Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[NovaAman]

HEY! You stole my chicken! LOL. She's pretty. I have a girl who ALMOST looks like her, only she's a blue cuckoo. Her barring is not well defined though, which I personally am happy about. I hate being dizzy.

She's a fat girls she is...

And this is Strutter. I have never been so impressed with a roo since I have my Mr. Fluffers, a faverolles... Strutter very nearly Matches him in personality. Very laid back and gentle. He will stand up for himself though. He's between 12-15 pounds I'd say, stands as high as my knee.

 

[dajen]

HEY! You stole my chicken! LOL. She's pretty. Thank you. She's a very good layer who we've been fortunate to get some very nice chicks from.

What a handsome man. I love how some of the boys can posture and looks so handsome!!

 

[NovaAman]

He is an absolute wonderful roo. I loved my faverolles roo Mr. Fluffers big time. He died from internal injuries fighting with a raccoon, but he saved the day, we didn't lose a single hen. Well anyway, I never thought I'd find a roo as lovely in tempermant and Mr. Fluffers, and then I got this guy. He is so laid back and just charming. He sounds like a ton of bricks when he hits the ground every morning though. Heavy boy.

 

[amyjo71]

I'm a rookie and had my cute backyard coop built for MOTHER'S Day---I LOVE my girls! They have become fun pets and our family cant wait for eggs in the future! I have a RIR, Buff orp, Dominicker and Ameraucana. I've been doing lots of reading and research and I'm getting a Wheaten Maran and Cream Legbar today....both are started pullets...same age as the ones I have now. Can you tell me any info on the Wheaten Maran? Am I making a good choice as far as friendliness and egg production are concerned? Thanks! ;-))

 

[rarebear]

Thank you for the response...although it is not what I wanted to hear. I guess I will never get my Maran hen...so sad. Can you tell me what it was that made you determine it is a male? Thanks as well for the correction. I lived in France and called them the French Marans...I am a dummy.

rare - both are males.

[sidebar: in the U.S., Marans are just Marans - not "French" Marans.]

 

[Charlcie]

Strutter is one handsome roo! Where did you get him?

HEY! You stole my chicken! LOL. She's pretty. I have a girl who ALMOST looks like her, only she's a blue cuckoo. Her barring is not well defined though, which I personally am happy about. I hate being dizzy.

She's a fat girls she is...

And this is Strutter. I have never been so impressed with a roo since I have my Mr. Fluffers, a faverolles... Strutter very nearly Matches him in personality. Very laid back and gentle. He will stand up for himself though. He's between 12-15 pounds I'd say, stands as high as my knee.

 

[lawatt]

cross-posting this from the birchen marans thread: my two birchen marans chicks are 8 weeks old now -- got some updated pictures today, although the pullet is the most elusive of all my grow-out chicks, it was impossible to get a good photo of her!


maria trying to get away from the camera


the best i was able to snap of maria -- she's getting some lovely grey/silver lacing on the edges of her feathers, especially around her neck


jack


jack


detail of jack's feathers -- he has both a green and a dark blue sheen happening, so beautiful!

and i'll add a few extra pictures, as i have two (or three, one i'm not sure about) lovely isbar/blue marans crosses growing up as well:


fern, the black isbar/marans cross


frieda, a splash cross -- has a few feathers on her feet, although not as many as jack


the pullet in the foreground is madel, not sure if she's pure isbar or one of the crosses - can't wait to see what shade of green eggs she lays!

 

[desertmarcy]

OK, so I went through my young cockerels again that I got from another breeder this spring. I already found one early on with a sprig (culled it), so wanted to go through them again before they got any bigger/ate more of my expensive feed. I found two with these weird combs. I don't remember what this particular fault is called and can't find it in my APA SOP but I am pretty sure it is a DQ. Are these just another form of sprig?
These chicks are only 2 months old, I just want to make sure from the experts out there that this will not change with age (other than possibly looking worse) before I cull them. I had really hoped this group of 26 chicks I got was going to help me out, but so far I have been disappointed. One of the others has yellow legs, they should have changed by now (2 months) if they were going to, don't you think? And several others have been culled because of too much color on their breast already. I haven't even tried to go through the pullets yet

Chick #1's comb:




Chick #2's comb:

 

[pinkchick]

OK, so I went through my young cockerels again that I got from another breeder this spring. I already found one early on with a sprig (culled it), so wanted to go through them again before they got any bigger/ate more of my expensive feed. I found two with these weird combs. I don't remember what this particular fault is called and can't find it in my APA SOP but I am pretty sure it is a DQ. Are these just another form of sprig? These chicks are only 2 months old, I just want to make sure from the experts out there that this will not change with age (other than possibly looking worse) before I cull them. I had really hoped this group of 26 chicks I got was going to help me out, but so far I have been disappointed. One of the others has yellow legs, they should have changed by now (2 months) if they were going to, don't you think? And several others have been culled because of too much color on their breast already. I haven't even tried to go through the pullets yet Chick #1's comb: Chick #2's comb:

This is sprigs, I believe this is from the Penedesenca blood that has been mixed into the Marans in the past. Aka: Carnation comb or King's Comb. This is very hard to cull from your flock. It took me almost a year and a half to eliminate this. What was sad, is that it came from birds that I brought in to my original flock to add new blood and silly me.....I trusted the recommendation they came on and then BLAMMO!!!! Carnation combs everywhere. I had to single mate everything and everyone...........I ended up culling all but just a few of my birds and am still rebuilding very slowly. I still keep my eye out for that comb and since then it is the very first thing I watch for.

 

[pinkchick]

cross-posting this from the birchen marans thread: my two birchen marans chicks are 8 weeks old now -- got some updated pictures today, although the pullet is the most elusive of all my grow-out chicks, it was impossible to get a good photo of her!

[COLOR=005CB1] [/COLOR]
maria trying to get away from the camera

[COLOR=005CB1] [/COLOR]
the best i was able to snap of maria -- she's getting some lovely grey/silver lacing on the edges of her feathers, especially around her neck

[COLOR=005CB1] [/COLOR]
jack

[COLOR=005CB1] [/COLOR]
jack

[COLOR=005CB1] [/COLOR]
detail of jack's feathers -- he has both a green and a dark blue sheen happening, so beautiful!
and i'll add a few extra pictures, as i have two (or three, one i'm not sure about) lovely isbar/blue marans crosses growing up as well: fern, the black isbar/marans cross frieda, a splash cross -- has a few feathers on her feet, although not as many as jack the pullet in the foreground is madel, not sure if she's pure isbar or one of the crosses - can't wait to see what shade of green eggs she lays!

They are adorable! Love Love Love Madel! What a cutie!