Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[snowbird]

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Tail break is something the judges use mostly.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Quote:
Tail break is something the judges use mostly.

Well we are all smarter today!

 

[snowbird]

Since we are talking about the Tail break. What is a pinched tail and what can be done to eliminate it from your flock. I can help with this since I have had Brahma for better than 30 year.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Pinched tail? Well I have learned about that a bit in the Delaware thread. I would never have known to look for it without help. And then...you can't stop seeing it!

If I am correct the tail (from the back) should form a wide ^ shape and not be all squished together. Yes? I also read that the spread of the legs correlates to the pinched tail (I think)

Legs too close together and a pinched tail go hand in hand.

 

[Lotsapaints]

I'm in class

and pinched tails go with a narrow shallow body "weedy" I think is the term that is a common trait in the Dellies.....and can you show us a picture of the blade that is wrong you said something about that and how bad is one with 7 points I've read on the other posts to use a 4,5 and 6....of course you need to watch combs on your hens too. My Wellie roo has 4 points his hatchmate had that 5 blade with the sawtooth look on one of the points..

 

[Germaine_11.20]

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Weedy, that's right. Are we the only classmates right now? Everyone else is tardy and has to stay after class. Hehehe You're funny Lotsapaints

 

[snowbird]

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Yes all of the things mentioned have an effect on the pinched tail. Myself I would rather referr to the proper tail set to be a small inverted U . The Narrow back is one thing if we eliminate it you will have less pinched tails. Leg set, broad chest and broad back are kinda tied together, if you have one you usually have all three and then you will have the nice open tail. The quickest way to improve the tail is find a nice open tail male and breed him over you best shape tail female. This is the main reason I will not breed a narrow back female.

Will look at some of the combs already on board and referr them so you can see the Blade that has points on it. If you stay with the 4-6 point range for the breeders you will be ok. If you have twisted combs do not breed, we can correct some of these while trying to improve type.

These are just some thoughts of mine and hope they will help some.

 

[snowbird]

The amount of points on a comb are only important if you are showing against a bird of equal grade, the one with five points wins if the are equal all other ways. The Texture of the comb is very important also.

 

[Criskin]

My Ebay eggs arrived today. Now I understand how hard it is to photograph an egg...especially when you have to use an iPhone! As many pics as I took, I couldn't get the colors of the photos true to life. The richness of the color varies among the eggs and I have yet to get my shade cards in but 5 of them are very dark. The rest look light until you compare them to a regular brown egg and side by side they are much darker. I wasn't expecting much and planned to just use these as layers so I'm not disappointed. I would like to be able to measure them up against a shade card, though!

 

[Debbi]

Cristin,

As you say, it's hard to tell from the pics, but on my monitor they look like 4, 5, and 6 (6 being the darkest ones). Good luck on your hatch!!