Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[geebs]

Karen in Cali... here is a picture.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Karen, it is much easier to take the color off then it is to put it on. Mossiness in Marans is where you would have brown lacing or brown spotting mostly on the back.

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:

MINE did that too when they first started laying. One of my SLACKERS laid me a egg today. Two of my girls have taken a couple of months vaction. The one that decided to go back to work today laid a spotted egg like yours. So, I'll be watching tomorrow to see if those spots get closer and the egg gets darker. . .

I haven't had 3 marans eggs on the same day since last May . . . . SAD, oh so SAD.

Boo Hoo!!!!!!!! I wish mine would start laying again. I haven't had a BCM egg in weeks...........

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
Karen, it is much easier to take the color off then it is to put it on. Mossiness in Marans is where you would have brown lacing or brown spotting mostly on the back.

Thanks Geebs for the picture & thanks Don for the explanation. That is not what I have.... I need a book of pictures of all the faults & no-nos. My color is not on the backs or butts but in front on the chest (breast). Not just color but the shaft shows light like in a Brown leghorn hen. I have no rooster like that & these all came from the same trio of BCM that don't show that.??????? Maybe a couple will do for now the rest will just go to the layer pen which is where they were originally meant to go anyway....LOL

 

[cpartist]

Quote:
I've posted this picture before of a mossy, but this girl is the POSTER CHILD of mossiness:

her younger self:

I got my hatching eggs from a breeder that included a couple of olive egger eggs,
and for the longest time, I thought this girl was the Olive Egger. It wasn't until they
were maybe 12 weeks old, that I realized my nice black BCM pullet with good coppering
had a beard and pea comb

Now, I'm not really that blind, but they were raised by a broody....I just let her do her
thing, and I never got that close to them.

I sold her as a layer as I felt that even if she threw some normal offspring, I was afraid that
gene (or lack of it...I think mossiness is caused by the lack of a modifying gene) would
always be lurking...

 

[math ace]

Quote:
KAREN,

UPLOAD your pictures - - just a few at a time - - and let us HELP you.
I thought my blues were mossy and was ready to cull / sell them.
The ladies here INSISTED that I post pictures first.

So, I humored them. The BLUE EXPERTS here said
"HELLO - - That is not mossiness". BLUES need to be breed twice to get good color.
Your girls need a hook up with a BCM and the chicks will be just fine !"

I said gleefully, "WOW - - you are kidding ! They aren't mossy - YIPPEE."

GUESS WHAT'S IN MY COOLER RIGHT NOW
- - some BLUE COPPER MARANS .....
They are looking for that second coat of BLUE PAINT !

POST your pics Karen . . . These folks are GREAT at helping you identify the weakness and strengths of your flock

 

[cpartist]

Quote:
My two big girls that have been laying since January have definately slacked off in the color department,
but my 3 of my 6 month old pullets have been laying for about three weeks. Color is a little variable from
day to day, sometimes more speckled, sometimes concentrated on one end; as they get their groove on,
but they are giving me my dark egg "fix" and the eggs are getting a little larger each day.

I'm almost positive the 4 eggs on the left are from my Black Copper pullet, as they are rounder with a matte
finish like Mama's to the right of them. The next set of 4 are more stippled, oval and glossy like their Blue Copper
Mama's to the right.

That Blue Copper hen is a laying machine...that is about her 220th egg laid since she started in January.
Not even the Florida heat slowed her down. Last week I moved her to the juvie pen, (to breed to my better roo),
she WAS NOT happy with me...paced the pen, gave the roo stink eye when he approached her until he backed off.
She did not quit laying, though, but she did EAT the next couple of eggs she laid

. I quick moved her back
to the old pen and Beau (her BOBO) before she taught this bad habit to the youngsters. The next day she gave
me a perfectly intact egg...so I'm hoping her egg destruction binge was simply an attempt to comunicate her anger
with me

 

[Chicky Tocks]

Quote:

OMG those are beautiful! Thanks for the mossiness question and answers too! I've had my FBCM breed for a year now but I still have lots to learn. I haven't really been working on any standards other than I want that dark red egg in my egg basket. However my pen of marans are segregated to their own pen with one EE and an Olive Egger residing so that I can keep a line of olive eggers. Fortunately I don't have any mossiness in my flock. I do have a beautiful Wade Jean rooster who is actually one of two BCM roos, but the other is dominant since my WJ is blind in one eye from an accident. All of my girls are black where they should be and copper elsewhere. I'll need to get some good pics taken and posted. Here's just one of some BCM and CM during a freerange. They were about 6 months old in this photo. The hen is Angelica who was being treated for a bumblefoot at the time.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
I have never raised BC Marans or any Marans for that matter. I have raised thousands of Brown red OEG's and moderns. The black color of the OEG hens is a quite unique looking black and the Modern game females have the same unique black. Modern game breeders many times cross silver birchens with brown reds to improve type in the brown reds and it does not seem to adversely affect the color of the brown reds, but I don't think OEG breeders ever do that. From what I can see on here, the BC black is yet a different type of black. A black that would fit the SOP description of black. Surface-lustrous greenish black. it then goes on to say: Dull black in dark legged varieties and slate in yellow legged varieties.

Walt

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Karen, it is much easier to take the color off then it is to put it on. Mossiness in Marans is where you would have brown lacing or brown spotting mostly on the back.

Thanks Geebs for the picture & thanks Don for the explanation. That is not what I have.... I need a book of pictures of all the faults & no-nos. My color is not on the backs or butts but in front on the chest (breast). Not just color but the shaft shows light like in a Brown leghorn hen. I have no rooster like that & these all came from the same trio of BCM that don't show that.??????? Maybe a couple will do for now the rest will just go to the layer pen which is where they were originally meant to go anyway....LOL

Take a look at the Welsummer, the shafting is a no no.