Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[lawatt]

the overcolored/mossiness I'm referring to is the silver extending anywhere on the body other than on just the neck collar of the pullets. The brownish tinge I'm not a fan of, I tend to cull those here with that in favor of holding back those with solid black, and most preferrably those with the beetle green sheen to them. I think not enough consideration is given to using birds with beetle green sheen. I do not believe it to be an indicator of overmelanization as I've never found that to be true when breeding with them. All my best bird have it.
On the cockerel, when I say gamey, they will lack the beefy heft a Marans should have and instead have a shallower body type, a sharper tapering from front to back of the bird. If you are visual, maybe it would help to compare my avatar photo to your cockerel and see how the differences of the body type compare. He is very wide from front to back and was about 8 months old when that photo was taken.

got it -- Jack has LOTS of green-and-blue sheen in his black feathers (which i absolutely love), but none of the girls seem to have it. i'll try to get a picture of him from above -- he's pretty beefy, at least compared to my other chickens, but he's the first marans cockerel i've ever seen in person, so maybe that's just inexperience talking!

just for fun, this is a picture of my two isbar/marans crosses, who haven't quite started laying eggs yet -- as you can see, the black one has enormous green in her feathers!

 

[gilavina]

got it -- Jack has LOTS of green-and-blue sheen in his black feathers (which i absolutely love), but none of the girls seem to have it. i'll try to get a picture of him from above -- he's pretty beefy, at least compared to my other chickens, but he's the first marans cockerel i've ever seen in person, so maybe that's just inexperience talking!

just for fun, this is a picture of my two isbar/marans crosses, who haven't quite started laying eggs yet -- as you can see, the black one has enormous green in her feathers!

That's the kind of sheen I go for! Purple and Blue I won't select, if a birds is superior and has more of the green that the other two I will use them ,but they get marked and watch the offspring carefully.

 

[KsKingBee]

That doesn't look good. I hope someone answers soon!

Nope, nobody answered

 

[lawatt]

That's the kind of sheen I go for! Purple and Blue I won't select, if a birds is superior and has more of the green that the other two I will use them ,but they get marked and watch the offspring carefully.

the green is absolutely beautiful, i love it -- and apologies for hogging the thread with photos, but here are two more of Jack from above:

neck outstretched to eat

standing up straighter -- except his tail is usually straight, not heading off to the right!

and one more question, if i may -- i'm still trying to understand the genetics of silver, so if a birchen was bred to a solid black, would the offspring be black, birchen, or some kind of mix?

thanks!!!!! this is has been enormously helpful!

 

[gilavina]

the green is absolutely beautiful, i love it -- and apologies for hogging the thread with photos, but here are two more of Jack from above:

neck outstretched to eat

standing up straighter -- except his tail is usually straight, not heading off to the right!

and one more question, if i may -- i'm still trying to understand the genetics of silver, so if a birchen was bred to a solid black, would the offspring be black, birchen, or some kind of mix?

thanks!!!!! this is has been enormously helpful!

just watch his tail that as he ages, that it doesn't have a tendency to lean to one side. Also, see if he fills out as well, in the breast and underline area. If you bred a birchen to a solid black, you are working with two birds carrying silver genes, so you will get some with silver, some will be solid and some will appear solid, but be carriers for the birchen pattern. It just depends on how much record keeping you want to do and how desperate you are to mix the lines. If you have solid Marans, I would say leave them solid, because they are very hard to find.

 

[gilavina]

Nope, nobody answered

I've never had experience with this kind of symptom, but was wondering if you had posted in the emergencie/diseases, etc section of BYC? You might get more help there.

 

[lawatt]

just watch his tail that as he ages, that it doesn't have a tendency to lean to one side. Also, see if he fills out as well, in the breast and underline area. If you bred a birchen to a solid black, you are working with two birds carrying silver genes, so you will get some with silver, some will be solid and some will appear solid, but be carriers for the birchen pattern. It just depends on how much record keeping you want to do and how desperate you are to mix the lines. If you have solid Marans, I would say leave them solid, because they are very hard to find.

got it -- i've only got one solid black, who's only a week old, so a ways to go on that one!

so silver is recessive, i.e. only shows if there are two copies of the silver gene? thank you, i'm slowly starting to get a better picture of the genetics...

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

the overcolored/mossiness I'm referring to is the silver extending anywhere on the body other than on just the neck collar of the pullets. The brownish tinge I'm not a fan of, I tend to cull those here with that in favor of holding back those with solid black, and most preferrably those with the beetle green sheen to them. I think not enough consideration is given to using birds with beetle green sheen. I do not believe it to be an indicator of overmelanization as I've never found that to be true when breeding with them. All my best bird have it.
On the cockerel, when I say gamey, they will lack the beefy heft a Marans should have and instead have a shallower body type, a sharper tapering from front to back of the bird. If you are visual, maybe it would help to compare my avatar photo to your cockerel and see how the differences of the body type compare. He is very wide from front to back and was about 8 months old when that photo was taken.

As a beginner it is difficult to know who/what to believe. I have been told that ANY sheen except straight black is not good, that purple sheen is worse than green but you want black-black, etc. Most black breeds have the beetle green sheen to them that I have seen and I am inclined to breed the BCM that have that over the other "sheens" because it feels right. So far I haven't seen any BCM that are just black only (in the black parts). Thank you for your opinion on that!

 

[gilavina]

As a beginner it is difficult to know who/what to believe. I have been told that ANY sheen except straight black is not good, that purple sheen is worse than green but you want black-black, etc. Most black breeds have the beetle green sheen to them that I have seen and I am inclined to breed the BCM that have that over the other "sheens" because it feels right. So far I haven't seen any BCM that are just black only (in the black parts). Thank you for your opinion on that!

Do you have an SOP? They cover sheen and etc in plumage. Hopefully Don will come along and offer what he has to say too. I've been raising show and breeding birds since I can remember of different breeds, and I go against SOP when it comes to the basics of poultry. Purple sheen is not something I will use in any breed, but I honestly believe I've cut down so many of the variances in the Marans here because I do work for the green sheen.

 

[gilavina]

hey Don, here's the other Splash Copper cockerel I've held back, he is just as beefy as the other one.