Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

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Congrats!!!

 

[pinkchick]

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Don~
What do you do with a bird that may have a white wing tip feather upon feathering out and then that white wing tip feather molts out?

At present I do not have a problem with white anywhere on the juvenile feathers. After the first molt I cull any white except for the foot feathering and I might cull this in the future. The only way to eliminate this white feathering is to cull them all.

I might be a little harder on the fowl than most but if I can not improve them to where they are acceptable to me then I will cull them all. The males with white will never leave my farm alive.

Thanks, I was just curious if you encountered the white feathers in the younger birds.

 

[kathyinmo]

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That makes me laugh, because if that was all I had to worry about, I would be thrilled!

ETA: Meaning, I have so much to work on..... the white feathers are the least of my concern.

 

[Soaring Chicks]

Thank you I could not believe it when gathering eggs. Being so young I did not think she would really hatch them. Very happy! Changing her name to Pretty Mama now. Pretty eyes was her name (pretty) My first broody to actually hatch any chicks!

 

[Debbi]

Way to go Pretty Mama!!

 

[Soaring Chicks]

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Thank you very much!

 

[Debbi]

snowbird wrote:
At present I do not have a problem with white anywhere on the juvenile feathers. After the first molt I cull any white except for the foot feathering and I might cull this in the future. The only way to eliminate this white feathering is to cull them all.


Don, why would you not (yet) cull for a white foot feather as well? Is it because they may moult later than the body feathers? Have you found any connection between the chicks with a lot of white and how they turn out as adults? I had 4 chicks, 3 of which were very oddly colored, to the point that some here thought they were cross-breds. They now just turned two months old, and the pullets are starting to look very nice, and the roo, while not so nice conformation wise, is getting his proper copper coloring in the hackles. All four of them have two very prominent primary wing feathers, but so far, that is the only white I see. Very interesting subject..

 

[Wynette]

Interesting subject, indeed. I've seen many in my flock begin with juvenile primary white wing feathers and lose them at first molt.

 

[Debbi]

Wynette,

You say "many", but not all of yours have juvenile white primaries? Wonder if there is anything in the gene pool that would give these white primaries to some and not others? Maybe that may be a key to something recessive going on here? Gees, it's been years since I've been involved in this kind of thing, starting to try to draw on the old memory banks!

 

[geebs]

I have seen the black travel down the feather shaft and change color in white feathers... That fascinates me.... How the black travels through the feathers from the body through the shaft till the feather is as black as the rest...