Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Lotsapaints]

Ruth I'm not talking about Marans or Olive eggers I'm talking about mutts although there are a few people crossing Marans in with their meat bird with excellent results. You see on these threads crossing sex links with Marans for darker eggs but the Marans is ugly..I think I have some of those at my house

or Polish, really people cross just with whatever they have mostly for fun only a few with some different ideas of creating something. I'm sticking with what I have to work with some are laying nice eggs though not as nice as yours and I have a laying pen so my culls will go in there or my friends will buy what's not good enough to breed because they just want eggs. I hope to never send out eggs that hatch chicks with yellow legs, white tail feathers or a crossed beak...

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Go SLOW girl - - I can't follow all this - - -Clearify plese - - Does this mean you cross the davis and wade lines ? ?

CROSSING LINES - - what does that mean ? ?

Is there a dictionary around for marans ? ?

Crossing lines is crossing one breeding of the same color of Marans to another, such as some of Bev Davis' Stock with Wade Jeane Stock.

 

[geebs]

Crossing lines is crossing one breeding of the same color of Marans to another, such as some of Bev Davis' Stock with Wade Jeane Stock.

X's 2​

 

[snowbird]

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Would it be possible to get a straight on shot from front showing leg set and width and depth of chest? What bloodline is this ? very nice looking Marans.

 

[math ace]

x2 He is a nice looking roo !

 

[geebs]

Okay.... Opinion for posted bird pic...

Looks to be a young rooster, barely mature and not filled in yet...That being said...

The general overall impression of the bird is good. His outline is good. Length of back good and tail angle good length of tail good… comb points needs one more, eye color good. He needs to mature into a heavier bird and a picture as Don said would be helpful.

Horn color good
Eye color good
Wattle… can see one good.
Ear coverts… acceptable..
Amount of melaniser good from this angle
Shank color (up for debate still) good
There is feathering on the toe but to what quality we cannot tell.

Another picture or two could reveal more.

He will likely show more quality as he matures. I would reserve him and watch to see him as an adult after first molt.




Improvement for later offspring: comb and a more even copper color from saddle to hackle though the standard says this is acceptable.

This is only one person’s opinion.

Edited to ad I can pull the critique if you would like me to.. LMK

OOPS... overkill queen here... Sorry... if you werent asking for a critique on the bird... My bad... Reading fast and doing chores at the same time... my bad..


The hens I would use would be correct for the standard and I would test breed for an improved male with a correct comb point count. And my hen might be toward the mahogany/red as opposed to lighter copper just because of the lightness in the hackle though not faulted here.. Always striving for improvement.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
X's 2

Alright, let's talk about this for a moment . . . .

My hens are presley / davis mix. When I contacted presley about the best way to improve their egg color - - -to mate with a davis roo or a presley roo - - - He told me he does not recommend crossing breed lines.

I spoke to another lady who had two branches of the wade jean line - - - something like a c1 and c2 line - - - and she said her hatchings were horrid when she crossed these two lines .. .

So, I am stuck here wondering do I cross or so I not ? ? ?

Who keeps a line pure and who is crossing and who is doing both and tracking their results to determine which scenario plays out best ? ? ??

edited to correct sentence structure

 

[shesaredroan]

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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.

http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x204/chicklady/Eggsandtrophy.jpg

Thank you Snowbird and Ruth for your help in trying to understand this "roundness" question.
I'm rather new at using my hovabator and have made mistakes when placing BCM eggs into my turning trays.........spent a few moments muttering under my breath about WHY does this have to be so hard to decide which end is up.......or is it down?!?!
Ruth your eggs are SO FINE!!! Congratulations, they are such a wonderful representation of what the marans eggs goal is reaching for.
Snowbird, perhaps NOT having 'round' eggs is a good thing.........at least you know which end to put down in the 'bator!!
I want dark eggs BUT I want birds with good conformation too........can't do either if I can't incubate them correctly....ACK!!!
Thank you for your help!!!

 

[haTHOR]

geebs, would you be willing to reply to post 2728 about my roo? :blush: i hate to bug you, but i've learned so much from you and if you have any time or energy for it i would sure appreciate your input. thank you and i feel like i should send you flowers or chocolates or something, i have asked you so many questions.

 

[pawtraitart]

Thanks for the opinions on my roo everybody. I'll take some additional photos and some of the hens I have available. I'm enjoying this whole thread. It's great to see what everyone is working on and it's a wealth of info for a marans newbie such as myself.