Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Corazon Ranch]

Thanks for the info! I am looking at McMurray's catalog and they do call the Cuckoos "chocolate" eggers. But they are trying to make money and sell chicks! Given that I live in such a rural area it will be virtually impossible to get good dark egg-layers from a private breeder, so I guess I'll put that goal on the back burner for now.

Thanks again!

 

[scflock]

Thanks for the info! I am looking at McMurray's catalog and they do call the Cuckoos "chocolate" eggers. But they are trying to make money and sell chicks! Given that I live in such a rural area it will be virtually impossible to get good dark egg-layers from a private breeder, so I guess I'll put that goal on the back burner for now.

Thanks again!

Many good breeders will ship anywhere. How many total chickens do you want? Do you want a rooster? Could you split an order with someone else? I've ordered chicks from Texas and FL, had them sent 2 day priority, and out of 30 chicks have only lost one during shipping

 

[Cockatrice6420]

SC got his from trial/error/and good lineage. I got my cuckoos from hatchery, not a feathered shank one. I got my BCM flock from a breeder the birds look workable but the eggs aren't as dark as desired. Darker than my cuckoos but not dark enough. If you have the time @donrae, talk to SC about getting at least hatching eggs, it's a less expensive way to go and through breeders you'd be likely to get straight run anyhow.

 

[scflock]

SC got his from trial/error/and good lineage. I got my cuckoos from hatchery, not a feathered shank one. I got my BCM flock from a breeder the birds look workable but the eggs aren't as dark as desired. Darker than my cuckoos but not dark enough. If you have the time @donrae, talk to SC about getting at least hatching eggs, it's a less expensive way to go and through breeders you'd be likely to get straight run anyhow.

Trial and error is right, and expensive
It took me 3 years to get to the point that I can offer my advice on this subject, and the best advice I can give is to order good birds from a good breeder. Chicks are the cheap part of keeping chickens, so start with the best you can. If you just want a few pullets for the back yard and don't care about SOP or how dark the eggs are, by all means, order from a hatchery. I just hate to see you order cuckoo Marans from a hatchery that advertises them as "chocolate egg layers" and be disappointed. That's exactly what happened to me

 

[KirstieJG]

Heloo maran experts! I have a question...

My cockerel is a beautiful cuckoo maran, I hatched him from a dark olive coloured egg last summer. This is him a couple of months ago:




I have bred him with my black copper maran who lays beautiful dark brown eggs. Firstly, will the offspring lay olive or brown eggs? and secondly, will I be able to sex them at hatch, or later by colour?

The reason that im asking is that I have read a few posts onhere that seem to indicate a sex linked trait with this combination.

 

[chicken pickin]

Heloo maran experts! I have a question...

My cockerel is a beautiful cuckoo maran, I hatched him from a dark olive coloured egg last summer. This is him a couple of months ago:




I have bred him with my black copper maran who lays beautiful dark brown eggs. Firstly, will the offspring lay olive or brown eggs? and secondly, will I be able to sex them at hatch, or later by colour?

The reason that im asking is that I have read a few posts onhere that seem to indicate a sex linked trait with this combination.

If he hatched from an olive egg then he is an "Olive Egger" not a Marans. Breeding him to a Black Copper Marans will give you mixed breed chickens that will likely laysome shade of brown, possibly green/olive if the male has a blue egg gene and passes on the blue egg gene to the off spring. This cross is not sexlink, in order for them to be sexlink the female in the equation needs to have the barring and the male solid.I believe chicks will be black and some barred, but color is no indication on sex for this cross. With the male being a cross himself already Im sure other things can pop up in the chicks as well.

 

[KirstieJG]

Okay thats fine. Thank you.

I got his egg from a farm nearby that specialises in rare breeds and these although olive were labelled Maran, when he hatched he was cuckoo coloured, the other two olive eggs hatched cuckoo colours too, all male but he was saved from the pot as the best looking boy. My BCM I bought as a BCM from elsewhere.

I did think it odd that the egg was olive but thought there was a possible olive line in the marans as they are known for varied egg colours.

I have a photo of the egg here:

 

[KF0002]

I posted on the Cuckoo and White Marans forum but so far haven't gotten a reply yet so I figured I would try here. I am new to french cuckoo marans, and marans in general. The lady I bought my eggs from sent me 13 eggs, all but 2 had very nice fairly dark color. The two lighter eggs were a creamy brown with dark freckles, and I almost didn't set them but wanted to get as many chicks as I could get. Long story short, after throwing out a few early quitters (one of which was one of the lighter eggs) I had 10 that looked good. Then there was a power outage the day before lockdown and I only ended up with 6. Out of the 6, one little dark cuckoo pullet came clean legged. Out of the others that were feather legged there are 2 nicely feather legged roos, 1 sparsely feather legged roo, and 2 sparsely feather legged pullets. In the pictures of the parent stock, the roos have good feathering on their legs and the hens' legs are pretty sparsely feathered. So that needs to be improved in this line for sure. I also want to breed for the darkest egg color I can achieve. That is my goal with my black coppers as well. Mind you, my chicks are just roughly 2 weeks old. I was able to sex them at hatch because barred birds are generally easy to sex at hatch. So far it is looking like I was correct with sexing.

My question is this: Should I cull the clean legged pullet from my planned breeding pen or maybe just use her as strictly a layer? I want to keep the two roos with good feathering on their legs (one in the main pen, and one for a backup), and definitely the two feather legged pullets. I will cull the roo with sparse feathers on his legs. Or would you go ahead and breed off the clean legged pullet just this one year and then cull her once I get a few more feather legged pullets from the bunch? I will be culling any clean legged chicks hatched at birth in an attempt to breed the clean legged gene out of this line.

We are pretty strict when it comes to what goes in our breeding pens for other breeds, so that part of me wants to cull the clean legged pullet. I just want to get the two cents of some experienced Marans breeders.

I would love to hear any thoughts. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[KF0002]

Okay thats fine. Thank you.

I got his egg from a farm nearby that specialises in rare breeds and these although olive were labelled Maran, when he hatched he was cuckoo coloured, the other two olive eggs hatched cuckoo colours too, all male but he was saved from the pot as the best looking boy. My BCM I bought as a BCM from elsewhere.

I did think it odd that the egg was olive but thought there was a possible olive line in the marans as they are known for varied egg colours.

I have a photo of the egg here:

I am pretty new to Marans, but I would bet your "cuckoo" looking roo has some creme legbar in his lineage. Maybe a cuckoo / creme legbar cross from an Olive Egger project? That would be the only way a cuckoo marans cross could produce an olive egg from what I have read. Any of the experienced Marans folk feel free to please correct me if I'm wrong.

Edited to add: Your olive egger roo bred back to a dark brown egg layer will likely produce more brown egg laying offspring, how dark of brown would depend on how dark your BCM hen lays. I have read that crossing lines of Marans tends to hurt the egg color, but again that is just from reading and not based on experience. I also don't think you could produce a sex-linked cross with your olive egger roo and your BCM hen. I would think both male and female chicks would likely come barred. If you had a barred hen and a non-barred roo you could produce sex linked chicks.

 

[KF0002]

If I understand the barred genetics correctly, a double barred rooster will pass one set of barring traits to both his male and female offspring and they would thus be single barred. A single barred hen can only pass her barring onto her male offspring, and none to the females. I am still learning about chicken genetics. It makes my head swim.