Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[carnivore]

Now that is interesting! I have never bred poultry. I've just started keeping them. It hadn't occurred to me that pedigrees would not be kept on them!! How odd. How can COI be calculated? I know line breeding takes place... I read about it all the time!

Also interesting about the "French" addition. So many breeders of Marans do not breed feathered shanks so I actually assumed that was in American standards. Perhaps it is based on a general lack of knowledge of the potential buyers?
I've even read advertisements that specify they have "American" birds that are therefore not feathered. So essentially these breeders are intentionally breeding out of standard?? Wow... but... but why?? I don't understand why someone would do that...
I'm all about hybrids and projects and so forth but why breed a specific purebred bird but not to standard? That makes absolutely no sense to me at all!!
That's what I get for making assumptions based on marketing instead of more carefully reading the standards myself!

The non feathered shank variety was developed in England in the 1930's, they were using a cuckoo variety, and wanted clean shanks to distinguish it from other varieties. There was a livestock embargo in place at the time, so fertile eggs were smuggled in in someone's lunchbox as hard boiled eggs. The Brits were fascinated with the dark brown eggs,so, basically, they mongrelized the Marans breed by crossing it with anything that clucked. That is why there are so many "throwbacks" and odd colors today. I think the FBCM tag could be useful to denote a strain truer to the original French birds.

Edited to fix misspellings.

 

[French Hen]

So "American" should be feathered. I'd really like to get into showing Marans ... once I have some fantastic birds worth showing, that is. They are so beautiful. I like my English Orps too but the Marans are so lovely. I can't wait to have a pretty Marans roo

 

[French Hen]

The non feathered shank variety was developed in England in the 1930's, they were using a cuckoo variety, and wanted clean shanks to distinguish it from other varieties. Basically, the British mongrelized the Marans breed by crossing it with anything that clucked. That is why there are so many "throwbacks" and odd colors today. I think the FCBM tag could be useful to denote a strain truer to the original French line.

What does FCBM stand for?

I would have thought French Black Copper Marans but the letter order is wrong. :-( I'm so new!! It is scary and fun to take on something so completely new. But mostly scary thanks for educating me (to everyone) because I really, genuinely appreciate it

 

[sasimpson77]

Alright so after going back to the two hens I mentioned in a prior post that I thought were partridge marans I do believe they are not in fact marans maybe they are welsummers (sp?) needless to say I had moved them to the layer pen about a week ago and I will not be keeping them as I really am trying to breed for quality now the question is about the Cockeral who was sold to the people I got him from as a maran he is colored just like the hens but has feathering on his legs hmm I did not get photos of him. By the way the hens are quite torn up right now because the hen to rooster ratio befor I got them was way off but there feathers are coming back.

 

[ladycat]

I believe Welsumers have yellow legs. Some of my partridge Marans look just like your pics.

I suppose it's possible that you have a crossbreed, though.

 

[ladycat]

I found this pic of a Welsumer in Google images.

 

[bamadude]

one of the white looking Marans that hatched. Any thoughts?

 

[ladycat]

one of the white looking Marans that hatched. Any thoughts?

White or Wheaten. You can tell in a few days when the wing feathers sprout. If they're white, it's white. If they have streaks of grayish brownish, it's a Wheaten.

 

[bamadude]

Thanks. So a white would be recessive white? Sorry if thats a dumb question. Im new

 

[ladycat]

I'm not aware of any dominant white in Marans. All the bloodlines I know of are recessive white.