Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Kassaundra]

Quote:
Ruth, I don't have any stake in this conversation, don't even have any Marans, was just looking at the thread b/c Marans are a breed I am considering, but I had to post that is definately chocolate eggs!!!! The lower right egg absolutely has a seem

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Hi,

The shape of the comb is 5 points total except rosecomb varieties and that would be 8 points.
Extra points on the comb: 1/2 point deduction for each extra point or missing point for the specified comb.
Most other comb defects are 1/2 to 2 points off, so as you see the comb is not worth a lot of points.
The reality is that the comb can change the look of the whole head, so a judge may weigh more heavily than it is worth because it does bad things to the look of the chicken. That is not an APA thing, that is a human nature thing. The point deductions are clearly noted in the SOP.

There are comb DQ's too. Split comb, side springs, comb foreign to the breed etc.

It is a great idea to ask more than one person. It is all in the APA SOP. Maybe they were talking about a specific comb defect when they said it was only one point.

Walt

 

[lildinkem]

Quote:
Hi,

The shape of the comb is 5 points total except rosecomb varieties and that would be 8 points.
Extra points on the comb: 1/2 point deduction for each extra point or missing point for the specified comb.
Most other comb defects are 1/2 to 2 points off, so as you see the comb is not worth a lot of points.
The reality is that the comb can change the look of the whole head, so a judge may weigh more heavily than it is worth because it does bad things to the look of the chicken. That is not an APA thing, that is a human nature thing. The point deductions are clearly noted in the SOP.

There are comb DQ's too. Split comb, side springs, comb foreign to the breed etc.

It is a great idea to ask more than one person. It is all in the APA SOP. Maybe they were talking about a specific comb defect when they said it was only one point.

Walt

The conversation was about the interpretation of what is Medium in Comb size. MAYBE that is where the comb being worth "one point" came in. I am glad you clarified and I did bring this up.
I am trying to stress about type, size, eye color, feather color being the emphasis of the direction of where I was going with the breed. And hadn't thought of the significance opf the comb in my culling. I will now.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Hi,

The shape of the comb is 5 points total except rosecomb varieties and that would be 8 points.
Extra points on the comb: 1/2 point deduction for each extra point or missing point for the specified comb.
Most other comb defects are 1/2 to 2 points off, so as you see the comb is not worth a lot of points.
The reality is that the comb can change the look of the whole head, so a judge may weigh more heavily than it is worth because it does bad things to the look of the chicken. That is not an APA thing, that is a human nature thing. The point deductions are clearly noted in the SOP.

There are comb DQ's too. Split comb, side springs, comb foreign to the breed etc.

It is a great idea to ask more than one person. It is all in the APA SOP. Maybe they were talking about a specific comb defect when they said it was only one point.

Walt

The conversation was about the interpretation of what is Medium in Comb size. MAYBE that is where the comb being worth "one point" came in. I am glad you clarified and I did bring this up.
I am trying to stress about type, size, eye color, feather color being the emphasis of the direction of where I was going with the breed. And hadn't thought of the significance opf the comb in my culling. I will now.

It sounds like that was the case. They were deducting one point for the size of the comb, which would be right. My suggestion to you is to get the body right and then start on the color. Body and size are a lot of points. Eye color is 1/2 to 2 points each eye. I wouldn't cull to heavy on the comb unless you see something that really looks off, because sometimes they get slightly better with age....but they can also get really bad with age. What I'm saying is to check out the positives first and then weight in the comb in the whole package.

The French and MCC Marans Standards are here:

The French standards are on the French web site:

http://marans-club.perso.neuf.fr/standang.htm#standard

The proposed APA standards are on our own web site: http://www.maransusa.org .

For the shape standard, click on "proposed APA standard".

For the color standards, click on "color varieties".

Walt Leonard

 

[berkeleysprings]

.

 

[lildinkem]

Quote:
The conversation was about the interpretation of what is Medium in Comb size. MAYBE that is where the comb being worth "one point" came in. I am glad you clarified and I did bring this up.
I am trying to stress about type, size, eye color, feather color being the emphasis of the direction of where I was going with the breed. And hadn't thought of the significance opf the comb in my culling. I will now.

It sounds like that was the case. They were deducting one point for the size of the comb, which would be right. My suggestion to you is to get the body right and then start on the color. Body and size are a lot of points. Eye color is 1/2 to 2 points each eye. I wouldn't cull to heavy on the comb unless you see something that really looks off, because sometimes they get slightly better with age....but they can also get really bad with age. What I'm saying is to check out the positives first and then weight in the comb in the whole package.

