Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[UnionMan]

Here are some Maran's chicks that I have. The BCM are around 8-9 weeks old. I'm still not sure on what sex they are. In the brooder with my Marans is a cockerel and Pullet Welsummer. If Marans show comb and wattles the same as welsummers then I have two BCM pullets. I also have some blue and blue/splash Marans but they are a couple weeks behind the bcm. But you can see in the pictures they are together. I did notice on the one BCM there is a lot of gold ticking in the neck feathers.

 

[Goose and Fig]

I've got some little golden salmons growing out. Since it was winter I had them in the house for quite a while. Such friendly birds! I can't wait til they start laying.

 

[chickendeal]

Blue copper roo?/?

 

[chickendeal]

Blue or black??

 

[gilavina]

Hey Ray, did you say you were going to be setting some eggs soon or did you just have some hatch?

 

[jlgoinggreen]

Thank you so much! This helps a lot.

 

[Ray from PA]

Hi Vicki,,, I just had 25 hatch over the weekend,,, my first hatch with the Blue Roo covering the hens, one hen is blue, was hoping for blue and a fewsplash out of the blue, I got 5 definite lighter blue's, no splash, probably some darker blues too. Some nicely marked chicks in the lot. Some of good size too, not disappointed at all for the first batch from the roo, except for the no splash part. I want to start a pen of just blues and splash, so it's a starting point.

 

[gilavina]

Hi Vicki,,, I just had 25 hatch over the weekend,,, my first hatch with the Blue Roo covering the hens, one hen is blue, was hoping for blue and splash, I got 5 definite lighter blue's, no splash, probably some darker blues too. Some nicely marked chicks in the lot. Some of good size too, not disappointed at all for the first batch from the roo, except for the no splash part. I want to start a pen of just blues and splash, so it's a starting point.

That's right! I have a hard time keeping things straight with everything going on lately. It won't take long til you are able to get that blue and splash pen going!

 

[GasMenagerie]

I have a confession: I'm addicted to Wheaten Marans. Ok, maybe I should say I'm addicted to the IDEA of Wheaten Marans.


I purchased a dozzen eggs after falling in love during an on-line Google romance with the breed, and slid them under a broody Buff Orp. Momma was good and hatched out five: four girls and one boy. What wonderful chickens they were. My brood up to this point was a motley bunch that I inherited from a 4H project gone unattended, but the personalities, size, beauty and eggs of these WMs where just what I wanted. (Even though I knew I had been rooked because my chickens did NOT have feathered legs.)

I lost two of my girls to a raccoon and mourned them. My WM roo fathered four crosses his first summer, but he passed at age two from an unknown illness. (He had a seizure under a bush and just died one day.)

A year later I found WM chicks on line and went in on them with two other people I had proselytized the breed to. Out of the chicks I was sent, one was dead and three or four were “oops ran out” Splash Marans. Being the person I am I let the two other buyers pick first. At the end of the day, I was left with five chicks. Two were SM. Of the three WM I came away with, one was a rooster, but he was mean as hell and had to go. The two SM were roos and I kept one because I always like to have one rooster. The hens were amazing, but I lost one to a fox (or a dog – it was hard to determine and CSI refused to help me) During that loss, one of the other hens broke a wing. I managed to mend her together – and she is still alive today. Doesn’t lay anymore, but I did promise her I wouldn’t ditch her when she was no longer producing. They were nice hens - feathered legs and nice eggs.

This spring I decided to try again. I ordered eggs on line and tried my hand at an incubator. First timer jitters and all, I managed to hatch four chicks out of my 12 eggs. One was so weak and feeble, I had to euth it. The other three have turned into two roos and a hen. If all goes well, I will dispatch my current rooster and keep one of my WM boys. But I'm not 100% certain of how "good" of a breeder I'm working with. The chicks have feathered legs, but the rest is just too hard to tell at this point. The eggs they hatched from were lovely.

So – Why am I going on about this? Well, I’m hoping someone here can help me locate a *good* breeder of WM near enough to me that I can go and get a good start on a flock so I can see my dream of an all WM flock come true.

I have no aspirations of breeding for sale or show, but do want to produce and maintain a healthy flock that is a great representation of the breed. I’m in Northern California and would like to give this another go next spring.

Thank you for entertaining this crazy chicken lady.


^ One of my WM roos, the WM hen and a couple of "others" that I got from the feed store to make sure my DH has his constant flow of eggs.

 

[heath_elisha]

Marans hens = contagious broody syndrome. Just saying.... 5 out of 6 have gone broody this spring. The sixth hen has been away from the other five recovering from bumblefoot, so she has not been influenced by it..... she may live in the garage forever lol