Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

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Hi greencastle!!!! How have you been, good to see ya!

Are you looking to breed one color variety or are you looking to breed more than one color of Marans.

With the Black Copper, Blue Copper and Splash Copper a person can run all three colors together in the same pen and get pure Black Copper, Blue Copper and Splash Copper birds from those matings. This is the same with solid Blue, Black and Splash Marans.

A fun variety maybe could be the Cuckoo Marans and run some solid Blue Marans in with them and make your own Blue Cuckoos. Oh and these would be sexlinked. Fun!

Wheatens breed true and can be sexed very early on. Wheatens are very beautiful birds.

Thanks again geebs for the kind words.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

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I believe a recipe is in order, ma'am!

How about some Maranchiladas?

Send it over! Mmmmmm or... Marales Maran+tamales...? If I only knew how to make good tamales!

Your so funny! But if anyone has some good chicken recipes to use up old roos send em over. My freezer is full of them and I need to make room for more

 

[shelleyb1969]

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I believe a recipe is in order, ma'am!

How about some Maranchiladas?

Send it over! Mmmmmm or... Marales Maran+tamales...? If I only knew how to make good tamales!

Your so funny! But if anyone has some good chicken recipes to use up old roos send em over. My freezer is full of them and I need to make room for more

Oh honey...I don't have a recipe for Maranchiladas. I was hoping you did!

I'm just beginning my Maran flock, so I'm not at the culling phase yet.

 

[Wynette]

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I believe a recipe is in order, ma'am!

How about some Maranchiladas?

Send it over! Mmmmmm or... Marales Maran+tamales...? If I only knew how to make good tamales!

Your so funny! But if anyone has some good chicken recipes to use up old roos send em over. My freezer is full of them and I need to make room for more

 

[sewchick]

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Can someone please share how to sex BCM babies?

Where'd I miss that?

Two of my broodies just hatched some BCMs and Blue Marans chicks...I'd love to know what they are already.

The females will have uneven feathers on the wing tips that looks kind of like a dandelion after it has gone by.
The males have even none dandelion looking wing tips.

You can only do this the first 3 days after that they all tend to look alike. Hope this helps.

 

[shelleyb1969]

Thanks pw! Now I've gotta go look at my chicks again.

 

[Wynette]

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Can someone please share how to sex BCM babies?

Where'd I miss that?

Two of my broodies just hatched some BCMs and Blue Marans chicks...I'd love to know what they are already.

The females will have uneven feathers on the wing tips that looks kind of like a dandelion after it has gone by.
The males have even none dandelion looking wing tips.

You can only do this the first 3 days after that they all tend to look alike. Hope this helps.

Unfortunately, feather sexing only works for American breeds - doesn't work for Marans. On the foot color thing...I had a Marans breeder on BYC tell me that FOR SURE I had just hatched a pullet....due to the foot color...guess what? It ended up to be a HUGE rooster! Let me see if I have a pic, it was a neat pic, just coming out of the shell....YUP! Here's the pic:

I was UBER excited about this hatch, it was a line that is renowned (German line) for being really good...but, sadly, only one hatched, it was a cockerel (which is what I wanted), but he was probably the poorest example of a Marans I'd ever seen. Sigh....

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Can someone please share how to sex BCM babies?

Where'd I miss that?

Two of my broodies just hatched some BCMs and Blue Marans chicks...I'd love to know what they are already.

The females will have uneven feathers on the wing tips that looks kind of like a dandelion after it has gone by.
The males have even none dandelion looking wing tips.

You can only do this the first 3 days after that they all tend to look alike. Hope this helps.

I thought that it was the other way around, am I confused? Nevermind, don't answer that....lol!

I watch for the girls to have even wing feathers and the boys have un-even feathers. My females feather out faster than the males and I notice nice even feathers on the wings of the females and they are longer, the boys seem to have uneven wing feathers and they tend to be shorter. I've also noticed that the females shoulder feathers start to come in faster than the males, but of course this is not the tell tale method, I really only make guesses at this time and mark the ones I think are roos and wait another 3 weeks or so before making a definite ID. This is not always 100% accurate either, the best way is to wait until they are about 6-8 weeks. Some can be so sneaky you won't know until they crow.

 

[shelleyb1969]

Oh Wynette...how disappointing.

Been there, done that with other breeds, so I feel your pain.

 

[snowbird]

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Okay, here's what I see.
#1 - tail angle much too high, comb has too many points, lack of shank featheirng. I personally like his coloring, and he has good eye color. He appears to be tall, hopefully he'll fill out more.

#2 - tail angle is better, although it looks a bit short, but again, it's too early to make a determination in that rea. comb has too many points, lack of shank feathering. He has good eye color. He looks the most balanced overall of the 3 to me, but it's very early to tell that. His size appears to be good - he actually looks a bit more filled out to me that #1 (?)

#3 - This guy has the best tail IMO, and he's fairly balanced. His shank feathering is fine. Can't really see his comb that well, eye appears to be good but it's difficult to see in this pic. I like his coloring.

Overall, if these were mine and I absolutely had to make a choice based on these pics, I'd keep #3.

Oh - just looked at your 4-month old - I like him better than the other 3 younger ones. I personally prefer his coloring, and he has a super nice, broad chest (which we can't tell from the 3 younger boys) - his shank feathering is okay, not optimum, but decent, and I think he has 5 points in his comb, and good eye color. His tail may be just a hair high, but that could be because he raised it due to shyness of getting his pic taken or something.

The pullets...I would personally not use. They have too much hackle color for my personal liking, and too much of it. Again, just me, though. Thanks for posting pics!!!

Wynette, If you are referring to the pullets in post # 316, I wish all of my Black Copper were colored in the Hackle this way, sure would save me a lot of head ache trying to get them that way. Only my opinion but think the Hackle is great. Don