The French and MCC Marans Standards are here:

The French standards are on the French web site:

http://marans-club.perso.neuf.fr/standang.htm#standard

The proposed APA standards are on our own web site: http://www.maransusa.org .

For the shape standard, click on "proposed APA standard".

For the color standards, click on "color varieties".

Walt Leonard

All that makes sense to me. I for sure will more heavily weigh the comb if it presents a problem. Too me, like I mentioned the face of a great bird should also include a good comb.
I guess the best thing to do is wait till the APA grinds out the SOP for the breed before I start getting too wound up over the tail angle. At this time no one can be doing any wrong since they have no SOP to go by. And I am sure there is plenty to work on instead of searching for a better tail in my flock. A from the sounds of it, we'll all have plenty of time before the APA puts out the an SOP for any Marans. From the way it was put earlier, we may be waitng years not months till it gets finalized. And I guess what was also said earlier is true. Don't show our birds till Feb of next year. Or longer?

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
It sounds like that was the case. They were deducting one point for the size of the comb, which would be right. My suggestion to you is to get the body right and then start on the color. Body and size are a lot of points. Eye color is 1/2 to 2 points each eye. I wouldn't cull to heavy on the comb unless you see something that really looks off, because sometimes they get slightly better with age....but they can also get really bad with age. What I'm saying is to check out the positives first and then weight in the comb in the whole package.

The French and MCC Marans Standards are here:

The French standards are on the French web site:

http://marans-club.perso.neuf.fr/standang.htm#standard

The proposed APA standards are on our own web site: http://www.maransusa.org .

For the shape standard, click on "proposed APA standard".

For the color standards, click on "color varieties".

Walt Leonard

All that makes sense to me. I for sure will more heavily weigh the comb if it presents a problem. Too me, like I mentioned the face of a great bird should also include a good comb.
I guess the best thing to do is wait till the APA grinds out the SOP for the breed before I start getting too wound up over the tail angle. At this time no one can be doing any wrong since they have no SOP to go by. And I am sure there is plenty to work on instead of searching for a better tail in my flock. A from the sounds of it, we'll all have plenty of time before the APA puts out the an SOP for any Marans. From the way it was put earlier, we may be waitng years not months till it gets finalized. And I guess what was also said earlier is true. Don't show our birds till Feb of next year. Or longer?

The qualifying meet is in Feb, I believe, so it won't be too long. They have to have the final Standard before then. I think they are very close to it now. The tail angle won't change from 45 degrees. You can still show Marans before then and actually it is a good idea. The more that the judges see the better. The Marans Standard is pretty much done. There are only a few details that are missing. Undercolor color in the BC and wCite in the wings/tail of the BC. check the MCC site above for the Standard. THERE WILL BE VERY MINOR CHANGES TO THE STANDARD ON THE MCC SITE.

Walt

 

[Debbi]

Ruth,

Yes, looks funny to me! There is also another seller on ebay stealing pics, and I reported them to the actual owner of the pic. One thing you can do to slow them down is to put a watermark on your pictures. Ebay does not tolerate copyright infringement, but sometimes it takes a couple of complaints to get through to them. Even with a watermark on your pics, these theives still swipe pics from other auctions, like the one I reported! The key here is to look for a smaller picture than the rest of them. When you go to enlarge it, many of those pics won't enlarge, that should be a tip. At least if you watermark your pics, ebay can see it and block the other seller's auction. I've had a few auctions stolen from me in the past (nothing to do with chickens), that the theives either stole the pics, or in one case, stole the whole auction ver batum!

 

[pinkchick]

I've said this before but I must say it again.............ALL OF YOU in the thread are TOP DRAWER in my opinion and I just wanted to let you all know how much I appreciate you. Thank you all for your contributions and insights, if it wasn't for you all and the MCC I would be clueless.

I also wanted to take a moment and give a shout out to my BYC buddies, Diana, Les and daughter who follow this thread religously but haven't posted yet. HI PEEPS!!!!!!!!!!

Can't wait until you join us!

 

[Debbi]

Walt,

I sure am glad to know that cosmetic "tricks" won't be allowed in the APA shows! Knowing that may actually get me into showing Marans, if and when, I produce one worthy enough of showing! As important as it is to get the breed shown in numbers to show the APA that they should be recognized, I can't see going willy-nilly and throwing a bunch of culls into the fray just to up the numbers! I assume, the APA is looking for consistency in the breed type, so when they are seeing severely different tail angles, colors, and combs, well, that just sort of defeats the purpose. Just my catch on the subject, and please correct me if I'm wrong here! Now, that said, are they now working on changing the allowance of color of the hackles to allow for the lighter colors to just be a fault/defect, rather than a DQ? Were there any Marans in the show you went to this past weekend?