Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

GEEBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Where are ya???

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
So if you have a nice young cockerel with that lopped partly over comb it looks like a beret how heritable will it be he's 4 months and it just showed up...or should I just sharpen my knife. I sure have problems with getting a nice roo this one is my nicest biggest so far Golden

In my Marans I have found that once their combs turn sideways on the blade they never straighten up again. As my birds are mostly wade jeane I find the Blade is lopped on a lot of the females. In my Black Copper males this year I will have to cut back on the number of matings as I have culled most of the young males this year. I only have five males left from last year. I think it is better to cut back on matings, and not use inferior males.

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Pink chick: Those are some sexy mamas!! I just love thier size

ZZ top's 'Tush' is going through my head right now ~ is that wrong this early in the morning? LOL!

 

[Lotsapaints]

Thanks Don. I knew I should throw him in the butcher pen at least he's big and broad. I'm sure lack of knowing what to cull for is the cause of my problems I still have 3 younger ones to watch grow out they are from darker eggs this one was just so nice and wide in the tail. I'll be down to single mating with all my culls if the Splash baby doesn't have a major fault show up as he's only 3 months. Culls show up in every breed I have a beautiful Silver Penciled Rock with stubs....it seems that for every really nice bird I grow out something isn't right if the bird is average it has no faults

I might need to buy another freezer

 

[tracyork]

Hi folks
Here are a few photos of the light colored chicks I hatched from cuckoo marans eggs 4 weeks ago this weekend. There were several opinions about what they were, and some interest in seeing progress shots, so here they are...

It looks like I have one cockerel and one pullet. The color differences are starting to become apparent between the two.

[Original post was #2655, in case that helps]

Tracy

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
I say male and female also, be interesting to see how they turn out.

 

[tracyork]

And here are a few photos of the rest. I haven't had cuckoo marans before, so please excuse the potentially silly questions. I think I have had the bad luck of hatching 5 out of 7 cockerels (again!) There are 5 dark chicks and 2 light chicks from the prior post. My initial impression was that only one of the dark ones was distinctly darker than the rest (pullet), but I am an eternal optimist, so I was hoping to be wrong about that - ha ha! Here are a few shots of the gray ones. I couldn't get them all in one shot. One appears to be more 'barred' than cuckoo, and he is definitely a cockerel. Several of the others seem to have some comb development, but not as advanced (and no wattles) compared to the yellow and barred ones. The darkest one and the little yellow one are obviously pullets.

I'm crossing my fingers that the one in the back/left in the photo 2 & 3 might turn out to be a pullet too... Didn't get a very good shot of it though.

thanks for the input.
Tracy

 

[pinkchick]

tracy~

They sure are cute! I will be anxious to see them all grown up too! I don't work with Cuckoos but those Golden ones are something wonderful!

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
I believe one light pullet and one dark pullet.

 

[snowbird]

Bev, If you happen to see this post would like for you to reply if possible. I am thinking about culling all of my female BC that have the brown soft feathers below the vent. I believe these had some mossy when they were Juve and shedded out ok, but they still have the brown undercolor and I suspect it comes from Wheaten blood in them some where. These can be spotted when they are chicks as they have a brownish down color. The winter hatch for me I will try and cull all of these at hatch and see if it eliminates this brownish color. This is in the male and female. Looks like I might only have a few males for breeding.