Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

Hey there maran lovers. I am new here and new to the chicken world. Just been reading what kind of things I learn. I have 3 birchen marans 1 male 2 females. I've been reading and came across the whole feathers having gold is "bad" can someone explain why.

Gold would mean there was a copper in the back ground, probably. Silver birds should not have any gold leakage. VERY hard to get gold out of a bird.

 

[Mike10]

So meaning it's not pure

 

[Mike10]

Gold would mean there was a copper in the back ground, probably.  Silver birds should not have any gold leakage.  VERY hard to get gold out of a bird. 

Meaning not pure.? Why is that bad or is it bad.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Woke up to 2 little babies in the nest! I'm a little confused as to why the one is yellow. Both hatched from my BCM hen's eggs. The father was most likely my BCM roo. If it wasn't him then it would've been my Blue copper roo. The other two eggs are the brahma/marans mixes. No sign of movement with them yet but I couldn't really look long.

 

[NestingHillsSC]

Meaning not pure.? Why is that bad or is it bad.

If you are new to chickens, first thing you should probably do is find and read the SOP(Standard of Perfection) of the birds you have or want. Will give you a lot of information about the birds you have. The color type etc. Then when somebody gives you information on color etc you'll understand why they are giving it to you. It's all based off the SOP for that line. And PURE is probably not the best word to use since no chicken is PURE. They are all crossed with something to get that particular breed. Probably why it's so hard to keep the colors and type right. You will find that you will never have the perfect bird. You can only get close. But then again that's the fun of breeding chickens. Trying to get that special one.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

How exciting!

Congrats!

Either way, if both parents are black, all the chicks will be also. Please post pictures!

Yes they will be black in color but a black chick from BBS breeding is NOT a BCM. They are fine to use in a BBS program but not to breed into BCM strains.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Woke up to 2 little babies in the nest! I'm a little confused as to why the one is yellow. Both hatched from my BCM hen's eggs. The father was most likely my BCM roo. If it wasn't him then it would've been my Blue copper roo. The other two eggs are the brahma/marans mixes. No sign of movement with them yet but I couldn't really look long.

It could be that your BCMs carry recessive white. If the chick feathers out pure snow white, that's what's happening and not something you want to have in BCM. A blue X black breeding will only produce blue or black.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: Who knows..... it could have been breed with something else that gave the gold. It is just a hard thing to remove. It is not a sex link trait and can be passed on randomly. It can even pop up in off spring from parents that don't express it. The red in a birchen would not scream not pure I would look for other things that would tell me that...... leg color would be first. I would test to make sure there is no hidden genes you don't want.

I have some Silver Penciled Wyandotte Bantams. I have been fighting the gold leaking from a recent cross with partridge to improve type..... you can't get rid of it without having at least one bird without the red leaking preferable a cockerel. I just got one this week end to see that improves my SPW..... if not this is my last season with them.

 

[ladycat]

Woke up to 2 little babies in the nest! I'm a little confused as to why the one is yellow. Both hatched from my BCM hen's eggs. The father was most likely my BCM roo. If it wasn't him then it would've been my Blue copper roo. The other two eggs are the brahma/marans mixes. No sign of movement with them yet but I couldn't really look long.

As far as I've been able to find out, BCM's can carry wheaten. That could be a wheaten chick, although wheatens usually don't show that much red in the down..

 

[berkeleysprings]

As far as I've been able to find out, BCM's can carry wheaten. That could be a wheaten chick, although wheatens usually don't show that much red in the down..

that would most likely be wheatn Maran I have no experience with black copper but they do carry recessive geene but I am surprised it came out looking like a pure Wheaton check