Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[rebschix]

Hi everybody! I have some new babies that hatched on the 20th of may! I'm so in love with my newbies! They're FBCM's. got some eggs from a local breeder and hatched 7 in an incubator and 4 with broody hens. There were 11 out of 18 eggs, some were infertile:/ I placed all of the chicks with the three broody hens, and they were accepted, no problem. Two moms stole all the babies and are raising them together, I didn't know they did that! (They do allow the third hen to be near the chicks.) I'm wondering if anyone knows how to tell the girls from the boys? With the cuckoos, the boys are silver-ish, so it was easy. I'm not showing them, I'm just a fanatic about the dark eggs and watching my beautiful flock grow. My husband does think I'm crazy, but that's ok! There are worse things than loving chickens! It's my first hatch and what a nervous wreck I was!
What a great forum!

 

[SIMZ]

Hi everybody! I have some new babies that hatched on the 20th of may! I'm so in love with my newbies! They're FBCM's. got some eggs from a local breeder and hatched 7 in an incubator and 4 with broody hens. There were 11 out of 18 eggs, some were infertile:/ I placed all of the chicks with the three broody hens, and they were accepted, no problem. Two moms stole all the babies and are raising them together, I didn't know they did that! (They do allow the third hen to be near the chicks.) I'm wondering if anyone knows how to tell the girls from the boys? With the cuckoos, the boys are silver-ish, so it was easy. I'm not showing them, I'm just a fanatic about the dark eggs and watching my beautiful flock grow. My husband does think I'm crazy, but that's ok! There are worse things than loving chickens! It's my first hatch and what a nervous wreck I was!
What a great forum!

Congratulations on your new babies & thanks for sharing! I can't tell them apart until they're a few weeks old...although, sometimes I can make a guess on behavior a little earlier than that. Someone might be able to share some tips, though.

 

[SalinasChicken]

Hey guys! I just wanted to post some recent pictures of my Marans, just for fun!

Millie Marans
Charlotte
Dottie
Blueberry

 

[Chickenman76]

Hey guys! I just wanted to post some recent pictures of my Marans, just for fun!

Millie Marans
Charlotte
Dottie
Blueberry

 

[Chickenman76]

Hello everyone!
I'm new to Marans, which is why I'm about to ask a lot of questions. I bought a mixture of pure bred hatching eggs that weren't marked as to what breed they were. The assortment included Marans and Orpingtons. This little guy popped out. At first I thought he might be an orpington. But as he has grown I'm not so sure anymore. He kind of looks like a Blue Cuckoo Marans. Please give me your opinions! Thanks!

Cuckoo Marans

 

[jodavis]

Did you do the breeding or did someone tell you they came from a BCM breeding?  The yellow tyke could be from a wheaten gene in one/both of the parents, the others do not look like any  BCM chicks I have seen except for the one in the very back (the mostly black one)..........

Hi, I did the breeding. The hen & roo are BCM and I purchased them from a BCM breeder and saw her stock of breeders. I only have 1 chocolate layer and only 1 roo so I know who laid the eggs and I put them in my incubator. I'm positive on who the parents are, that's why I'm so confused on these babies.
The dark one in the front actually looks just like the black one in the back, I guess the flash of the camera makes it look different. Those are the only 2 in fine with. The yellow seems to be larger than the rest and has clean legs. The 2 speckled ones have feathery legs. I think they may be all roosters too. :-(

 

[Runawaylobster]

Hi, I did the breeding. The hen & roo are BCM and I purchased them from a BCM breeder and saw her stock of breeders. I only have 1 chocolate layer and only 1 roo so I know who laid the eggs and I put them in my incubator. I'm positive on who the parents are, that's why I'm so confused on these babies.
The dark one in the front actually looks just like the black one in the back, I guess the flash of the camera makes it look different. Those are the only 2 in fine with. The yellow seems to be larger than the rest and has clean legs. The 2 speckled ones have feathery legs. I think they may be all roosters too. :-(

Well the yellow one looks to me like a wheaten, so from that thought process i am wondering if you really have a wheaten roo not a BCM, or maybe the
grand-daddy was wheaten. Some people have mistaken them in the past because the wheatens do have similar coloring pattern, but you can tell because a wheaten has a brown wing triangle and also has cream colored legs. the BCM has black wing triangle and slate legs... you probably know all this but the yellow chick just put that thought in my head...

 

[Zanna]

Hi, I did the breeding. The hen & roo are BCM and I purchased them from a BCM breeder and saw her stock of breeders. I only have 1 chocolate layer and only 1 roo so I know who laid the eggs and I put them in my incubator. I'm positive on who the parents are, that's why I'm so confused on these babies.
The dark one in the front actually looks just like the black one in the back, I guess the flash of the camera makes it look different. Those are the only 2 in fine with. The yellow seems to be larger than the rest and has clean legs. The 2 speckled ones have feathery legs. I think they may be all roosters too. :-(

Well, I am stumped! Maybe someone else will chime in. One other thought........ Did you set the eggs those chicks hatched from within a month after you purchased your pair? If so, maybe your hen was bred by a different cock before you bought her and some of the eggs laid early were the results of that breeding. When I was getting started with BCM, I drove 4 hours and purchased 2 dozen eggs from a breeder. I had seen pictures of her stock but was too novice to see the wheaten influence in her Cock. 22 of those eggs hatched and 8 were yellow (wheaten). I sold all the chicks as pet quality dark layers, even the correct coloured ones. I did not want to mess with the wheaten gene as my goal was/is to breed to SOP as well as having dark eggs so it was back to the drawing board. Lots of hidden stuff in many of the BCM out there. Can you post pics of the parents of these chicks?

 

[Runawaylobster]

... Did you set the eggs those chicks hatched from within a month after you purchased your pair? If so, maybe your hen was bred by a different cock before you bought her and some of the eggs laid early were the results of that breeding.

this crossed my mind too...

Is there any possiblity that there is a hidden barring gene within the parents that didn't show because it is sexlinked?

 

[gilavina]

Excuse the poor quality photos, taken with my phone and inbetween the severe weather we've had over the last 4 days. My oldest chicks are 7 weeks on Friday and the BCM pullets are starting to show nice copper! The pullets were also a little damp from running up from the barn in the rain when I brought them up to sort them, so are lookin a bit disheveled. I'll try for some better full shots of them when the weather has finally passed. They hate the thunder!