Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

Quote: I don't see any yellow but she does not look right, just off for a Marans. Legs are too dark and No feathered legs either. Wait and see what she lays as far as egg color goes.

 

[carnivore]

I don't see any yellow but she does not look right, just off for a Marans. Legs are too dark and No feathered legs either. Wait and see what she lays as far as egg color goes.

Yeah, actually looks more like a Black Jersey Giant than a Marans. BJG will have dark legs with the bottoms of the feet yellow. Here's some pics of a 6 week old BJG pullet.

 

[Twins42308]

I checked and they are black, but a little lighter.

 

[carnivore]

I'm afraid you have a mutt. The face looks Marans, but the legs and feet sure don't. Facial skin looks too red for a BJG, and kinda skinny, besides. Might be some Australorp in there, too.
Might be part Marans, but not enough to call it that. My crystal ball is telling me you can expect large light brown eggs.
In other words, probably will make a good layer, but not a breeder.
(Australorp feet will be whitish-grayish on the bottom, BJG will tend to be more yellowish).

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

You need to find a new name... He is a HE 100% sure.

Lunar?

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Lunar?  

we've changed his name to Lou so now we have 1 too many cockerels. I made a deal with Hubby that we have to wait until they're about a year old and whoever turns mean will be the one to go. This just means I have to hatch out my lone BCM hen's eggs so I can get more lol. The whole reason I got them was for the eggs lol. I have about 6-8 more weeks until they start laying so when is it safe to start setting eggs to hatch. I don't want to do it too soon if they won't be viable or healthy.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

we've changed his name to Lou

so now we have 1 too many cockerels. I made a deal with Hubby that we have to wait until they're about a year old and whoever turns mean will be the one to go. This just means I have to hatch out my lone BCM hen's eggs so I can get more lol. The whole reason I got them was for the eggs lol. I have about 6-8 more weeks until they start laying so when is it safe to start setting eggs to hatch. I don't want to do it too soon if they won't be viable or healthy.

I like to wait to see how they hold the color...most pullets start out pretty dark. Also I wait for "big girl" egg size...where you can't tell it's a pullet egg. More room for a big healthy chick to develop. I'm no expert.

 

[lawatt]

here's a genetics question, or perhaps a labeling question -- i have a trio of birchen marans, and chicks hatched from these three are sometimes birchen, sometimes all black (plus one silver wheaten!). I know that one of the pullets has a duckwing marans parent, which probably explains some of the variation. ( i just received a quad of birchen chicks from April Howington, so very excited about that!)

but the chicks that are all black, should i be calling them black (as in BBS) marans? or are they just birchens with the wrong coloring? i will likely end up selling some of them, and i want to be clear about what people are getting, i.e. not calling them black marans (which are rare) if that isn't what they are.

thanks!!

 

[DMRippy]

here's a genetics question, or perhaps a labeling question -- i have a trio of birchen marans, and chicks hatched from these three are sometimes birchen, sometimes all black (plus one silver wheaten!). I know that one of the pullets has a duckwing marans parent, which probably explains some of the variation. ( i just received a quad of birchen chicks from April Howington, so very excited about that!)

but the chicks that are all black, should i be calling them black (as in BBS) marans? or are they just birchens with the wrong coloring? i will likely end up selling some of them, and i want to be clear about what people are getting, i.e. not calling them black marans (which are rare) if that isn't what they are.

thanks!!

If they are not showing any silver they might be just black. That is a path I was taking to try to get some BBS Marans. Silver is sex linked and easier to remove than copper.

 

[lawatt]

If they are not showing any silver they might be just black. That is a path I was taking to try to get some BBS Marans. Silver is sex linked and easier to remove than copper.

silver is sex-linked?

and thank you!!