Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[fowlman01]

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Wheaten is next. I believe that is scheduled for Shawnee 12/11-12.

Walt

 

[Debbi]

Illia ~ LOVE your Blue Wheaton boy!!!

I'm starting to lean towards the blues right now, and now I have to see blue wheatons?? You enablers!!!!

Don ~ I've got a cockerel without any white fluff or feathers, so far. He hasn't even had a juvie molt yet, so that could change. However, he has other faults that will probably exclude him from the breeding pen, such as a short back, and lighter hackle color. I'm really hoping my two young cockerels will be what I am after. So far, they are looking like they will be very dark though. Hard to get a good BCM roo, and I like you, would like to see these "qualifying" boys!

 

[Illia]

It really does excite me so much to think of showing Marans, though. . . I just want to get my BC flock straight though. I'm hoping your cockerel will really help that, because as you even mentioned with yours - All my girls, from 3 different sources, have hardly any coppering.

Otherwise, yes, one of my boys has white in the base of his tail and a couple feathers above his eyes. But, he's got plenty other faults anyway.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Wheaten is next. I believe that is scheduled for Shawnee 12/11-12.

Walt

Walt, Bev said the Wheaten were going at Crossroads show next fall. Don

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
Wheaten is next. I believe that is scheduled for Shawnee 12/11-12.

Walt

Walt, Bev said the Wheaten were going at Crossroads show next fall. Don

That's right....sorry! I have my qualifying meets mixed up. We have the self blue Silkies scheduled for Shawnee.

Walt

 

[fdnick]

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I just bought 2 really nice BC hens with no coppering (came in a flock with the copper blue roo i bought).. they still make good breeders? yes?

Illia.. just wanted to mention got a text from your blue wheaten roo , he wanted to come vist Spokane

Denna

 

[Illia]

Awesome! I really would love to make a trip to Crossroads next year and contribute my flock into getting the color accepted.

Boy that means I'll be bringing a lot of birds. Sale, show, the Marans. . . How fun.

fdnick: If you have a cock for the undercoppered hens that still has good egg color and displays a decent or above normal amount of copper, yes.

 

[ruth]

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I'll second that. My oh my - I'd love to have some that look like that.

 

[ruth]

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The qualifying meet for the BC's is in Feb. There needs to be 50 GOOD BC's to pass the test. The 50 birds need to be an equal mix of C,H,K,P....so 25 cocks/cockerels of Good type and color are needed to pass. I won't be there, but the qualifying judge is scheduled to be Pat Malone of TX. Past President of the APA. The current President of the APA and former member of the APA Standard Revision Committee will also be present to oversee the meet. This will not be an automatic acceptance of the variety....they will have to be of good type and color. Males and females. I would guess that there will be plenty of pics available after the judging.

Walt Leonard

I have the same question I've had since I started reading about APA proposed standards ----

If the serious breeders out there are having to kill/cull "hundreds" of birds to get one that meets most of the APA proposed standards, then why is that the standard? Shouldn't it be more like the "rare exception"???? If they've killed off literally hundreds to get that one and bring it to the show, does that mean that it will reproduce true?

Like Don, I'd like to see all the "near standard" birds - and if you have one, do you have more than one - are they reproducing true - or are you still killing them off by the hundreds to get one?

Okay - you can substitute the word "cull" for "kill" but I believe most of you keep talking about your very full freezers and having to buy extra freezers and have made no secret of the fact that you are killing the substandards by the "hundreds". And, since the check list seems to keep growing and growing, of every other little thing to look for, I'd probably have to "cull" my entire flock since I don't think any of them would make the cut either. I know a lot of other BCM owners/breeders have now grown discouraged and given up.

I know when I ask, what to me seems so obvious, it gets a lot of people all heated up and I don't understand why. If the BCM breeders out there can repeatedly post about how many they have to kill or cull to get the one, I would think they would be willing to talk about "why"???

In my simple, cave woman, logic - a standard should mean the birds meet that description more often than not.

 

[Wynette]

Monique, you cull/kill/sell off....many, many birds in ANY breed that you breed to the standard. You're always looking for perfection, and even in a breed that's been around for 100 years, they are not yet perfect. I think that's what gets me a tad annoyed is folks stating how many they are culling and equating that to mean they are not ready for acceptance to the standard. I just don't agree. I have several breeds, some of which have been around (accepted) for decades, and I still cull MANY birds and keep just handfulls of the best. If all were close to perfect and all were breeding true, what the point of having shows be? Just my opinion.