Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[chasehope]

here is a picture of one of our golden cuckoo babies! It looks like only 3 of the babies developed fully and to my suprise, 1 of them is black and has feathered legs? We did have a period where one of the hens kept getting out, so she must have met up with either the blue copper rooster or the silverlaced standard cochin rooster? I dont know which, but I was NOT expecting black or feathered shanks from these eggs!

 

[fdnick]

I know for a fact not all postal workers care about the word "fragile"..
i had purchased a dozen eggs from two finished show Seramas and they were quite spendy little eggs.. I knew the eggs would be delivered this day and was pretty excited.. when the postal van pulled up (we are pretty rural and have two big gates out front to keep the dogs in) a temp barely got out of the van and just threw the box over the fence.. needless to say it is a good thing she was not there by the time i cleared the front door and ran up to the top of the drive LOL!!! I was pretty upset.. talk about instant rage (now i can smile about it, at the time i was furious) my normal delivery lady got quite the earfull the next day!!! I still had a pretty good hatch but no thanks to the PO..

 

[Wynette]

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[fdnick]

Hi Chasehope..
I do not know much about the cuckoo genetics but is there a chance you could get a standard cuckoo out of goldens, perhaps a throwback?
Denna

 

[cejunes]

Just a quick question... Are Cuckoo Marans eggs supposed to be as dark as the Black Copper Marans or are they a little bit lighter?

 

[BevDavis]

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Glad you brought up this question. I just went to the Marans Chicken Club USA site, and there is no mention of Splash. Blues call for a bluish, slatey gray; Blue Coppers call for slate and dark slate (hens). Good question that I would like to know the answer to as well!

Hi

Blue birds do have blue legs and a splash has a double dose of the blue gene. The blue gene is a diluting gene so you will get various shades of it from a light blue to an almost black that is hard to distinguish from a black Marans. The same applies to the splash, some are almost white and some a light blue. The leg color will reflect the feather color so if you have a very light colored splash the legs will be almost white as well.

Bev

 

[BevDavis]

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Hi

The date is just right for me.

Bev

 

[fdnick]

I have never had Cuckoos.. I do not think any of the colors are as dark as the black coppers.. from my experience (i may be wrong) the black coppers seem to be darker as they do not seem to lay as much as the others.. i always got 30% less eggs from my black compared to my wheatens..
Denna

 

[BevDavis]

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Hi

We have two problems in the Marans breed. The mossy that is in the WJ line is because a BC was crossed with a wheaten. In my lines it's because the black pigmentation doesn't cover all of the feather. Some birds have an odd feather and some don't have it at all. In both lines it's these birds that lay the darkest eggs.

Bev

 

[BevDavis]

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Have you seen other blue birchen? i can not find info anywhere on them. I must be looking in the wrong place. How would I breed him to improve and get more?

Ok, I found the pictures I was looking at....heres the link
http://www.marans.eu/varieang.htm
Only it doesnt list them as blue birchen, just birchen. I guess I thought it was the same think b/c they say on here that they are not recognized, like the other blues...
Is a blue birchen the same as birchen?

Hi

Yes, the blue birchen is the same as the black birchen but blue. What they mean by it not having been accepted yet is that the French haven't had it accepted yet by their APA. We can get various colors accepted here that the French haven't had accepted, we are a different country.

Bev