Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[lildinkem]

Whatta about us Birchen Boys? I have my program in nearly stall out speed till I know more of the importance of this variety.
Luckily I did have one baby with Bruno. I think he is an Upgrade. I call him Upgrade. I have 3 Black girls to use IF we have a future in the Marans world. IF not, who knows what?

He is 6 months old or abouts

Bruno is his daddy

 

[Debbi]

Wow! See what I missed painting the new coop! Welcome Ms. Davis, we are honored by your presence here!!

I am new to the breed, but have been learning a great deal from these folks, and can't wait to read all of your input! One question I have, there seems to be a lot of questioning about the true color of the hackle feathers on the roos. Some are calling for copper, some are referring to mahogany, and then there is the golden reddish color. Seems I read that the mahogany was not desired? Are we talking the color of a US penny when they refer to the "copper" color? Thank you and welcome aboard!

 

[BevDavis]

Hello Everyone! I have great hopes for our new Marans forum.

And a big to Ms. Bev Davis! Many of us here are great admirers of your work with this breed.





Hi

Thank you!

I find breeding chickens so interesting and there is always something to learn about them.

Bev

 

[haTHOR]

i am also very interested in a discussion of hackle color.

geebs, you asked for updated pics...well i guess i should be too nervous to show my birds with ms. davis here but i am just gonna swallow the anxiety and share anyway. i'm just starting with the breed this year and the only way i can learn and grow is by asking dumb questions and not being afraid to be imperfect and ignorant of certain things.

this is one of two pullets. i find her striking. very little color at this point, 12.5 weeks.

#2 pullet...same age. she got all the color her hatchmate did not. i think this girl is exactly what y'all are referring to with the term "mossy". hopefully i'll be able to get some dark eggs out of her for eating and selling to eat, if she doesn't lose it later.

#3, cockerel...am wondering what his color will be like as he grows.

#4, cockerel, way too many points (i see 8, is that correct?) but a good attitude. he is starting to look more and more delicious.

#5, this was the mystery bird which for so long vexed a few of us who were trying to figure out sex. saddle feathers with color are now FINALLY coming in, so i believe this is a roo. just going with my GUT, not trying to create a show bird line (remember i am interested in creating/breeding a utility flock), i think this is the roo i will end up keeping. mostly due to the much larger size than the other males, and i love his attitude. wonderful blues and greens in the black on this male, unlike the other two.

still waiting to see what happens with these roos, but getting closer to deciding who will be culled...comments are welcome of course! i have five more who are just 6 weeks and at the ugly as sin stage, so i hope to get a couple more pullets out of those, and maybe a better roo if it comes down to it and none of these turn out to have merit worth keeping.

 

[ve]

Hi, ms Davis. Glad to see you here. Can you tell me how to get rid of side sprigs(sp) on comb. I have 5 hens and one roo.Roo and 2 hens I bough from you at Newnen this year.They started to lay few days ago and the eggs are very dark.I have 3 older hens from Janes line.One has side sprig on comb and I think others are hiding it too.I had 3 boys from same hatch and they all had it.Is it warted to use these 3 hens or to look for new blood?

 

[racuda]

I'm hoping to join the Marans club in about 10 days. Out of a dozen shipped eggs, 3 are developing. Wish me luck on getting a trio!

 

[BevDavis]

Hi

I would just like to say how nice it is to be posting on this group. I have visited and read some of the mail before but never had the courage to post until Wynette invited me today. Let's make this a place to learn about Marans and enjoy our chickens. No one has a perfect bird and no one has a perfect child although some of us think we have. If you have a question, please ask and someone will answer. If you have a picture of your bird we would all like to see it, we all like to look at chickens. There is nothing to be ashamed of if our chicken has a fault, someone might tell you how to breed that fault out, it surely will have a lot of good things about it as well.

I am English so some of my language will be a bit strange to you so please bare with me.

The Wade Jeane line of black coppers does throw white, wheaten and salmon chicks. In the case of the wheaten and wild type chicks it is because the males all look alike to the untrained eye and the wrong male has been used in the past. All the three colors have recessive genes which means that if both parents carry that gene that is what you will get. If both Mom and Dad are black coppers and carry a recessive wheaten gene you will get a wheaten chick. Some people won't like this, they will say they haven't got pure Marans. Other people will think how lucky they are.... another color!

Bev

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
The first thing I noticed is the feather shafting. Take a close look and you will see a light strip down the feather, this is shafting. It would not surprise me if they had some PENE in their background somewhere, not trying to anger you.

 

[delila]

Hi, I am new to Black Copper Marans. They are very pretty. My question is can the be sexed when they are a few days old?

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Not unless someone is trained to sex chicks. It usually takes about 30 days for mine to easily sexed.