[pinkchick]

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I've 6 Marans left after selling a few locally. I think I have only one roo in the bunch. My Blue Copper is the one who throws chicks with a sometimes copper spot on the head,
so I'm surprised you got one of these from my Black Copper. My previous hatch was all about the Delawares and W/BW Ameraucanas...this hatch should give me more Marans
to work with.

My Blue Copper was very dark at start, when I emailed pics of her to my breeder, she said those are the ones that that have the good dark lacing. She has thrown a few that are lighter,
but I mostly get dark chicks out of her, and honestly can not always tell them 100% from the Black Coppers at first. As they feather out they will be more dark gray than black though.

This is my favorite pullet from her, color wise. Her copper does not show up very well in this pic, but she has more than mama. This shot was taken when she was 19 weeks old and she's
not quite the butterball she looks here (I think she'd just done the feather shake thing) but she has pretty good size, coloring/lacing and lighter eyes, which is more difficult to achieve in
da blues, in my experience.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/40145_dsc09838_copy.jpg

Unfortunately, she has sparse leg feathering. I like her egg color though, (she laid the spherical eggs in my previous post) and she has a good comb...so I'm going to work with her.

ummmmmmmmm......LOVE HER!!!!!!!!!

It's my understanding (Thanks to Amazondoc....Thank you Ione!!!!

) that the darker blues with crisp lacing are preferred for the overall color of the blues. Hummmmmm.......now don't get me wrong I love the darker blues but I also love the lighter blues, looks as though I will just have to keep working on some token lighter blues with awesome lacing just because I can't stand to see them left out.

BTW: Lovely eggs you put in the 'bator!!!!! You go girl! I gotta say there is just a great feeling about putting eggs in the bator that came from your own birds.

 

[snowbird]

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Will give you my opinion, sometimes we just have to use what we have in any breed of chicken. Myself I will never breed another great looking BC with white in tail, wing or Hackle no way no how. If you have a high tail Marans just breed to a lower tail female and one with the tail gathered close together and longer back with width. Don

 

[pinkchick]

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LMBO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!