Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Runawaylobster]

Anyone remember this chick that I asked about last year around February?




Here he is 1 year later.





What is he? Anyone know?

He hatched out completely yellow and turned this orange color as he was feathering out. Oh and I forgot to mention that he had several black dots that went down the back of his neck and on his back when he hatched almost like dorsal strips but, dots instead.
This male belongs to my bestfriend and is not from any of my birds just for clarification.

is he a black tailed buff? He looks quite a bit like mine, but mine are still babies..

 

[pawtraitart]

is he a black tailed buff? He looks quite a bit like mine, but mine are still babies..

He doesn't look pure BTB. My guess is that he only has one copy of the Columbian gene.

 

[ursid]

I'm in southern NM. Can anyone reccomend where i could purchase bc maran chicks or eggs? I could drive to west Texas or eastern AZ. Thank you for any help Very best wishes

 

[ashandvine]

How long has she been laying? About how many eggs has she given you altogether? Also, what were her first eggs like? Color, shape?

She has laid four eggs over about a week. They seem to be progressively getting lighter at this point. They are certainly the typical ovoid shape. The spots are very nice in their shade. Now if only the rest of the egg could be coated that way.

 

[Keara]

Barb, I believe it is all connected, heavy feathering and middle toe feathering, and the web fluff. Since you mention it I think all of the ones I had were males also. I guess we need to start documenting some of this stuff. I know I do myself.

agree, I have only seen middle toe feather on males so far.

 

[pinkchick]

She has laid four eggs over about a week.  They seem to be progressively getting lighter at this point.  They are certainly the typical ovoid shape.  The spots are very nice in their shade.  Now if only the rest of the egg could be coated that way.

If these are her first 4 eggs, she is still working everything out.......give her about a month of laying to get her groove on.

 

[pinkchick]

agree, I have only seen middle toe feather on males so far.

Just to touch on this subject briefly....I have seen fluff on the web and middle toe on both male and females. I believe I have some photos of females with it......when I find them I will post them, but will say that I do tend to see it more often on the males vs. the females.

 

[pinkchick]

He doesn't look pure BTB. My guess is that he only has one copy of the Columbian gene.  

Thank you both OHMamma and Pawtraitart for your opinions of him. He hatched out of eggs that were suppose to be BCM..........but I hatched out half of the eggs my bestfriend got and the ones I hatched out here were all over the board and they definitely have Wheaten in them. I posted photo comparison of a couple of the chicks that I hatched out last year on NYD 2012 and what they look like now a couple weeks or so ago and believe you me they are not pure BCM.

Oh and OHMamma....I mistakenly congratulated Ashandvine for winning at the show and it was you I meant to congratulate....so CONGRATULATIONS!

 

[pinkchick]

Here are the babies I just hatched out.

The Blue Copper is from my eggs (I am pretty sure its a pullet) and the Splash babies are from Raven.

They are VERY friendly chicks, already eating out of my hand and cuddling up under it. Haven't had chicks this friendly since I hatched out Delawares.

The photo with the arrow is the Splash chick that differs in color compared to its to other siblings. See the difference in her coloring, she seems more silvery blueish vs the yellow of the other 2.

They already have primaries and secondaries that are very well developed...probably because they took an extra couple days to hatch...but if wing feather sexing works with Ravens birds then I have 2 males and the silvery one is a female. YaY! We will see pretty soon.

Thank you Raven!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Here are the babies I just hatched out.

The Blue Copper is from my eggs (I am pretty sure its a pullet) and the Splash babies are from Raven.

They are VERY friendly chicks, already eating out of my hand and cuddling up under it. Haven't had chicks this friendly since I hatched out Delawares.

The photo with the arrow is the Splash chick that differs in color compared to its to other siblings. See the difference in her coloring, she seems more silvery blueish vs the yellow of the other 2.

They already have primaries and secondaries that are very well developed...probably because they took an extra couple days to hatch...but if wing feather sexing works with Ravens birds then I have 2 males and the silvery one is a female. YaY! We will see pretty soon.






Thank you Raven!

Awww how adorable!