Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

Quote: The bator is FULL but not with Marans. I am hatching for chicks to sell and tons of shipped eggs. I think your roos is molting so not sure there is much fertility right now. I may do some test matings and swap him out and may use Erik (the roo that was my avatar) and see what I get. I still have that roo I bought but I am leary of using him in my Marans.... just an unknown right now.

 

[pawtraitart]

So true...but I with the egg color they lay I wouldn't cross the ones I have with anything......it would be too much of a serious set back. I'm going to sell them off as layers and probably cull the male if someone doesn't want him. He is a lovely bird with a great attitude.. he makes a nice flock protector and I adore his crow, it's nice and loud with alot of character. He is also a egg song singer, he perches with the girls while they are laying and while she chatters up a storm...he's encouraging them to no end.

Have you bred these birds back and verified that their egg color can't be recovered in their offspring? If they hatched out of dark eggs but are laying light, then it's possible that egg color was lost by breeding two different lines together. If you breed the best back to each other then the correct egg color genes will line back up if it's there. Just a thought.

 

[Raven1]

Pink if what you have "up your sleeve" has anything to do with Solid Black please keep me in mind I still have not found any. Meh.

 

[kowgurl62]

I was off today, so I was able to get some pics of the Blue Copper rooster I got last year. He is super sweet. I've got him with some hens I hatched last year from him and possibly another rooster. These hens I'm sure have faults, but I'm just hatching egg layers from them, but they are pretty anyway. Just sharing.

 

[welly]

I have a couple of Blue copper marans pullets could you tell me if this darker pullet is still considered a Blue or not.Any help would be appreciated.They are 7 weeks.
Thankyou

 

[OHmamma]

A mix, essentially. Cuckoos (unless golden cuckoo) have a different e allele than black coppers. This cross is the first step to making golden cuckoos.

That would be a Single bar cockerel he will look cuckoo but have some gold sprinkled in his pyle and be dark on the bottom. The little pullets are going to be solid black, but they will carry the gold of the coppers.

-Nicol

 

[OHmamma]

I have a couple of Blue copper marans pullets could you tell me if this darker pullet is still considered a Blue or not.Any help would be appreciated.They are 7 weeks.
Thankyou

The darker Blue will be the preferred color when the Blue Coppers go up for qualifying.

They are darker when they have just one blue dilution in their black. It is the first cross to blue and black.
If they are bred blue to blue repeatedly the blue fades and you also get splash.

 

[kowgurl62]

The darker Blue will be the preferred color when the Blue Coppers go up for qualifying.

They are darker when they have just one blue dilution in their black. It is the first cross to blue and black.
If they are bred blue to blue repeatedly the blue fades and you also get splash.

Nicol,
Are there any pictures anywhere with the color we should be looking for in the adult bird for what the SOP will be looking for?

 

[OHmamma]

Nicol,
Are there any pictures anywhere with the color we should be looking for in the adult bird for what the SOP will be looking for?

I will ask a few breeders that have correct ones to let me post them. Your rooster in the picture is nice, he is young still right?

I have a couple that I am showing them this weekend so I can get better pics when they are in show cages. I am very picky about the blue color so I end up getting rid of most of mine. I am still trying to figure the blue out. So far I think you get the best color by using a Splash roo with a black hen. I believe that is what a few of the other breeders are doing as well.

IMHO I think that is will come down to judge preference just like with the wheaten I have seen judged, I have seen them go for the darker hens and other go for the lighter ones. It is confusing to me because I still believe that there should be just a small variance in what is acceptable. I talked to a judge about that at the OH National and he said he has never seen a perfectly colored wheaten hen so as long as they are a decent colored wheaten he just judges by type. I believe that is what it boils down to for most colors as well. Not that we shouldn't try to get them all the correct color but we shouldn't be discouraged if they are just a shade off.

That is just the trouble with blue anything it is a dilute of a color so hard to predict. I would suggest to anyone attempting Blue Coppers keep close records of the amount of blue that is introduced after the initial black crossing. When you get hens like this one I pictured it is time to go back to black for some deeper hues. I crossed her with black Copper to get the Cockerel I am showing this weekend.



-Nicol

 

[gilavina]

Well, today is the first official day of collecting eggs to put in the incubator. I'm getting excited! I think this is the latest I've started hatching in years!