Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

Does anyone have any pure cuckoo Marans hatching eggs or peeps for sale? My youngest son loves the barred rock look buti would like the nice dark eggs..french would be great but not a must long as the eggs are dark..please pm me if anyone is willing to help me..thanks in advance!

Cuckoo egg are not as dark as coppers by a long shot. but mind make up for it with the size of the eggs.

mine are not really laying now so I can't help.

 

[Blue Roo]

Hello all got a question my marans just started laying about three weeks ago one of the eggs I got was real small and when we craked it open it was a dark red color and there was no yoke does anybody know why this is thanks

 

[desertmarcy]

Hello all got a question my marans just started laying about three weeks ago one of the eggs I got was real small and when we craked it open it was a dark red color and there was no yoke does anybody know why this is thanks

A lot of times the new layer's reproductive system is not quite up to par. It sounds like there was some blood in the egg. Maybe someone else has a better explanation. I would not worry about it unless it happens repeatedly. She should start laying normal eggs soon.

 

[motherhubbert68]

Hey guys pretty new to marans guess you could say I inherited a few bcm roos and fell in love with them so I bought 3 mature hens and now invested in some blues as well. My question is starting out with young hens when they start laying should their egg color start out light and get darker or start off dark? I know color will vary depending on conditions but what should I watch for and is their anything I can do to improve egg quality as far as diet? The older hens are laying egg color grades #4 to #6 occasionally we incubated the darkest eggs to insure new layers.
Next year I am planing on putting some of the new poulets, with the best coloring, with our new blue roo and the two new blue poulets with our bcm roo. I hope to get a couple of better quality bcm roos from this breeding as well.

 

[motherhubbert68]

I do have another question lol one of the blue poulets I bought is quite thin. We housed them away from the other flocks for four weeks during that time they were wormed and dusted but she still seems to be all feathers. Feed her a daily dose of yogurt , ground dryed pumpkin seeds, and oat mixed with her start feed hoping she would pick up a little weight but if she has it wasn't much. Any ideas

Thats the hen in question shes about 10 weeks old very intelligent lol the roo came with her but I will be putting him with some of my bcm poulets.

This a better pic of Cloey my camera phone doesn't do her coloring justice though.

 

[pinkchick]

I do have another question lol one of the blue poulets I bought is quite thin. We housed them away from the other flocks for four weeks during that time they were wormed and dusted but she still seems to be all feathers. Feed her a daily dose of yogurt , ground dryed pumpkin seeds, and oat mixed with her start feed hoping she would pick up a little weight but if she has it wasn't much. Any ideas

Thats the hen in question shes about 10 weeks old very intelligent lol the roo came with her but I will be putting him with some of my bcm poulets.

This a better pic of Cloey my camera phone doesn't do her coloring justice though.

Your male in the photo is Birchen (which means that he carries silver and red genetics) if bred to BCM, pure BCM will not be produced. Birds that have both silver and red genetics will be produced. Some of the offspring will show silver, some will show silver and gold (like your male) and some will show copper (but still carry both silver and red), and others can show both silver with red (the red is usually shown in the wing bow).
Breeding Birchen (silver) to BCM can and often does effect egg color as well in the subsequent matings. Not to say that it always does, but the chances of losing egg color when crossing varieties is greater than increasing it.

At this age, the pullets tend to be a bit light, no fears, she will start packing away some heft as she matures from here. You will be surprised at her weight when she reaches sexual maturity.

 

[Broad St Farm]

Your male in the photo is Birchen (which means that he carries silver and red genetics) if bred to BCM, pure BCM will not be produced. Birds that have both silver and red genetics will be produced. Some of the offspring will show silver, some will show silver and gold (like your male) and some will show copper (but still carry both silver and red), and others can show both silver with red (the red is usually shown in the wing bow).
Breeding Birchen (silver) to BCM can and often does effect egg color as well in the subsequent matings. Not to say that it always does, but the chances of losing egg color when crossing varieties is greater than increasing it.

At this age, the pullets tend to be a bit light, no fears, she will start packing away some heft as she matures from here. You will be surprised at her weight when she reaches sexual maturity.

For the most part I agree with pink, however. Some birds geneticlly make them keep from growing to the desired size regardless of what they eat. Some just stay thin and gamey looking. I culled two Birchen pullets because they looked more like the structure of game fowl. Don't assume you female will pack on the weight by maturity. You want to try and retain the largest, best in type birds to breed forward.

 

[motherhubbert68]

Your male in the photo is Birchen (which means that he carries silver and red genetics) if bred to BCM, pure BCM will not be produced. Birds that have both silver and red genetics will be produced. Some of the offspring will show silver, some will show silver and gold (like your male) and some will show copper (but still carry both silver and red), and others can show both silver with red (the red is usually shown in the wing bow).
Breeding Birchen (silver) to BCM can and often does effect egg color as well in the subsequent matings. Not to say that it always does, but the chances of losing egg color when crossing varieties is greater than increasing it.

At this age, the pullets tend to be a bit light, no fears, she will start packing away some heft as she matures from here. You will be surprised at her weight when she reaches sexual maturity.

What about the poulets. I am gussing I will be better off breeding my poulets to my bcm roo and coming up with a true blue then. Not sure if I will keep Cesar at least not for breeding blues .hmmmm a lot to think about. Thanks

 

[chickee]

Thanks for the positive thoughts everyone! I contacted Fish and Wildlife yesterday. They are going to have someone call me back. Good thing they are state run and not federal......and still open for business. We do have large dogs outside, they only bark from the front porch. Dear hubby is ready to take action if need be with dispatching if necessary. We put up game cameras but the first couple of nights they were not positioned in the right place and we didn't get anything. We repositioned them and now just waiting to see. Nothing has happened the last couple of nights. Now the problem lies with the remaining birds........they will not go back into their coop and by 5pm they are in another tree right outside off our back deck, and it's a game trying to get them out. That makes me crazy. We are being careful and I completely understand the comment about the children. We have 5 neighbor kids that walk our road, but since the parents now know about the predator issue they have been driving the kids to the bus stop and picking them up. This makes me feel better, because out here the kids must be to the bus stop by 6:15am and it is pitch black.

Shannon thank you for the offer and I may just take you up on that in the near future.

Prior to the predator I had been thinking of getting some more stock to work with.

Zanna~ I would love to meet you at the show, but I am afraid that I cannot get there that weekend.,That weekend that I am going on a trip with the student services council from the college to the University of Washington for a special language class I signed up for. Geesh! I think I got myself into more than I wanted but it will be fun I am sure. I hope you have a great time at the show. And thank you again for such a kind offer. You are the greatest!

Did you ever get a picture of the predator? I have been watching for an update

 

[pinkchick]

Did you ever get a picture of the predator? I have been watching for an update       

Thanks for checking in with me.....I wish I had some news from the Fish and Game, but I have not heard a word from them. Yes, the camera's finally got a picture, it is a mountain lion. Has only been back twice, instead of nightly like it was last week........however, it is not finding any chickens in the coop because they have taken to sleeping in a tree right outside the back of my house. I don't mind that they are sleeping in the tree, but I sure do mind the pooh in my walk way and they will start to mind it when the tree looses the rest of its leaves. I have a heck of a time trying to get them out of it at bedtime, so I have just left them be for now but that won't be the case in another couple of weeks when the weather really starts to turn. By hook, crook, or net they will be sleeping back in there coop. This getting them down of the tree is for the birds.........pun intended.