Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[VillageChicken]

Regarding lacing on the Blue Copper hen compared to the Black Copper hen standard:

Black with red hackle markings but without the Birchen lacing. This is from MOAC, and the French standard.

Hackle: Copper with a black-colored tip (spreading out almost down to the breast).
Breast: Black. This is from MCC

From the FMCA (Australian) website regarding correct (no lacing) coloring on BC hens:

"The hens, which are correctly copper-coloured, produce a very satisfactory proportion of cockerels with an ideal red mark on the breast.
These two colour characteristics have a very strong correlative between them; hens that have nice hackles, and cocks that have nice breasts."

 

[Mountain Mel]

I have a Cuckoo Marans that buries her eggs. I don't mean that she lays on the ground or scratches some dirt over her eggs. This bird digs a hole at least 6" deep, lays her egg and then covers it completely over. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT???? and yes, they have very nice hay-lined nest boxes 28"-30" off the floor. Might she have some kind of "turtle - gene" lurking somewhere?

 

[Wynette]

Mel, it sure sounds like she has a turtle gene! That's interesting. [sidebar: I discourage the use of hay with chickens, as they can ingest it & it becomes wound up in a ball in their crop...if you search on here for crop surgeries, seems like 75% of the time a cropbound bird has eaten hay....I found out the hard way, and had my avian vet remove a hay ball from the crop of one of my chickens. Just thought I'd mention it!]

Maybe your turtle girl doesn't want a soul to know about her eggies! You should get that on video - would be really interesting to see her doing it!

 

[tornado8070]

Please help? Can BC Marans be feather sexed and if they are at what age?

 

[Wynette]

tornado, some say they can be, I have never been successful. For me, the easiest way to tell is wait til they are 10 days old; whoever is sprouting a tail at that time is a pullet - no tail, cockerel. Good luck!

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Depends on whose line it is - - - some have been breed so feather sexing happens and some have not.
Those that have been breed that way can be identified within the first 5 days . . .

Pink posted some excellent pictures of feather sexing her marans about 20 - 30 pages back. . .

Wouldn't it be nice if we could use a search engine to limit the search within the marans thread AND within a certain time period? ?

That's right FOLKS - - that was a hint to go tell nifty what you really wanted for Christmas LAST year and will take ASAP . . .

QUICK - - CLOSE YOUR EYES SMILEY HATERS . .. . .

 

[pinkchick]

Wynette~
Thanks for adding that information about joining the MCC for a say in the proposals!

Marquisella~ Thank you for pointing that out as well. I think that it may read a little confusing because it is not mentioned on each individual draft color standard and just listed in the General Standard. You pointing that out made me go back and re-read them again.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I am going to try both methods - AGAIN - in a few weeks. I FAILED - - miserably failed - at sexing my chicks last time. I would of done better just flipping a coin - - Heads = girls, Tails = boys. .. .

 

[pinkchick]

We are locked and loaded!!!!!

Boy, this thing sure heats up to temp nice and fast and holds it there, that's AWESOME!!!! Humidity is holding at a steady 48%. It is a bit on the noisey side, but, it's okay.

 

[HenThymes]

Here are some updated pictures of my two odd ball chicks hatched from the cuckoo/gold cuckoo eggs. They are a month old now and yes both cockerels.

Anyone have any ideas of what they may turn out to be??

I am not seeing any gold on the white one at all coming in anywhere, and have no clue on the brown one?? This sure has been a learning experience.

Pink - Love your bator!

Sending good hatching vibes your way..