Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Organics North]

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I am surly not one to answer your question...But, regarding my post/question to Geebs.. I was talking about blue birds that have copper in the neck... I believe she was simply reminding us of Andalusian genetics.. (Not breeding a non coppered bird to a coppered bird)

Me,, I am trying to get to pure BB/S. The stock I am working with clearly has some copper in their genetics yet. (Some birds show it some not.) I assume the solid color Marans are derived from the coppers, being the breed is so "young" in the US.


Ruth!.. I was at the Wisconsin poultry show and signed up at the Marans table..

I saw the eggs pictured in person...

coq au vin,
Wow $8 a dozen... It will be interesting to find out where the ceiling is in your market.

ON

 

[math ace]

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Ok you mossy pros - - IS THIS AN EXAMPLE OF MOSSINESS ? ?
I see redish / brown at the ends of the black feathers - - -Is it mossiness, bad lighting, or something else . . . .

SNOWHUNTER - - - In the REAL LIFE - are the feathers solid dark black on the body or do they REALLY have that red / brown undertone at the ends of the feathers ? ?

 

[snowbird]

Just a question to some of the people breeding the Marans, How do you go about crossing the colors when no one really knows what is in the background lurking ready to show up? I have found a lot of things I have been told on different forums to be untrue when tried. There is a lot of bad info. out there that is helping no one that is trying to breed good Marans. I will try some of the supposed wrong way to breed Marans Ideas this season. I have found that it is hard to work on more than one problem area at a time. How can a Marans breeder go by the Genetics formulas when you really have no idea of what is in the background. These genetic faults don't just go away, you just never know when they are going to show . By having a line of Marans for say three years doesn't mean you know what is lurking.

I would like to say please do not cull Marans because of what any of us here on BYC say. Get differing opinions first and then decide. Just remember there is no accepted standard, and the end result could and should have changes. If you are breeding to show in the USA the only Standard that matters is the APA standard as this is how they will be judged.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Ok you mossy pros - - IS THIS AN EXAMPLE OF MOSSINESS ? ?
I see redish / brown at the ends of the black feathers - - -Is it mossiness, bad lighting, or something else . . . .

SNOWHUNTER - - - In the REAL LIFE - are the feathers solid dark black on the body or do they REALLY have that red / brown undertone at the ends of the feathers ? ?

In this picture what you see is what is called MOSSY.

 

[X2Farm]

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Lots of them have the brown/copper/red undertone, though its not visible unless you take a second look, instead of just a glance. She's very much meshed, as far as color, with no distinct seperation from hackle to body feathers (which means she's not proper color, correct?)
Here's some more I just took, that show the color better with better lighting, also a comparison to her blue sister, who seems to have a better distinct coloring without the "smuttiness"

And here is her blue Sister, who seems to have much better coloring.

They both seem to have a VERY good body type though.. deep chest, good heartgirth, They're bigger then all my 10wk mixed flock, even though they're about a week younger.

 

[flgardengirl]

snowhunter, is that guineas I see in the background?

I have my bayhorsebonnies black coppers and some golden cuckoos in with my 5 guineas that hatched about the same time. I did it to get the guineas to be a little tamer and learn to go in the coop at night while they are still young. I think it is time to separate them now though because the male guinea is becoming aggressive to the female chickens..which I think means they may be laying soon!

 

[snowbird]

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I learned the hard way not to keep Guinea and chickens together as young fowl. The young guinea pecked all the points off the chicken combs, and had to cull all the chickens.

 

[X2Farm]

Yup, those are my guineas, we have 8 of em! They've all grown up together, and get along great, thankfully!!!! Haven't had any comb pecking problems yet, but, I'll definitely keep an eye out for it.

 

[flgardengirl]

Yeah, I think you are probably right snowbird, I was going on the advice of peeps from the guinea thread on socializing guineas and they do seem tamer than some I have seen not raised with the chickens. They let me pet them and will jump up on the top of thier fence in the run and want me to pet them, which is pretty good for guineas lol. They just don't like to be picked up.
As a group, I think they were doing okay until just recently when the female chickens started to get a little redder in the face and combs. The male guineas are starting to chase the female hens and kinda body slam them! I don't know what that means exactly but I don't like it lol. I have some young roos in there and so far the guineas don't care about them. The little roos do grab the guineas by the skin of thier heads and drag them away from the food dish if the guineas get in thier way when they are eating lol. Tomorrow, I am going to do a lot of moving chickens around. Oh boy, I get to integrate 5 bcm pullets into the blue and black copper pen...grrr. Not sure about the golden cuckoo pullets yet because I don't have thier coop ready yet.

 

[fowlman01]

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Great observations. and very true. Genetic formula's do not mean anything if you don't know the genetic makeup of your birds.........which is very unlikely. In addition not all geneticists agree on the formulas. Genetic formulas have nothing to do with the shape of the bird, which is really the most important part of the chicken.
It is difficult and sometimes impossible to work on more than one thing at a time. I don't raise Marans, but I have raised tens of thousands of chickens and I would start on shape first and when I got that I would then work on color. I breed for shape by putting birds together that will compliment each other. (if a male has a high tail, put him with a female with a low tail etc),

Breeding chickens is very different than breeding most other animals and the colors are much more complex than dogs, cats etc.

In any event, you have noticed something that some people never figure out. I look at a chicken as a genetic package whose contents is unknown until I have bred enough birds to know what will happen with the stock I have. Sometimes that comes quickly and sometimes not.

Walt Leonard