Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[huckleberryfarm]

Quote:
I tried Wheatens, but both roosters I had were MEAN. I also contacted another breeder in attempts to find one that would not attack me each time I looked at him...they said that their Wheaten roosters were not always gentlemen either. I now have five wheaten girls with no boyfriend. Such a shame! Wheatens are just beautiful!

That's interesting. I had two FCM roos (one black and one blue) that were horrible. One attacked my son and scared him half to death. I now have 5 Wheaten girls and one boy. They are 16 weeks old. Not terribly friendly but not mean either. I'm hoping they stay that way! I think I have one girl that meets the standard fairly well. At least so far. The boy looks good too.

 

[bigspringshatchery]

I'm thinking of ordering a dozen black copper marans eggs from Fitzgerald farm. Has anyone bought eggs from Beth? They are 60 a dozen plus 3 extras. She said they got eggs directly from wade and they had c1 or c2 on them. So what does the cs mean? And is that a good price for the eggs.

 

[Byrdj]

Quote:
His biggest problem is his tail angle. I should be ideally at 45 degrees. Otherwise he looks promising. At five months old, he still has a lot of growing and filling out to do. I would breed him to hens that have a low tail angle to try to correct the problem.
Jeff

 

[geebs]

to give you the short answer.. I agree with Byrde

I do not think it is too much to pay for the good quality eggs/birds that those nice folks have... Enjoy the transaction... Super folks...Dark egg layers.. Really hard to be dissappointed there.... Good luck on a good hatch.. It is a bargain if you get 3 to hatch...One male and two females.. that would be a smoking hot deal!!!. I love my Fitz bird..

 

[sewchick]

A few months ago when my BCM's hatched I did wing sexing. Ok the results are in. I was right on every single one. 4 pullets and 1 cockerel. I wonder why some people said you cannot sex them when they are day old by the wings. I am going to hatch out some more in March and try it again just to make sure. I am not going to hatch them out now because I don't want my cellar full of chickens this winter. The next time I do it if they are all correct then I guess that would mean the person who told me it cannot be done on BCM's just does not know how to do it. I am not trying to start a war here just showing you my results. The wings are very different at one day old. I doubt is was just a coincidence.

My BCM cockerel is not a good looking boy. Not real sure what happened. He looks sad. I dunno. I will take a picture of them sometime soon. I do not think they are show quality. Then again I would not know.


I have had two silkies hatch out yesterday. They are both female. I have had absolutely no problem wing sexing my chicks. It's easy and accurate.

 

[geebs]

You can have good results with some strains... The result for others is VERY different.. I was dead on everytime on the Davis birds but it went out the window on Jesse Bryant birds.

 

[sewchick]

I don't know what lines mine are from. I seem to think wade jeane line. Maybe. I would have thought they would be all the same. Learn something new every day. Now I want to get some of the kind you have and see how they differ. I am really interested in this. I suppose vent sexing would be accurate if one knew how to do it. I have not had very good luck with that way. Seems the chicks get distressed and squawk a lot. It bothers me. Could be I am not gentle. I try to be but seems I have clutz hands. I break at least 2 eggs out of every dozen. Frustrating.

 

[geebs]

Nope... the different lines have traits that really separate them.. And some crosses produce an egg color loss... that is why some ppl try to know what they are breeding so that they can keep from crossing out chances of lighter egg production.. That is how I ride...

I use the wade line and I use breeders that have had birds for at least 3 years... I can trace the steps back to import.. That is just me... Others do it differently.

 

[Darth Egger]

geebs, have you ever rotated several roosters amongst the same group of hens and compared the resulting pullets' egg color?

edit: or has anybody else done it?

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
The Australian Marans Club that has been cited many times on this thread uses Brown-Red to refer to what we call BCM.
I think it is like "Golden Salmon" "Wild type" and "Duckwing" that refer to the same color pattern in different types of chickens depending on when they were developed, and what country you live in.