Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[flgardengirl]

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Those are nice eggs! I have only seen the white marans here offered on ebay. I don't know anyone on byc who ever has them for sale.
This might be a dumb question, but could a black chick ever be born from the pure white marans?

 

[coturnix2044]

I don't know if this has been brought up before, but is there a possibility/existance of Lavender marans?

 

[flgardengirl]

From what I understand is that lavender doesn't exist in Marans. That doesn't mean it can't be introduced though. You would need pure black marans birds and then a lavender from another type of similar breed. You could use black coppers instead of pure blacks but that would give you a isabelle (sp) look I think, I am not sure on the specifics but they wouldn't be pure lavender they would have a different color of hackle, saddle etc in the males and just different hackle in the females than lav.

 

[VillageChicken]

I realized how I was thinking about Blue marans from the beginning, thinking they should be EE based. There's no rule that says they have to be EE based.
Black leghorns here in Europe are Er (birchen) based. So I guess Blue leghorns are as well. Why shouldn't Blue Marans be? Though I've read on the Australian Marans website that they shoot for EE based blacks/blues.

Add enough melanizers to an Er based bird, and it should be solid black, whether or not it's gold or silver based. So breeding in enough melanizers into a BCM, making it silver based, and getting rid of the mahogany could produce a black or blue bird that breeds true.

So strike three - I guess I'm typing too fast for my brain today. Sorry folks for the misinformation!

 

[VillageChicken]

could a black chick ever be born from the pure white marans?

Anything is possible - sports come up all the time, but genetically the combination isn't in the cards. Recessive white with recessive white can't throw blacks. Heterozygous dominant white could throw a black, but usually heterozygous whites are leaking color badly, and it would be obvious in your parent birds.

 

[verlaj]

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Well, you are definitely ahead of me! By the color of the day-olds, everyone thought I had 2 pullets and 1 roo! I really had 3 roos, no pullets! I'll check back with you if you think you will breed yours. I'd be willing to drive almost anywhere in Florida for eggs, since I had such a poor hatch on the shipped eggs.

 

[Debbi]

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Ok, here is the standard so far, for the Whites. Would this mean then they are a dominant white, showing the leakage in the hackle/saddle area? This is taken from the MCCUsa site:


Draft Color Standard for White Marans



Color of Male and Female

Disqualifications:
Black or Red feathers in any part of plumage.

Comb, Face, Wattles and Ear-Lobes: Bright red.
Beak: Pinkish White.
Eyes: Reddish bay.
Shanks and Toes: Pinkish white.
Plumage: The Cock can display yellowish straw colored highlights at the Hackles, Shoulders and Sickles. All other sections of the plumage must be White on the whole body.

 

[flgardengirl]

Thank you for the easy to understand explainations villagechicken.

Please keep us updated with pics when your whites feather out. I always liked white birds. They look do pretty out in the garden. I used to have that poem The Red Wheelbarrow by William C. Williams on my signature due to the nice imagery of white chickens

"so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens". ~William C. Williams

verlaj: I am definitely going to be breeding the golden cuckoos they are on my highest priority list for first breeding pen lol. I just love the way the females sound they have a certain distinctive cheep or peep whatever you wanna call it. They remind me of more 'wild' type of chickens for some reason. They have different personalities than my other colors of marans. I really like them. I am not that far from you...NE FL around the Jax area.

 

[verlaj]

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Hurray! Please put me at the top of the list when you are ready to sell any GCMs - except roosters

!

 

[peachick]

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Hi guys. I dont follow too many threads on here but I thought Id speak up, since my name is getting tossed around. LOL

HI

All the birds in those photos have heavily feathered shanks... on the black bird, the clean leg you are looking at is actually the inside of his right leg, see the spur? (the inside of the leg is not suposed to be feathered) but if ya look close, his left leg is stepping forward and you can see that it is heavilly feathered.

I started my blue maran project about 3-4 years ago with a blue copper roo and 1-2 solid black hens. I do not know if the black hens were pure black or not.

I am getting outstanding lacing on my blues. the hens are free of any coppering. I occasionally get a rooster that has copper on his hackles, not too often tho... and last years hatch has been my best blues yet! Sometimes I get a clean shanked bird, but 90% are heavilly feathered. I dont really mind the clean legs.... because I have focused mainly on feathering and maintaining a nice dark egg. I dont read up on genetics and I not really show too much, so I dont know all the lingo. I just breed these guys for my own enjoyment.
This year I plan an putting that black rooster with some black hens to see what I get.

I took some photos of my birds last month... http://www.flickr.com/photos/s1gnature/sets/72157625576670979/with/5304269897/ Have a look.