Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Germaine_11.20]

China, I am no expert and learning too. The only thing in both roo's that I can see that could be an issue is they both have too much red in their breast feathers.

However--if you aren't showing them it doesn't matter and they will help balance the too black hen from what I have read. I am keeping an over red male myself for just that reason.

As for the black hen, 10 months seems an awful long time to wait for the copper to show up. If she doesn't have it by 6 months then I don't think she will get much more.

I have about 6 of that type who I am breeding to the over red male and we will see what comes out. This is how we learn! And with the help of all the ones with much more knowledge.

I can't help you with the blues, I don't have any.

A big THANK YOU to all of you who take the time to help the rest of us who need it. You are APPRECIATED!

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Learning as much as you can is a GREAT goal. There is a LOT of information in the 242 pages of this thread. Many long time breeders have offered advice. They have posted pictures of good and poor stock with critique. We have even had some postings from Bev Davis herself. Although you may not have time to read them all in one sitting, , , , , you may want to go back and look at them in small increments (like 5 pages at a time). WARNING: Some of the information on breeding is very DEEP.

Your roo's coloring looks good. Eye color looks good. Legs look to be slate and feathered - -- both appropriately.

However, he looks Long and Lean to me. It could be the angle the picture was taken from or it could be his youth. Marans should be a stocky breed - - - chunky. Roos should have a wide chest. Your boy needs to fill out more. Marans can take a year and half before they are fully developed

So, give the young man some more time to mature. He is showing good potential.

Your second posting had the roo sitting on your daughter's lap. He will need to be standing like the other picture to give good feedback

Great assessment of the bird math ace and good advice about reading through the prior posts. It seems daunting, but there is a ton of info in this thread that some may not want to go over again. To get the best critique of a bird you should have a profile, front, top and rear shot of a bird. The most important is the profile pic. It is very hard to get a good picture of a chicken. People can only assess what they see in the pic and most of the time the birds are at some strange angle, so it becomes impossible to really know if the bird is shallow or just standing funny. It is also difficult to critique young birds unless they have a glaring fault.

Walt

 

[pinkchick]

I agree with Walt, nice job with your explanation Math! You have picked up tons and tons of info in just a short amount of time....you go girl!

Walt, Thanks for all your contributions. I follow your posts over at the MCC very closely and I will tell you that I have learned so much from you and Ms. Bev and BYC that I will never be able to thank you all enough.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Thanks! I love your profile pic!

Walt

 

[pinkchick]

Thanks! When I stumbled across that picture I just knew it had to be my avatar! I'm a PINK-O-HOLIC and then to find a photo of a pink chick.......well it was a match made in chickendom.

 

[geebs]

Math Ace Well put.... I second that!!

 

[math ace]

Thanks everybody - - - Walt, pink, and geebs.

I am eating and breathing all the info on this web site - - - following the welsummer, sussex, wyandotte, marans and heritage thread faithfully. I joined BYC last Dec 2009 and knew NOTHING about birds before that!

I still don't understand a LOT of what is said about the genetics.

My FBCM roo is Bev Davis . . . I adore him . . . BUT I spotted a single long white feather in his wing today when he flapped his wing. He is 6 - 7 months old - - - - -

1.) PLEASE, tell me there is hope for this. Will it go away or is he too old and going to keep it ?

2.) Will it be a fault or a DQ under the proposed standards? ? ?

3.) Is it possible to breed him and get a roo that won't have the white feather ?


Sometimes, I get discouraged with all I hear on this thread with the marans. I almost get the impression that no one has a FBCM that would meet the proposed standards. If that is the case and people like Davis and Jean who have been doing this for YEARS and YEARS do not have birds that meet the standards, then seriously is there any hope that I could EVER have a bird worth labeling FBCM ? ? ?

 

[Wynette]

Germaine - I know I'm somewhat "late to the party" on commenting on your boys, and my opinions are amateur, at best...but, I wanted to give my two cents on them:

#7 blue – I like his length of back, and his coloring – I personally like the darker copper coloring in the hackles, and this guy definitely has that. I like that his chest is solid black – I know a few copper chest feathers are acceptable, but this is something that I personally cull for; I like solid black chests. His comb isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t so much bother me. Looks like he has nice shank feathering. Eye color looks good. I like the set and fullness of his tail – both are nice, in my amateur opinion.

#1 blue – I don’t like this boy as much as #7 – his comb is just…funky. Sorry! Also, he has the lighter copper colored hackles, which is not to my personal preference. I DO like his length of back and tail – both set & fullness (I’m not sure what is meant by “pinched” – I’ll look into that). However, that lighter colored hackle and comb just don’t make for an overall pretty picture, IMO. #7 looks much more balanced overall, to me.

#3 blue – I REALLY like this guy, except I’d like to see a longer length of back. But, he looks nice in size, good tail, nice coloring, good shank feathering, good eyes – he’s got a very nice overall look to him. Tail is very nice, I like his coloring…and he’s got a nice comb! Woot! You know how I like nice combs! I like his nice, full chest, and it appears he has a solid black chest, which I prefer.

Dark eyes – well, nutshell: if he were mine, I’d keep him due to him coming from such a dark egg. THAT would be, for me, a good enough reason to keep him. I would pair him with the best hen I had that would offset the negatives (good eye color, a long neck, more copper) and do single mating, and do several back-to-back hatches of just that hen’s eggs with him. He does have a nice, long back – I can’t see that well, but it appears he has a nice comb.

#20 blue to me is VERY nice overall. I would prefer a darker copper hackle, but it’s not incorrect. I like his comb…he’s a bit gangly looking, but would likely eventually fill out. I think he’s very nice!

#18 pink I’m not keen on; he just doesn’t look very balanced to me. It could be the angle of the pictures, but he appears to be “front heavy”. To me, he’s not bad, but not great. You have, IMHO, much more nice boys to choose from.

I also weigh heavily on attitude; I like a rooster who is on the very dominant side, bordering on aggressive, without being nasty. They seem to range better with the flock, and they are better breeders. I’ve had my share of super docile Marans roosters in the past, and they are just not very good breeders, at least in my experience.

I think that you have a VERY nice assortment to choose from, and I wish you the very best of luck going forward!! Great job!

I'm way behind in reading this thread, it's going so darned fast! I'll get caught up so I can participate intelligently!

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
I am on my way out to do some judging this weekend, but I will give you the quick version. The white feather is a DQ in the General DQ's. (foreign color) They are still doing some tweeking on the Marans Standard. Pull the feather and see how it grows in. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. Don't feed the bird any scratch feed. Cross your fingers and hope it doesn't come back. The white in the wings/tails seems to be a problem, but after seeing one attempt at qualifying and also other birds at different shows, I am confident that they will qualify for the SOP. This is not the only breed that has this problem.

Off to the show...

Walt

 

[geebs]

If the bird hasn't molted then I wouldn't worry to much.... I hadn't heard about pulling out the feather but that sounds like a GREAT IDEA... So trying that if I get any with white feathers.