Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[geebs]

Keep us posted.... When you are going to set the eggies and a walk through the whole deal... It could be it's own thread...

Wow... I have goosebumps!!!
Get the camera out... he he

 

[shelleyb1969]

 

[Wynette]

Quote:

Well, I promised DH that I wouldn't hatch any more this year...but I never said a thing about someone ELSE hatching for me!

 

[shelleyb1969]

Quote:

 

[Wynette]

Quote:

Don't worry...got it covered!

 

[Aleighz]

Quote:
Congratulations on your hatch and congrats on your Marans!

The only Marans that can be feather sexed are Cuckoo and Wheaten, Cuckoo's can be sexed upon hatch and Wheatens can be sexed by about 1 week or so. The other varieties of Marans a person must wait. My Black Copper and Blue Copper cockerels will usually start to show a little fat pinkish comb that is noticeably bigger than the females by about 10-14 days, and usually my females tend to feather up faster than the males.

Thanks for the info! Ok, so now I have a another question.

Out of my five I did ended up getting a Wheaten... How do I tell if its a male of female? I will try to take a pic and post it soon. Thanks

- Leigh

 

[littledel]

Quote:
I agree, the only thing I saw was the tail may be a little long. But not too long. A very nice bird overall and if you don't want him, just send him my way.

 

[Wynette]

Thanks for all your feedback - I hope no one's holding back! We need to know good AND bad!

 

[snowbird]

geebs, yes , I know that you can change the post after posting, but never do as if someone reads and I change the content then they may not read a second time. In the future will only be posting some faults that I have found in my flock and will not hold back on faults. Will leave the criticing to others. I only have one way to give my opinion and that is straight forward. Will have some close ups on how the Hackle and Saddle feathers should be colored.

 

[6littlechickies]

OK, going out on a limb here and going to post some pics for opinions (PLEASE!).

these are the first BCM pics I've shown anyone here on BYC so I'm a little nervous of what ya'll think but I'll take the good with the BAD! just want someone with a better eye to take a look. We've only been working with the breed for about a year now, first group of birds--well let's just say they were tasty but that's about the only nice thing I can say about em! Most from that first round were not even feather legged and many had yellow legs! UGH. sooo, we learned our lesson early on and have been trying to better the flock with more conforming stock. Trying to find the best out of what we have and hatch eggs from there to increase the flock and their conformity.

I know mine are not nearly as nice as many others but we are trying to work from what we have. We've done lots and lots of culling and I know there is more still to be done but I'm hoping at least one of these roo's is something we can work with. I do have one other roo that is a potential, I will have to upload some pics of him. At first he was on the cull list but I'm tempted to keep him around as a backup. He just seems too big for standard and his tail is a bit off angle, he is nice looking though (I think) and he's super friendly.

These are young still (about 4 months I believe) but they look a LOT better than what we had before. Still not happy with egg color from the few hens that are laying (few that we did keep from the initial round) but am hopeful for the next group (still a few months away).

Here are two of the roo's that I like the best (for all I know tho they should be culled). Opinions PLEASE!
Roo #1

Roo #2

and then a few hens (I think/hope--gender identification is soooo NOT my forte!). cannot say positively that these are all diff hens as everyone was scrambling to get outside this morning but i'm pretty sure they are all diff ones. need to put them in a line up and snap pics!

hen #1

hen #2

hen #3

hen #4

hen #5

please, please, PLEASE

give me some feedback.