Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[bamadude]

Maybe they are wheatens. 1 was marked as a cuckoo and the other a wheaten. Maybe she didnt mark them correctly.

 

[carnivore]

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

OK, I'm busted! I meant FBCM.

 

[forgetful]

Hey guys! I have 10 black copper chicks that are a little over a week old. In humor of the discussion a few posts back, they are "Wade Jeanne" lines. The seller claimed to import new birds from the guy being overseen by Wade, or something to that effect, every breeding season. Anyways, I have a few questions specific to the breed. I have several other breeds, but I'm always trying to stay informed. They are as follows:

1. How accurate is sexing based on leg thickness and comb development in this breed? I have two chicks with very prominent combs already, which surprised me, and three or four chicks with very thick legs in comparison to the others (those four including the two chicks with prominent combs).

2. I have a lot of variation in color, and I'm wondering if that is normal, and if not, what it means for the adult plumage. One or two chicks seem to have a lot of white around their faces. They all have wing feathers and the beginnings of tail feathers, and almost all of them have two or three white feathers on each wing. A few have no white besides their original chick down. The amount of dark coloration on their legs and feet varies as well. Some are all black, some black with yellow toes, and some with black only halfway down the shank. Some chicks have yellow combs, and some have black combs.

3. Two chicks have very minimal feathering- maybe two or three feathers max- on their middle toes. The rest have the correct feathering of the shank and outer toe. Will the light middle toe feathering affect possible breeding in the future, and if so, how big of an issue is it? Should I not breed the birds all together?

Thank you all in advance! I'm very excited to add another breed to my flock.

Anyone with some insight? My chicks are growing like weeds! Here is a picture at a few days old

(The blues were for a friend and have since moved)

 

[gander007]

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

Oh so cut,,,,,, mine turned out to be a little guy .....


Age 3 weeks .....

He looks fat because I put out mashed up hard boiled egg's so I could catch him as they seem to be a little sluggish after munching down and yes he also has a recessive swine gene I do believe .....

This guy is white feathered and now he is getting a little wheat color in his neck feathers ......

The bomb color pinkish ....

waddles color pinkish

shanks and toes off pinkish ..

Claw's color white as originally clear ...

Beak color off white ........


I only put that up to see if anyone else has something like this and will it change or do I have a roo with pink colors

Never had one before ..... And can I get him to repeat the white with another BCM or any other Marans and if so what or is this a flouk of nature type of thing ..........










gander007

 

[carnivore]

Oh so cut,,,,,, mine turned out to be a little guy ..... Age 3 weeks ..... He looks fat because I put out mashed up hard boiled egg's so I could catch him as they seem to be a little sluggish after munching down and yes he also has a recessive swine gene I do believe ..... This guy is white feathered and now he is getting a little wheat color in his neck feathers ...... The bomb color pinkish .... waddles color pinkish shanks and toes off pinkish .. Claw's color white as originally clear ... Beak color off white ........ I only put that up to see if anyone else has something like this and will it change or do I have a roo with pink colors Never had one before ..... And can I get him to repeat the white with another BCM or any other Marans and if so what or is this a flouk of nature type of thing .......... gander007

I think he is expressing the recessive velociraptor gene!

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: I can sex mine based on combs.... usually they show pretty early in my birds

Marans are a work in progress so the color of chick down is all over the place. It can reflect what they will look like as adults. This is not set in stone but chicks with too much white on the face would be over colored, chicks with little or no white on the face will be too dark and not show much color..... finding that chick that is JUST RIGHT is luck at this point.

I find that middle toe feathers will fall out on chicks. It would be adults with middle toe feathers that would be a problem for showing..... like some DQ's middle toe feathering can be helpful. For example I have cuckoos and the hens pullets are not the best in the feathered leg department. My Cock has GREAT feathered legs and some on the middle toe.... the pairings seem to produce 90-95% chicks with feathered legs I don't think I see middle toe feathering much but that is not a huge issue to me as I don't show. I don't try to breed FOR it but I don't just cull at hatch for it either.

 

[forgetful]

I can sex mine based on combs.... usually they show pretty early in my birds

Marans are a work in progress so the color of chick down is all over the place. It can reflect what they will look like as adults. This is not set in stone but chicks with too much white on the face would be over colored, chicks with little or no white on the face will be too dark and not show much color..... finding that chick that is JUST RIGHT is luck at this point.

I find that middle toe feathers will fall out on chicks. It would be adults with middle toe feathers that would be a problem for showing..... like some DQ's middle toe feathering can be helpful. For example I have cuckoos and the hens pullets are not the best in the feathered leg department. My Cock has GREAT feathered legs and some on the middle toe.... the pairings seem to produce 90-95% chicks with feathered legs I don't think I see middle toe feathering much but that is not a huge issue to me as I don't show. I don't try to breed FOR it but I don't just cull at hatch for it either.

Thank you so much for the response! I'm marking the ones with large combs and thick legs to see if they really are cockerels. And I'll mark the ones with different down colors as well and see how they turn out. I'm glad to hear about the toe feathering. I had two chicks with no feathering at all that went with the blues. I was hoping I didn't make the wrong choice by not picking two with middle toe feathering instead. I am VERY excited about this breed. Marans are so multipurpose. I have RIRs, Barred Rocks, and SL Wyandottes, which, while beautiful and dual purpose, don't have the egg color of the Marans. And my bantam cochin, silkies, and old english bantams are aesthetically pleasing, but not much in the way of functionality.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

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.

Except the part where correctly feathered shanks and outer toeson parent birds sometimes yields chicks with no shank/toe feathering at all.

 

[gander007]

Quote:

Alright I wont even act like I understand what a velociraptor gene is so just like when the doctors talk to me I tell them I went to college and chased girls not books so what did you just say .............

 

[carnivore]

Except the part where correctly feathered shanks and outer toeson parent birds sometimes yields chicks with no shank/toe feathering at all.

Convince me by showing me pure French birds with correct shank feathering throwing chicks with clean legs.
If you have correctly feathered parents throwing clean legged chicks, you gotta wonder where that's coming from, and it isn't the chicks.