Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Quote:
I put the wheezing/sneezing hen back out in the shop with the other 3 GFF birds last night. She had started eating better, and I felt like she was putting on weight. All 4 birds are getting gallimycin in their water; one of the roos is sneezy to. The good news is they are all eating well, and still have no other symptoms. I can tell the roos have grown in the 4 days they have been here. They loved the cranberries, which looked very festive with the spinach I gave them as well. They are all very eager to eat the eggs with the turmeric and cinnamon each night. This morning, I was glad to see they drank a good amount of the medicated water. Hopefully we will start to hear less wheezing and sneezing soon.

After much looking online I think the birds all have a mycoplasma. It is the only thing I can come up with that explains the sneezing/wheezing as the only symptom. Which is very funny because a human version has been going around at work and, I am just getting over it myself.

Glad to hear that you are medicating. I scanned a page out of my chicken health handbook on mycoplasma for you but I can't seem to get it copied over to the thread. I'll figure it out I hope, it's probably some of the same info you read on line but a helpful read.

 

[aussieheelr]

Now back on topic....do you have any photos of your boy that shows his tail angle? I really like him and would love to see more of him!

That was the best I could get of him yesterday. Darn bugger wouldn't stop walking unless his butt or face was right at me. I think the wind was making him extra antsy.

I'll try to get some better ones soon. I can say that his tail set is higher than I'd like... shooting for 45 and it's closer to 55-60* ish.
Also has a white wing feather and a white feather on each toe that you can't see, but I'm hoping that it will go away with his first molt since he's so young. I do love his build and coloring, and from what i see a perfect comb

My BCMs came from Kansas

only place I've had sucess with for shipped eggs.​

 

[The Point]

Quote:
Debbi, I don't have a solid answer but..... my cockerels from the Copper Hackle were crowing at 4 weeks! The pullets from that batch are 5 months and no eggs yet. I don't remember when my Wynette boys started to crow, but not at 4 weeks!!!! Most of my pullets from her started laying at just a little over 5 months.

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
The mossy hen probably has the partridge gene too. She was probably not a dark black chick, but had a reddish hue to her chick fluff when she was hatched. I have one of those too. She could also have the wheaten gene. She's going to go into my layer pen this spring, but I did hatch some eggs out of her because she lays rediculously nice eggs.

As far as the wheatens, yes, a rooster and a hen both have to carry the recessive wheaten gene. I've understood that if BC x BC delivers any wheaten chicks at all:
1/4 wheaten
1/2 are BCs that carry recessive wheaten
1/4 are BCs and won't carry wheaten at all

I have heard, and now I see in my own, that Wade Jeane birds tend to notorious for carrying the wheaten recessive gene than some of the other lines. Teasdales sometimes do as well, but I only have wheaten teasdales any more and no black copper teasdales, so I haven't had that issue. I believe mine have all had the wheaten fluff with the black line on the head and the two black side spine shadow stripes as well - not like a standard wheaten with all yellow fluff. Black copper breeders and some wheaten breeders consider this a fault. Black copper breeders don't want the recessive gene and will cull heavily to rid it, the wheaten breeders are a mixed bag - some cull it because of the other undesirable genes that were passed from the black coppers (a true wheaten wouldn't have the black in the fluff), others believe it is the path to darker eggs and the black in the fluff is immaterial.

BCM's can either carry wheaten OR partridge, but not both. There's only room for two possibilities, and ONE of them has to be Birchen or they wouldn't be BCM at all.
I think that the black chick stripe could be evidence of the Melanotic gene that BCM's are supposed to have, but Wheaten's don't. It is a dominant gene. It is possible that the black chickstripes on wheaten fluff is evidence that the chick originated from BCM/Wheaten crosses that give the wheatens unwanted genes from their BCM ancestry. I believe this is what may also cause the overly dark hens. BCM's carry Mahogany, Wheatens do not. Some folks try to bring in the darker egg laying capabilities of BCM into Wheaten lines without realizing all the genetic baggage that comes with it.

Pink- Bresse chickies are doing well. Same size as the RIR crosses who are 2 days older.

 

[VillageChicken]

Debbi - thanks for the info on your early roos and hens. That was helpful information.

I have two hens with great color and 2nd toe feathering. Does anyone know how hard it is to breed this out? Is it dominant or recessive?

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
Debbi, I don't have a solid answer but..... my cockerels from the Copper Hackle were crowing at 4 weeks! The pullets from that batch are 5 months and no eggs yet. I don't remember when my Wynette boys started to crow, but not at 4 weeks!!!! Most of my pullets from her started laying at just a little over 5 months.

Hi Tannis!

Wow! 4 weeks?? Maybe it's the winter that has the pullets from that hatch not laying yet? I think 5-6 months is plenty long to wait for eggs! I can't even imagine some of those that don't start laying until 9-10 months!

That's a lot of food with no payback, and these birds eat like pigs!!

 

[MNKris]

Did you happen to save any of the shells from these eggs that you purchased? Can you share photos of them?

Here are my current wheaten, blue wheaten, black and blue coppers from Davis / Jeane / Teasdale...

Some of my eggs from the last few days. Typically they are 4s-5s, with the rare 6s. The 1st and 2nd full eggs are 5s, maybe the 1st egg is just slightly darker. The 3rd full egg on the top row is a true 4.

and the darkest ones that I set 24 days ago...all at least 5s for the BCs and BLCs. Some of the wheatens came from 4s. Those two wheatens on the left side with black stripes are cropouts from Wade Jeane black coppers. You'll notice the black stripe on the head on each.

 

[Debbi]

I've got 3 now rocking! May be 4, but not sure if it's my eyes rocking now from staring too long!

 

[MNKris]

Quote:
Debbi, I don't have a solid answer but..... my cockerels from the Copper Hackle were crowing at 4 weeks! The pullets from that batch are 5 months and no eggs yet. I don't remember when my Wynette boys started to crow, but not at 4 weeks!!!! Most of my pullets from her started laying at just a little over 5 months.

Hi Tannis!

Wow! 4 weeks?? Maybe it's the winter that has the pullets from that hatch not laying yet? I think 5-6 months is plenty long to wait for eggs! I can't even imagine some of those that don't start laying until 9-10 months!

That's a lot of food with no payback, and these birds eat like pigs!!

Debbie - Do you have them under lights? I have a switch timer turn on at 4AM and off at 9AM. That way they are getting an extra 4-5 hours of light. This group of mine hatched anywhere from April 10th - May 30th. I got rid of all my older hens this spring. The older ones have been laying since August and they are laying quite well right now - 60-70% layrate /day. That's pretty darn good for marans. The coop is also heated, but I didn't think that affected much. With the limited gene pool in marans, I can't imagine anything I have is much different than yours? Maybe it's a light thing...hmmm...

Edited to add...I think marans are piggies too. I can't believe the feed those black coppers go through. The wheatens seem to have a little better conversion ratio, but not much. Compared to my layer Easter Eggers, they eat twice as much!

 

[Debbi]

Kris ~ No, no lights are used here. These gals are just 6 months, and so far only two of them seem to be laying decent eggs. The third pullet keeps laying those awful soft-shelled, rubber eggs, what's up with that?? She gets the same layer crumbles, BOSS, oats, chick grower (in the winter for more protein), and oyster shell as the rest, but so far, she's given me 4 rubber eggs

I don't use heat either, they've been well acclimated and did fine, even in the single digits we've already had this year. If the power were to go out and they lose their heat source, it may be a problem for them. Power tends to go out here at least a couple of times each winter, so it's a matter of the strong surviving here.

By the way, these girls are supposedly a Davis/Jeane cross