Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[snowbird]

Quote:
If he is 6-7 months should of already molted. Sometimes you will never notice on the first molt. The hackle undercolor will always be there regardless if he has molted or not. Some say they do not see a problem with the undercolor so might want to get another opinion.

 

[Debbi]

Don,

So does the juvenile molt count as their first molt? My birds have all been dropping feathers left and right, but no one is looking patchy or bald. Thankfully, I'm seeing a lot of white feathers being shed, and my cockerel is growing in a lot of new hackle feathers when I checked him out a couple of days ago. This has been going on for about 3 weeks now, so is this considered a "real" molt?

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Yes, the juve molt is considered the first molt. Did he have white undercoat under the hackle feather ?

 

[math ace]

Quote:
If he is 6-7 months should of already molted. Sometimes you will never notice on the first molt. The hackle undercolor will always be there regardless if he has molted or not. Some say they do not see a problem with the undercolor so might want to get another opinion.

Thanks Don. I think I might be OK with the wing feather because it really does look like the black is taking over the feather.

So now, I just need some folks to come on with the second or third opinion about the hackle feather having a white base - - Dq, fault or no problemo !

 

[Newyorkrita]

Quote:
X 47

Nothing else hatched

Its was my first time hatching and I know I did so many things wrong. I didn't know what I was doing with my humidity that first week and I just filled up the one water tray in the genesis like the directions said to do. When I realised it should be monitered, I found out my humidity was 85% and above. Now I know better.

PLus I decided I did not want to hatch in my Genesis. Bought a Brower Top Hatch. Found I could keep the temp there steady if I kept the temp probe in one spot but moving the probe around it read a different mumber wherever I put it. And at least 5 degree and over difference. Then the very last thing that happened is that I was using the hatch upright in egg cartons method. But the first two chicks first hatched were Marans and they rolled the other Marans eggs out of the egg carton. The next hatchling died as it pipped downside on the wet paper towel and drowned before it even got out of the egg.

I have taken the four hatched chicks out, I sprayed down the remaining eggs but I don't expect them to hatch. Just leaving them just in case. I have 4 hatchlings, two BCM and two olive eggers. One of the Marens, the first one hatched can not get up off its belly and stand. The legs are not spraddle legged and the chick is strong, just something not right there with the legs.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
If he is 6-7 months should of already molted. Sometimes you will never notice on the first molt. The hackle undercolor will always be there regardless if he has molted or not. Some say they do not see a problem with the undercolor so might want to get another opinion.

Thanks Don. I think I might be OK with the wing feather because it really does look like the black is taking over the feather.

So now, I just need some folks to come on with the second or third opinion about the hackle feather having a white base - - Dq, fault or no problemo !

One more culling of the youngest birds and will have culled all the white undercolor males from my flock. I will have a shortage of good males this year but would rather have 10-12 really good ones if possible. By doing all the culling I believe my winter hatch will be a lot better as for culls I hope. I should also say I know the male that produced all the white undercolor chicks. I knew he had the white wing and tail feathers and listened to others instead of going with my gut feeling. My main point is I want to git rid of the junk just as fast as I possibly can.

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
Yes, the juve molt is considered the first molt. Did he have white undercoat under the hackle feather ?

Thanks Don. Yes, the white fluff is just now coming to the surface and molting out now on his hackle area and the base of tail. He also had three white primaries on the left side and two on the right. The right side primaries are all black and the left has like 1/2 of a feather still white. All the white feathers were full length, but now they are either all black or the one that is half black/white. A huge amount of pin feathers are coming into his hackle area now. While the pullets shed some feathers, it was nothing like what is going on with the cockerel.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Thanks Don. I think I might be OK with the wing feather because it really does look like the black is taking over the feather.

So now, I just need some folks to come on with the second or third opinion about the hackle feather having a white base - - Dq, fault or no problemo !

One more culling of the youngest birds and will have culled all the white undercolor males from my flock. I will have a shortage of good males this year but would rather have 10-12 really good ones if possible. By doing all the culling I believe my winter hatch will be a lot better as for culls I hope. I should also say I know the male that produced all the white undercolor chicks. I knew he had the white wing and tail feathers and listened to others instead of going with my gut feeling. My main point is I want to git rid of the junk just as fast as I possibly can.

I promise to cull my junk as soon as I can, BUT he is my only male. The other male I had was much worse and I got rid of him a couple of months ago. My sweet boy doesn't seem to have any white in the tail. He only has the 1 wing feather and I know it only takes one feather to knock me out of the standards game. It was ALL white and now is about 3/4 black. So I am keeping the faith with him and hopefully he'll produce 1 male without the white wing feather. . . . . . .

I have NEVER heard anybody talk about the hackle feathers have white roots. . . . . . Come now everyone . . . go show your roos a little loving and check out their hackle feathers. Are they solid copper to the skin OR do they change to white the last inch near the skin

 

[flgardengirl]

Mathace:
Do you think it is possible that your roo's feather may have been pulled out by another chicken and then grew back in white? I have a black orpington hen that had no white feathers at all. One day she got into one o the wrong pens (a bachelor pen) and those roos ganged up on her and also pulled out all her neck feathers and a few on top of her head. There were about four feathers that started growing back in pure white. Now that they are a few inches long, you can plainly see that they are growing in black at the bottom while the top half of the feather is white. I don't know why they did that but I suspect it was because they were traumatically pulled out. I can post pics of the actual feathers if anyone wants to see them tomorrow....

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I did not see his white feather until a couple of months ago, but then again I never looked for. One day he spread his wing and BAM - - There was a LONG WHITE WING feather. I thought OMG - - I am done for. Oh well, I won't have show quality birds and there is NADA I can do about it

So, a couple of days ago it was Lice and Mites inspection time. My roo decided to get a little fresh with me when I tried to pick up a hen, so I made sure his inspection was VERY THROUGH. We had a little party

when I saw that his LONG WHITE WING feather was mostly black.

Then

we started saying some really inventative BAD things when we spotted those white bases of the hackle feathers !