Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[math ace]

Hey pink- - -This one is for you . . .

Pink has a batch of fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. . . .

It is OFF TOPIC, but since I seem to be in maran land by myself . . . .

We could all go to Pink's house and eat some cookies and

over her blues. .. .

 

[Mountain Mel]

From a "Dumb ol' farm boy's " perspective, I would go with R00#2. He just looks better built than #1.

 

[math ace]

Nothing dumb about that choice . . . .

It is amazing the difference in those two since they are brothers . . . same mother and father - -

 

[they'reHISchickens]

DH finally got to take some pics of the roo we kept out of last year's hatch. These came from eggs from cottagegarden and AHappyChick. Sorry we don't know whose is whose.
Here is Blue. He will have three girlfriends: Blueberry: a nice blue with lacing and a nice copper halo and dark eggs, and two blacks: Copper has some copper colored hackles and a very dark egg, and Mahogany has very few dark mahogany hackles and a speckled egg.

The girls haven't bothered to come out in the snow for pics.
What do you think... will he do or do we look for another boy?

 

[cottagegarden]

they'reHISchickens :

What do you think... will he do or do we look for another boy?

I may be biased but I think he turned out great (0:​

 

[they'reHISchickens]

@ cottagegarden, Thanks, we' re very happy with them! We kept what we thought was the best roo out of seven. We really like the blue hen too. She is so pretty. The black ones need more hackle coloring. The hens hatched mid June and just started laying the beginning of January. I need to figure out how to get a good honest picture of the eggs.
How did you make out at Farm Show?

 

[greatergraceoffbg]

I think he looks real good and I think your observations on WHAT you are breeding him too are just as good, it is in this way that culling and line breeding ultimately give us what we hope for at least some of the time.

 

[Illia]

they'reHISchickens :

DH finally got to take some pics of the roo we kept out of last year's hatch. These came from eggs from cottagegarden and AHappyChick. Sorry we don't know whose is whose.
Here is Blue. He will have three girlfriends: Blueberry: a nice blue with lacing and a nice copper halo and dark eggs, and two blacks: Copper has some copper colored hackles and a very dark egg, and Mahogany has very few dark mahogany hackles and a speckled egg.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/17886_004.jpg
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/17886_002.jpg

The girls haven't bothered to come out in the snow for pics.
What do you think... will he do or do we look for another boy?

Nice cockerel.

I say keep him. If he turns out to have bad egg genes, sure, you can replace him, but conformationally he is quite nice. Most Blue Coppers out there have too large of tails or too short of necks.​

 

[cottagegarden]

they'reHISchickens :

@ cottagegarden, Thanks, we' re very happy with them! We kept what we thought was the best roo out of seven. We really like the blue hen too. She is so pretty. The black ones need more hackle coloring. The hens hatched mid June and just started laying the beginning of January. I need to figure out how to get a good honest picture of the eggs.
How did you make out at Farm Show?

Well, I'm pleased. It is such a big show and the quality was the best I have ever seen there.
They werent quite ready for Marans, though.
It is really an honor to show with people you admire and respect.
Most important, the kids had fun and got to talk to people about thier chickens.
If you catch the footage the little boy doing showmanship with the mottled Cochin is mine, what he lacks in experience and
a wee bit of knowledge he made up in cute. Practice practice practice!!

I am so glad things turned out so well for you with the birds and have them to make you happy!​

 

[VillageChicken]

math ace - you should PM geebs about the complementary breeding. She's done lots of that, and would know what combo will work.

I'm not so sure that coppering in a roo breast passes on mossiness. I thought it corresponded more with straw hackle. Are you breeding for roos or hens or both? It's hard to get a good batch of both from any single breeding. From what I have read, coppering in the breast WILL give your blues with little copper a better chance of producing correctly coppered offspring, at least hens with more hackle color. Your hens are overmelanized even though the black is diluted by the blue gene. It seems an undermelanized rooster would offset this.

Oh, I found where I read about the mossiness and the straw hackle thing from the Australian Marans club website:

We can find another colour flaw in the Brown-Red hens. It's the appearance of feathers, which are speckled, stippled, with more or less light marks, fawn-coloured, coppery coloured, or with light shafts. They are said to have stippling on the breast and even on the whole body. Such hens have sometimes been shown as "partridge" Marans, which is totally unacceptable. The true genetic "partridge" colour present in some breeds (like the wild type Duckwing) has nothing in common with these Marans hens, which can only be considered as bad Brown-Reds from which you can get nothing good. These hens often corresponds to cocks whose breast red colour is too spread out down to the thighs, and whose coppery tones are often replaced by a pale light fawn or straw-coloured feather shades,

It didn't look like your boy had copper "down to the thighs"

I agree about the wait and see thing with the comb till he's an adult. I've also seen combs change alot as they get bigger. Some wavy combs straighten out nicely.​