Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Good morning!

  Sitting here on the 3rd of December, with the front and back doors open; it's 62*! Looks like it will be warm pretty much all week, then the bottom falls out next Monday, when they are calling for snow and cold! No shocker, it does happen every year, but I am enjoying the warm while I can!

Kim,  Yes, Charlotte and Olivia both have dark eyes, and the dark face. I already got the one chick, Kiwi, from Olivia, same dark face and the deformed coxcyx (sp?) tail bone with the down pointing tail. So, both will probably just be layers here too.  I believe they were both out of the GFF hens. Like you said, live and learn. So then that will leave me with 5 possible breeding hens, once the blue girl Gabby, and Wheatie Pie grow up. Then to get more Wheaten eggs and possibly an older roo for Wheatie, so I don't have to wait forever for the eggs to grow out.  I'd be interested in seeing your friend's Wheaten eggs, and birds too!  Here I go again....

Will post photos of her eggs if she has any. She has a ton of them the last time I was there, but she gives them to the church she lives next to, so I will call her this morning and ask if she will save some. I was surprised at the egg color, too bad the eggs are bullet shaped.

 

[Debbi]

Bullets are ok, not optimal, but as long as they are dark I can handle it! If you can, can you get some pics of her birds?

Also, are her birds from actual Wheatens, or did they originate as "sports"?

 

[pinkchick]

Debbi~ They Wheatens....not sports. They are from Davis lines and she has a couple hens from Jeane lines.


This is that hen I just culled. Does she look similar or what?

 

[math ace]

Pink,

You wanted to know how I selected marans as one of the breeds I wanted to work with.

First, I visited this web site... http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

I was looking for any breed that was friendly and laid decent size eggs on a regular basis.
I wanted something that could handle our hot Florida summers, too.


I started my backyard flock with Marans, Speckled Sussex, Welsummers, Partridge Rocks, Gold and Silver laced wyandottes, white leghorns, and easter eggers.

I didn't start out to do any breeding. My goal was a backyard flock for eggs. Green egs, white eggs, brown eggs.... EGGS... . . IT was EGGS, but not neccessarily DARK CHOCOLATE eggs... Just a variety of eggs!


The only thing that I was committed to was that I didn't want any mean birds on my property!

 

[pinkchick]

For Vicki~

Here are those other 2 Birchen pullets. Never heard back about that Blue Birchen male.

Oh and it will 5 years with Marans in June, not the spring, sorry about that.

 

[math ace]

Speaking of mean birds, the first breed that got eliminated was the wyandottes. BULLIES... I say! Those girls were nasty. They got even more nasty when they went broody!
The next breed that left my property was the welsummers. They weren't mean, but they weren't friendly.


I got chicks BEFORE I found BYC. I knew NOTHING about chickens before I got started. Go Figure, one of my EE's turned out to be a cockerel. BYC helped me figure out why my EE pullet looked so different from all the rest LOL.. I repeat, I DID NOT have any intentions of breeding my birds.

 

[Debbi]

Ah, yes! Could be her twin!

 

[math ace]

The gauntlet was thrown down. The challenge was issued when I found this thread on BYC. . . . I learned so much from you, Don, Geebs, and Wynette.

By this time, the marans were one my favorite breeds. PERSONALITY was what it was all about! It didn't matter what color eggs you laid, if you were nasty, you were culled! I just loved the way these large birds look as they come running to you for treats. I think I wanted some eye candy when I started looking for chickens. Eggs and Eye candy. Hence the original selection of partridge rocks, speckled sussex, and wyandottes. . .


The speckled sussex won my heart too. I started a thread on breeding SQ SS on BYC. Before that, there wasn't one. However, there doesn't seem to be as many people working with the breed and the SOP like there is with the marans. Don, helped me get a really good feel for this breed too. I LOVE the looks of these birds, but am not bonded to them personality wise. I have seen so much variety in the roosters, from mean as a rattlesnake, to mellow, to very shy. The hens are wild children that love to free range beyond the limits of the other breeds. They don not have the "pet" type personality that I have experienced with the marans.

The last big focus on my property is the delawares. The delawares may end up being my favorites. Egg size is great, egg production is wonderful, and personality is surperb on the hens and roosters. This breed will be with me FOREVER... The only thing that bothers me with them is their white feathers get so nasty looking so easy! I do prefer a dark bird....

 

[Debbi]

Speaking of mean birds, the first breed that got eliminated was the wyandottes. BULLIES... I say! Those girls were nasty. They got even more nasty when they went broody!
The next breed that left my property was the welsummers. They weren't mean, but they weren't friendly.


I got chicks BEFORE I found BYC. I knew NOTHING about chickens before I got started. Go Figure, one of my EE's turned out to be a cockerel. BYC helped me figure out why my EE pullet looked so different from all the rest LOL.. I repeat, I DID NOT have any intentions of breeding my birds.

Ooooo, that sounds so familiar!

 

[math ace]

Ooooo, that sounds so familiar!

It's terrible in a way... Now that I have been educated, I look at every bird looking for faults. I don't pick them up just to enjoy them and hear them talk. Instead, I pick them up to see what color their undercoat is, to spread their wings and see if there is any white in them, to judge their weight, AND NOW thanks to Vicki, I will be looking toe nail color LO L ...

I just held my SS cockerel. I held him in such a way so that I could look at his head straight on... Looking at the comb, looking at the beak, and judging the overall balance of the head on the body....

To think there was a time when I couldn't tell a cockerel from a pullet..... Those were the good ol' days when chickens were just for eggs for breakfast!