Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Wynette]

Don, would be nice if someone would hatch out a "sport" that was very black, no brown soft feathers on the hiney, that had GOOD hackle color. We could sure make some strides with those!

 

[snowbird]

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Not trying to put your males down but if you have mostly Balck colored neither of the males will give what you would like. The Dark male would just give you more black.

 

[Wynette]

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My babies are saying..."MOMMA, you are so pretty!!"

AWE! Cheryl, you should see her all cleaned up. She's a really pretty girl - I just love her!

 

[flgardengirl]

Most of my female BCMs are very dark also. I kinda like that look. Only one of the female bcms is pure black and one mossy. There are a few that have a good amount of medium (correct) copper on thier hackles but most have a small amount of dark copper. I wonder if this comes from the separate lines. I know there will always be the off color in any line but in each line there must be a certain amount of copper than is a constant. I am gonna write all mine down and how much copper each bird has and how it is distributed on their body. Then look for patterns.
My oldest son is going to college for computer programming, maybe he can make me up something to keep track of all this marans stuff lol when he gets a chance.

 

[snowbird]

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Wynette it is possible to get the female that is black with no brown soft feathers and nice color hackles. I have a few and plan on picturing all my females, the good and the bad. Will try and do the best colored ones first. Don

 

[snowbird]

Wynette, I should say that I do not believe the Hackle white undercolor is in anyway connected to the white wing and tail feathers, two seperate faults. In all of my last hatches about 5 months ago did not have any white wing or tails, but did have some with the hackle white undercolor. Don

 

[Debbi]

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Hi Don,

Were the ones with the white undercolor males or females? If females, did they have the proper hackle coloring?

 

[Wynette]

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Interesting. Any that I had in the past that had the white wing or tail feathers also had the white under the hackles as well. They are long gone from my flock, but I'd always just assumed they were all in the same vein as far as where it came from. Good to know they are not.

 

[Wynette]

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Hi Don,

Were the ones with the white undercolor males or females? If females, did they have the proper hackle coloring?

Debbi - I've never had a female with the white, only males.

 

[snowbird]

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Hi Don,

Were the ones with the white undercolor males or females? If females, did they have the proper hackle coloring?

Hi Debbi, I have never had a female with the white undercolor or white wing or tail, all males. I should also say keep a close eye on the real light leg color on males and female, I do not have any of those as they were culled.