Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

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Merry Christmas to you Keith! Your eggs are beautiful! Good to see you pop in again.

 

[pinkchick]

Good Morning Everyone!

Raven~ Thanks for the update! Still crossing my fingers bigtime for them!

Debbi~ How egg-citing! Anymore pips this morning?

Keara~ Update please......we need to know how those babies are doing!

bikechick~ Lotsa luck coming your way too!

Hi Chef! flgarden! Lotsa! ON! We miss our friends too when we don't see ya'll for a while!

Wynette~ Loved the link! I miss having a baby goaties around! I am on the look out for 2 more babies to bring home this spring, my oldest pygmy Auntie Baaabs passed late this summer. I miss her lots. Thanks for sharing!

 

[VillageChicken]

I have an 8 week old rooster that's starting to crow already. Not really a real crow (he actually sounds like a crow!) He's the one with the white spangles on his chest who feathered out and grew a huge comb really early.
I'm curious if anyone has seen any correlation between an early maturing rooster and hens that reach POL early.

For example if there are lines that have early maturing roosters, do the hens also reach POL earlier?

or

If you have a rooster who matured early, do his offspring reach POL early?

I know there is wide discrepancy between when certain hens reach POL. Surely there must be some heritable factors involved?

Particularly if one is breeding for dark eggs, it would sure be nice to have your pullets start at 5-6 months versus 8-9 months!

 

[pinkchick]

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Morning!

Funny you bring that up I was thinking about the same thing.....one of the youngest cockerels that I have started crowing very early at 8 weeks like your little man, a couple of pullets from that same batch of birds started laying before 5 months of age as well. Wouldn't that be great if there was a connection between the 2?

How are those chickies by the way?

 

[Keara]

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I put the wheezing/sneezing hen back out in the shop with the other 3 GFF birds last night. She had started eating better, and I felt like she was putting on weight. All 4 birds are getting gallimycin in their water; one of the roos is sneezy to. The good news is they are all eating well, and still have no other symptoms. I can tell the roos have grown in the 4 days they have been here. They loved the cranberries, which looked very festive with the spinach I gave them as well. They are all very eager to eat the eggs with the turmeric and cinnamon each night. This morning, I was glad to see they drank a good amount of the medicated water. Hopefully we will start to hear less wheezing and sneezing soon.

After much looking online I think the birds all have a mycoplasma. It is the only thing I can come up with that explains the sneezing/wheezing as the only symptom. Which is very funny because a human version has been going around at work and, I am just getting over it myself.

 

[MNKris]

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The Fitzgeralds http://www.fitzfarmandpoultry.net/poultry.htm only ship 8s & 9s on their wheaten eggs

Something must have changed very recently or this statment is absolutely not true. I spent big money to get 2 dozen crappy eggs from them that didn't hatch. Theirs were a standard 4-5. Nice sized, but nowhere near an 8.

 

[aussieheelr]

OK I finally got some pictures of my roo. He's about 6 months old... so it's that time to get some opinions right? Be honest. He's got a bit of frostbite on his comb so I guess it's time to break out the vassoline. He's my only roo and I have major hatching problems when it comes to shipped eggs (like 1 out of a dozen bad) so until we have our Kansas get together and I get the chance to talk someone out of some stock lol.

Any way her is Adam Henry from the side:

and the front with my favorite hen just behind him:

 

[pinkchick]

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NICE BOY!!!!!! Red rover, red rover....send Adam right over!!!!!

 

[pinkchick]

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The Fitzgeralds http://www.fitzfarmandpoultry.net/poultry.htm only ship 8s & 9s on their wheaten eggs

Something must have changed very recently or this statment is absolutely not true. I spent big money to get 2 dozen crappy eggs from them that didn't hatch. Theirs were a standard 4-5. Nice sized, but nowhere near an 8.

Did you happen to save any of the shells from these eggs that you purchased? Can you share photos of them?

I have taken many many many many photos of eggs and it is very difficult to get true color accuracy in a photo. I have seen 2 eggs that were at the very most a very strong 7 possibly an 8 on my MCC egg color chart, they were shipped eggs from somewhere in GA, I have no clue who they came from as they were purchased by my best friend and I hatched them for her. I can tell you that they were of Wade Jeane lines and they were gorgeous. The rest of the eggs that came in that batch all varied between atleast 5's and 6's. I personally love the deep ruby red russet eggs more than the dark "hershey" colored eggs, but that is just me.

 

[MNKris]

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Good Points. I noticed the rooster especially pops out too...The lack of full coppering color to the tip of the hackle feathers, the extreme red on the breast (I think he's the rooster carrying wheaten culprit too) - unfortunately a lot of black coppers get bred to wheaten roosters because people don't notice the wheaten triangle in the wing..

to add...

The mossy hen probably has the partridge gene too. She was probably not a dark black chick, but had a reddish hue to her chick fluff when she was hatched. I have one of those too. She could also have the wheaten gene. She's going to go into my layer pen this spring, but I did hatch some eggs out of her because she lays rediculously nice eggs.

As far as the wheatens, yes, a rooster and a hen both have to carry the recessive wheaten gene. I've understood that if BC x BC delivers any wheaten chicks at all:
1/4 wheaten
1/2 are BCs that carry recessive wheaten
1/4 are BCs and won't carry wheaten at all

I have heard, and now I see in my own, that Wade Jeane birds tend to notorious for carrying the wheaten recessive gene than some of the other lines. Teasdales sometimes do as well, but I only have wheaten teasdales any more and no black copper teasdales, so I haven't had that issue. I believe mine have all had the wheaten fluff with the black line on the head and the two black side spine shadow stripes as well - not like a standard wheaten with all yellow fluff. Black copper breeders and some wheaten breeders consider this a fault. Black copper breeders don't want the recessive gene and will cull heavily to rid it, the wheaten breeders are a mixed bag - some cull it because of the other undesirable genes that were passed from the black coppers (a true wheaten wouldn't have the black in the fluff), others believe it is the path to darker eggs and the black in the fluff is immaterial.

One thing to remember, breeding these marans is strictly each to his own. Some focus on the proposed standard, while others focus on the egg color. To me, egg color is what makes them distinctive and is what is most important, but in order to get them APA approved, a standard is going to have to be met. As it is proposed now, that means feathered shanks, no mossiness, no white feathers, no white fluff in the tail, 45 degree tail set, and so on. If you are breeding to sell chicks or eggs, or even give them away, please consider this. There has to be a balance here or the marans will never get approved.