Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[ladycat]

Does anyone have cuckoo marns?

I have Cuckoo Marans.

 

[Yoyo with chick]

Does anyone have cuckoo marns?

I have Cuckoo Marans. 

Are they french or non feather legged?

 

[ladycat]

They have feathered legs. My 2 roosters came from April Howington.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Does anyone have cuckoo marns?

I have one pullet only and she has nicely feathered shanks/legs. DRippy here on BYC was my source.

 

[Yoyo with chick]

They have feathered legs. My 2 roosters came from April Howington.

what would happen if you breed feather legged with clean?

 

[ellymayRans]

I have a question. ..a few. ..
I bred my clean shanked Golden Cuckoo Marans hen with my Black Copper Marans roo heavily feathered shanks and the outcome is a single barred Golden Cuckoo Marans roo. He is 5 months old and has only a few feathers on each leg. My goal is to darken eggs and incorporate the feathered shanks however I'm afraid that with this male back to his mother is just going to keep me in circles.. I will breed to see if he can add to the darkening of eggs but can I really expect a mix of feathered shanks considering how light to non they both have?

Any advice is appreciated!

 

[3riverschick]

I don't understand why you bred the 2 colors together when there are quality birds of each color with the leg feathering you desire. Now your color balancing is screwed up whether you get the feathered legs you want or not. Plus the folks who buy the chicks you don't need are getting crossed alleles ( eWh/EE or eWh/ER) and mixed colors even if they can't see them) I don't get it. Why not just buy a bird of the color and feathering you need for the mating?
Confused,
Karen

 

[DMRippy]

I have a question. ..a few. ..
I bred my clean shanked Golden Cuckoo Marans hen with my Black Copper Marans roo heavily feathered shanks and the outcome is a single barred Golden Cuckoo Marans roo. He is 5 months old and has only a few feathers on each leg. My goal is to darken eggs and incorporate the feathered shanks however I'm afraid that with this male back to his mother is just going to keep me in circles.. I will breed to see if he can add to the darkening of eggs but can I really expect a mix of feathered shanks considering how light to non they both have?

Any advice is appreciated!

I can tell you what will happen with the barring. She will pass it off to ALL the cockerels and he will pass it off to HALF his chicks. So you will get a mix of single and double barred cockerels and solid pullets and barred pullets.

As for the egg color.... I think you will get a mixed bag of egg color from your pullets. Pick the darkest layers and breed them back to this roo. Soon you will get darker eggs in theory.

Leg feathering you will just have to see. Birds can carry the genes but not express them. When you breed them together see what you get and cull for that if you can. You might have to pick your battle between egg color and feathered legs.

I have a cuckoo Marans cock that has middle toe feathering and with him over my hens with lightly feathered legs and clean legs, I hatch about 90-95% with feathered legs. I am going to work on egg color next. I have some black pullets I hatched from my birchen pen that are laying good color eggs now so I am going to cross those pullets with my cock and use the birds from that cross to improve egg color next year..... going to take years to improve.

 

[Aussie-Chook]

I have three Black Copper Maran roos and one lovely Blue Copper Maran pullet ... about 19 weeks. When should I expect her to start laying? Also, they are part of a mixed flock (10 birds) right now. If I separate a pair for breeding, can I reintroduce them back into the flock?

Jazzie ... our only Maran pullet - Blue Copper

Abbot, the runt of the Black Copper Maran roos

Gru the Roo, our giant Black Copper Maran!

Henry, the most handsome of our Black Copper Maran Roos

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I have three Black Copper Maran roos and one lovely Blue Copper Maran pullet ... about 19 weeks. When should I expect her to start laying? Also, they are part of a mixed flock (10 birds) right now. If I separate a pair for breeding, can I reintroduce them back into the flock? Jazzie ... our only Maran pullet - Blue Copper Abbot, the runt of the Black Copper Maran roos Gru the Roo, our giant Black Copper Maran! Henry, the most handsome of our Black Copper Maran Roos

my BCM pullet is about 24 weeks old now and still not laying but her "sister" who is a Marans/brahma mix just laid her first egg the other day. She's also 24 weeks old so I'd say you still have a few weeks at least. Jazzie must be a great name for Blue Copper Marans, I had one named Jazzy lol