Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[math ace]

haThor,

The mossy hen you have pictured - - - - do you know what line she is from ? ? ?

 

[geebs]

Guys before you pitch out all of the copper neck blue birds... do you realized you have to backcross them one time to get copper??? you are pitching out your recipe birds... those are the ones you backcross AGAIN... then you get blue copper with a nice neck.. It doesn't happen the first cross... Mossy... If you have it in your blue birds... you will know... That is a fact... You won't be guessing... It is a striping and stippling of brown and uneveness that is really noticeable... Much like the pictures I posted of the blacks..only it will look like that on blue.. I didn't see what I would call mossiness on Math Ace's bird

Here it is again for reference... I have no blue birds sorry... All I can post is the black... I have had blue birds that were mossy so I can tell you with certainess that it will look like this only on the blue birds instead.

 

[Organics North]

Oh great one geebs.......

Thank you.. So much to learn..
Know that I think about it.... blue x blue will give 25% black birds and those birds with a copper neck will be black copper!? yes?

I simply can not wait until spring to get started hatching and see what I get with my selections..........(Going for BB/S with no copper for know I think..

)

ON

 

[coq au vin]

Quote:
Thanks.

A price increase is coming soon and i'm considering charging even more for the Marans eggs...like $8/doz.

I'll never actually make money on eggs. It's just free labor in exchange for feed.

 

[Debbi]

Organics North ,

Forgive me if I'm wrong here, I don't mean to add to the confusion! I'm learning this myself. If you breed two true Blues, the results will be Blues, Blacks, and Splash. The Blacks won't be Black Coppers, they will be just black, as the copper gene wouldn't be in there. Now, take those blues and breed them to a Black Copper, then you will have Blue Coppers, Black Copper, and Splash Copper? Am I even close to being right here??

 

[geebs]

Yes... Organicsnorth.. that is correct... the coppering is best when you breed the blue hen to the BC male due to the fact that you can house both color hens with one male and get 50 percent of your offspring blue and not have to have splash... (I am not a splash fan) The egg color isn't that great... So two colors can go in one pen... and it keeps dark blue in the program instead of washing out.

 

[X2Farm]

Any chance yall can give a quick critique of my BCM (I think pullet!) She's about 9wks old, give or take a day or two

I know this last one aint the greatest, but it gives a good idea on her stance, if that makes any difference

Not lookin to get into breeding or showing, though I did pick her up from a breeder to take up some $ since he didn't have change for a $20

Just wanna see if yall can tell me how she stacks up, so to speak

 

[ruth]

Quote:
From theory the Spherical egg is supposed to be darker since it takes longer to get through the spray booth. I would not know because mine do not lay spherical eggs wish the did though.

Here's a picture Anita Boyd took at the Wisconsin International Show and she has given me permission to use it. This was the Marans Chicken Club - Egg Show table.

I submitted two sets of eggs - one very dark set but with a pointed end and round end (top upper left) and one set that was perfectly oval - that set won. Personally I liked the dark set best but they weren't all three identical. They still won Second Place and Overall but the "round" set won First Place, Best Overall, and Peoples Choice. Of course, there weren't that many entries so I don't think they would have performed so well if they had a lot of competition. I didn't think the color on the set that won was up to par. It's been too hot for too long here and their paint chutes have stopped working. So, to answer the question, I'm not sure why a "rounder" egg is prefered.

 

[cpartist]

Regarding breeding solid Blues or Blacks to Coppers...
I'm confused here as well....are we talking about breeding pure Blues to Blue Copper or Black Coppers?

Are they not genetically different? I've thought that this was not good practice as they are totally different genotypes?

I've read many sources that say not to mix the two varieties, yet see some are doing this to help egg color in the B/B/S.
Some may appear to be solid blue or black, but are carrying the BCM genes, and are seeing copper leaking?

If doing so, how many generations is needed to breed out the BCM? Is ON, who wants no coppering, seeing an incomplete
crossing with coppering bleeding through? Would ON be better served by continually breeding those with no copper, or by
incorporating genetically solid B/B/S?

Hopefully, the genetics experts will give us some help on this.

 

[jeremy]

Ruth, I'd be more than happy with either sets of those eggs! Way to go!