Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Lotsapaints]

I have some laying now I could have sent chicks with Cheryl on Sunday.....

 

[key west chick]

If anyone has or know of someone who has 3 or 4 POL or laying BCM's a few hours from North Ga, please let me know. Im working on a project and am in dire need of some. Poor quality fine as long as they will lay dark eggs. I also posted this in the wanted to buy section, just thought someone here might read this and not the other.

 

[ga_goat]

I have a trio of BCM 's in the pen , they are not old enough to lay yet , I have a question and I'm sure it has been asked/answered before but the search feature isn't very good . Now in terms that an old country boy can understand ,, exactly is the difference between a BCM and a FBCM .
the ones I have are black body with a copper ( light ) color getting more copper the higher it goes up the neck and have feathered feet but not to excess and then only on the outside of the foot , they should start laying soon rooster has been crowing for about a month now and started breeding the hens last week .mine have single straight combs .

 

[flgardengirl]

French BCM has feathered leg and outer toe. Non French has clean shanks.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
i am going to differ with flgardengirl on this one - ---

about 6 months ago I would of agreed with her answer, but not now.

There use to be the "English" BCM and the "French" BCM. The main difference between these breeds was that the "English" does not have feathered feet and the "French" do.

That has changed now BECUASE we are trying to get the "AMERICAN" standard passed. It most closely resembles the "French" BCM with feathered feet. In America, we are mostly concerned with the American standard because that is the catergory we will be judged in. So, when you hear BCM in America - - - they should be referring to "American" standard BCM. THIS IS VERY NEW - - - so some are still using BCM to be the "ENGLISH" non-feathered standard BUT given a short amount of time BCM in America should mean "AMERICAN" standard BCM which should mean feathered feet.

NOW I will return you to your regular schedule program

 

[ga_goat]

Quote:
Thanks I guess I have FBCM's then . , hope these turn out better than the cuckoos I bought in Feb this year they look right but my RIR's lays darker eggs , so I ate the rooster and just put the hens in the layer pen .

 

[geebs]

gagoat: so you bought hatchery Cuckoos huh???

 

[Kenshan1]

My hatchery Cuckoo Marans have just started laying the week of Christmas, nice early present

2 of my SLW's are laying also but their shells are weak & not as pretty. This is my first yr with chickens, first eggs out of my projects so this is fun. My Cuckoos seem to be more reg 1-2 a day (although I do have 5 CM's & not sure who is laying), eggs seem very dark & shells every strong. The eggs are tiny according to the scale (just shy of small) but hoping that will change when we get out of winter. My 2 SLW lay every 2 days.

Here is a picture of our first eggs, you can see the color difference. The white eggs are store bought large.

Here is our hen only flock. The very dark CM on the bottom left of the picture, she is my talker. She's first to alert that I am coming to check on them, the rest don't do much talking until I talk to them first.

Shannon

 

[math ace]

I am going to be setting a few of my EE's eggs with the BCM maran over her. . . .so I should be hatching some olive eggers. If it is easy and convient - - - would you post a picture of your olive eggers so that I have some idea what the chicks could look like when they mature . . . . .

I am really kinda stoked over this . . . The EE is one of my fav's and I can't wait to see what her OE chicks will be like !
My EE looks like KENSHAN1's EEs in the previous post .

 

[pinkchick]

Math~
Your OE's could run the gamit because you are using an EE. What you want to watch for is a peacomb on the offspring. The peacombed ones are going to be your olive eggers provided that your EE lays a blue or blue/greenish egg. You will get both single combed birds and peacomb, the single comb birds will lay a brown egg and sometimes it is as dark as a 5 on the Marans chart but most of the time they lay a 3-4 egg. There is something like a 3% chance that a single combed bird from this cross will lay a blue egg or in this case an olive egg. The peacomb and the blue egg gene are so closely parked/linked in the DNA parking lot that with out one (the one being the peacomb) you don't get the other, being the blue egg. You will be able to see the who has a different comb upon hatch and dry out. But keep in mind that you do not want to cull too soon as sometimes they can have a peacomb but it's more prominent than a regular pea. I have a couple of girls that I can snap a photo of their combs for you but it won't be until later today.

Now don't even ask why some EE's can have a peacomb and lay a tan or pinkish egg....that's a whole 'nutha topic.