Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[VillageChicken]

Stickers:
You say you have Blue/Blue Coppers in with your BCM's. Does that mean some of your Blue Coppers don't show copper and are solid blue or are they supposed to be pure Blue? If they are supposed to be genetically blue and not Blue Copper, I would separate them from your BCM's if you want to keep your Blue/Black Copper lines pure.

Technically, BCM's are Birchen as well. Just with Gold instead of Silver, and with Mahogany to make the copper color.
But Birchens are genetically quite different from Black/Blue/Splash. It sounds like these Blue Birchens are mixed with Black/Blue Marans?
I don't know what you're breeding for, but I don't know of too many lines of Black Marans (from which the blue are produced) that have great egg color.
In addition, if you want to sell Birchen or Blue Birchen hatching eggs at any point, it will be very hard to create pure lines since the Blue genetics dominate the Birchen, and
some of your pure Blue Birchens will look just like Blues. Kind of a breeding nightmare/crapshoot.

But if you just want pretty blue birds, and don't care about dark eggs or selling pure hatching eggs, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[pinkchick]

Raven, they are on their way.

Hi Villagechicken.

 

[Ivywoods]

I just feel like putting in a plug for my marans. I have black copper that I got early this past spring. I have about a dozen hens, and 6 roosters that roam the yard. I've had chickens off and on since I was a kid, and I've had a number of different kinds of chickens, but I must say I LOVE these BCM's. The roosters are so friendly and docile. These are probably the friendliest chickens I have ever owned. The hens are pretty quiet and don't like a lot of fuss, and seem to get along well with each other. I love the dark chololate-cherry eggs.

I wish I had a coop 10 times the size of what I've got!

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Where is the dang smilie with the magic wand ? ? ?

TRUST me on this MARANS = COOP enlargement

MARANS = COOP Enlargement

Marans = coop enlargement

 

[enggass]

Are BCM Roos big time crowers? or does it really depend on the individual? How often do they crow? or again, does it depend on the individual?

 

[geebs]

Individual

 

[HenThymes]

Hi Maran peeps.

I have my first marans due to hatch next week.

This is a new breed for me as I mainly raise Orpingtons, so I better get to reading this thread. I am hatching gold cuckoos and cuckoos. Hoping for a few nice hens out of the bunch. Eleven eggs set, today is day 14 so I will candle this evening to see what is going on. Speaking of that, how in the world can you tell what's going on in there, they are sooo dark.

 

[Wynette]

I use a very old slide projector. I can see through concrete walls with that thing.

 

[poularde]

Quote:
Good idea.....

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I think it depends on the age of the roo too. My roo crowed a lot when he was younger. Now that he is hitting the big 1 year mark, he seems to limit the crowing to first thing in the morning .