Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[marquisella]

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Okay, so pure birchen roo, completely silver hackle, no blonde or straw in his hackle, he would be pure silver birchen.
Your black hen, if she is first generation from BC and cuckoo, she will carry birchen genes, and gold if the BC was the rooster. If they were crossed back to the cuckoo several times, then she could be pure black, if the cuckoos are true extended black based cuckoos. I've seen pictures of cuckoos that look like barred silver birchens.

So she is pure black, and he is pure birchen, then you will get pure black, or some black and some blue if the birchen roo is blue birchen.
Birchen and gold genes hide under extended black. It's hard to know the purity of a solid black until you breed it.

ETA I think that the Blue roo does not have birchen feathers in his hackle, it's just the gloss of the shinier hackle feathers. He looks like a blue version of the first black roo to me.

ETA: I guess I should clarify terms. Do you mean pure blue as in no other coloring in the feathers, or genetically pure?

Lots of different mixed breedings can produce a visually pure blue Marans, especially hens. Getting them genetically pure is the hard part. Your Birchen roo will never produce genetically pure blue offspring. Breeding his offspring back to the hen would, if she is indeed pure black.

I thought maybe the roo in the photo had some birchen, because she stated in that post they he was from black coppers.

Anyway, yes the hen in question, is I think F4 bred back to the cuckoo. In the hatch, I got a single barred cuckoo male, 2 black hens, 1 black roo, and a couple of black copper roos. Unfortunately, I only have the 1 hen left. So, trying to figure out what to do with her...

 

[pinkchick]

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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.

Trust me...your name was being tossed around in a very good way! Your birds and eggs are wonderful!

 

[VillageChicken]

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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.

No, actually it's the recessive whites that usually show some yellowing on roos in hackle and saddle feathers. Bresse are recessive white too, and you see it in them. Color leaking is like one big spot of black or gold, or one stray black feather in on a white background. I have some heterozygous dominant white hybrid crosses, and they have major leakage, black leakage in the silvers and black and gold/mahogany in the golds. It looks very different. It's really not even a white bird at all.

 

[Raven1]

Peachick those pics of your Blues are beautiful I just love the blues

 

[flgardengirl]

The blues I hatched from peachick's eggs this past summer have no coppering as of yet. The little roos look really good so far. I have a pure black marans hen from her eggs as well.
It is really hard to find a black roo so I am gonna use one of the blue roos and hope for a solid black roo this spring lol. I would really like to raise a nice flock of pure blacks with nicely feathered shanks. I don't think too many people have the pure blacks anymore. I wonder if the pure blacks would throw a white chick?

 

[VillageChicken]

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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.

No, actually it's the recessive whites that usually show some yellowing on roos in hackle and saddle feathers. Bresse are recessive white too, and you see it in them. Color leaking is like one big spot of black or gold, or one stray black feather in on a white background. I have some heterozygous dominant white hybrid crosses, and they have major leakage, black leakage in the silvers and black and gold/mahogany in the golds. It looks very different. It's really not even a white bird at all.

Here is a link that shows a Bresse Rooster with the straw hackle from recessive white. Scroll over the third picture.

I do think blacks can and do throw whites if they carry recessive white. I'm looking forward to crossing one of the whites with a BCM to see what else it carries, for example many white breeds that should have lighter shanks also carry barring and blue!

 

[Lotsapaints]

I can get black pullets if I use my Birchen cock over my Cuckoo hens because they would be sex linked .....but then what happens? Cross the blacks back to the birchen? I have some hens that show no copper from a blue copper set of eggs what about crossing those with the birchen as that was the hatch he came from.....

 

[SueMuffin]

Hi All,
I just recently bought some FBCM's 4 pullets and 1 roo. I was told that one pullet had an odd comb and might not be pure even tho it hatched from a dark brown egg. Well it sure isnt pure, she is laying olive eggs. Here are some pics of the eggs I am getting. The regular tan egg is just for contrast!

this is the olive egger. [img

and here are the rest of the flock.[img

And last but not least the Roo. He had been frost bitten when I got him.

 

[Wynette]

SueMuffin - that olive egger hen is just lovely! I love that pic of her cocking her head at you as you took the pic!

 

[pinkchick]

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Hi Sue!

Lovely olive egger! Lovely Hens! Can we see more roo?

His eye color is beautiful!