Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gander007]

two day old birchen marans chicks:


so cute!!

Great looking chicks

 

[bardies]

Yeah that would not be a cross I would even think about making..... you would just get mutts anyway. Maybe some injured birds in the process.

I would have to wonder too, about the size genetics of whatever would grow in that tiny egg...

 

[ChickCrazed]

Hi! I'm hoping someone can help me sex my 4 week old Birchen Marans chicks. I think I have a definite male, on probable female and one with gender identity issues Can anyone help?

#1 seems to be an obvious Roo, with a seriously funky comb. He is the biggest and has been slow to feather







#2 Is the one I believe is female. She feathered quicker than the other two and has the smallest comb.





#3 Seems to have characteristics of both. He/she feathered slower, but is smaller more like the female, and has a comb much smaller than the obvious roo but slightly larger than the female. Any thoughts? These are my first chicks so I have zero experience at this!

 

[Runawaylobster]

Quote:
I had some that i thought had combs from hell.. all scrunched up and ugly. BUT it was just that their combs were too big for their little heads at that time. They grew up to have nice straight combs but they were too large though...

 

[McCaskill]

do any of y'all know a breeder in North Carolina?

 

[BCMaraniac]

Hi! I'm hoping someone can help me sex my 4 week old Birchen Marans chicks. I think I have a definite male, on probable female and one with gender identity issues Can anyone help?

#1 seems to be an obvious Roo, with a seriously funky comb. He is the biggest and has been slow to feather







#2 Is the one I believe is female. She feathered quicker than the other two and has the smallest comb.





#3 Seems to have characteristics of both. He/she feathered slower, but is smaller more like the female, and has a comb much smaller than the obvious roo but slightly larger than the female. Any thoughts? These are my first chicks so I have zero experience at this!

I think you are correct on #1 and #2. I think #3 may be a pullet, but would love to see a full side shot, because it appears the tail feathering may look more like the roo than the pullet. Any way to get shots of them together?

 

[crzy4peafowl]

I have a Black Copper Marans hen that is approx. 5 years old. This is the beginning of her laying cycle for 2014. Her eggs are speckled. This is the first year that this happens. The specks are very dark. I have put her with a new young Black Copper Marans Roo. What is going on? Can anyone shed some light here?

 

[Wynette]

I have a Black Copper Marans hen that is approx. 5 years old. This is the beginning of her laying cycle for 2014. Her eggs are speckled. This is the first year that this happens. The specks are very dark. I have put her with a new young Black Copper Marans Roo. What is going on? Can anyone shed some light here?

Crzy, I suspect that since she's pretty old (for a hen), her mechanism for "spraying" the "ink" on the eggs is simply not functioning as well as it once did. The eggs are quite pretty, nothing wrong with a dark, speckly egg.

If she is of good quality, you may want to hatch all that you can this year, as it's very likely she may not produce fertile/viable/hatchable eggs much longer.

 

[BCMaraniac]

I have a Black Copper Marans hen that is approx. 5 years old. This is the beginning of her laying cycle for 2014. Her eggs are speckled. This is the first year that this happens. The specks are very dark. I have put her with a new young Black Copper Marans Roo. What is going on? Can anyone shed some light here?

I have four Black Copper Marans, and one of them lays eggs just like that.....jumbo sized too. I have seen others who have Marans hens that lay eggs with the dark speckles. I think it is a fairly common thing. Mine laid that type of egg from the beginning.

 

[Wynette]

Some folks believe that a solid color without speckles is preferred, but that's not so. In an egg contest, the base color of the egg is what would be considered in the rating.