Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Quote:

Big!

It's been my experience that what they have upon hatch is what they have.....I haven't had one clean legged chick or bird ever grow shank feathering in..... but I have had 2 fully feather shanked roosters who lost all their leg feathering when they molted. It took forever, but of course they grew back in.

You can still use a clean shanked or sparsely feather shanked bird if you would like too, the only thing that is going to happen is...you will get some clean shanked birds in the offspring. Feathering is pretty easy in the realm of things considered Marans to breed back into the birds. Whether or not they need to be culled is all in the eye of the beholder and what your goals are with your birds. If your are breeding to show or to standards then you would want feather legged birds.......but don't let one very nice clean legged bird slow you down if you think that bird will improve the next generation of offspring.....it may take a little more time, but building the barn and making sure the walls and roof are structurally sound are priority in my book, painting it and putting on trim can be done later.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
3 more peeps and it will only be $10 each, I'll email terry/byc coordinator

Can I still chip in??? Let me know

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
you spelled it correctly...it is the right term too. They use it in parrots, pheasants, chickens, etc. What kind of info are you looking for? I don't know if I can help, but I can try

ETA: some people will make references to tail and wing coverts as well...those are the only other ones I can think of at the moment, but there may be more


You made me curious so I went and grabbed my SOP....its an older one, but I looked up coverts and ears in the definition section.

Coverts: Those feathers which cover the base of the primary feathers.

Ears: (chickens) - the small opening on each side of the head at the top of the earlobes and adjoining the face, covered by a small tuft of still feather-like plumage.

Even though I grew up hearing it referred to as ear coverts, it makes me wonder if it is just what people started calling it since it was another area where feathers cover a part of the body? I had never thought about it before.
You asked a good question!

Maybe someone else will chime in with more info

 

[snowbird]

I never heard the Ear coverts until I came on BYC. I believe the correct word should be Ear Down. Don

 

[berkeleysprings]

are u talking about the dot of white ?
Quote:

 

[snowbird]

Quote:

Randy , I looked it up in the SOP and it says Ear-Tuft and on the wheaten female should be a light cream color. I hope they start working on the proposed standard for the wheaten soon. Don

 

[Myabcs3]

Quote:

Big!

It's been my experience that what they have upon hatch is what they have.....I haven't had one clean legged chick or bird ever grow shank feathering in..... but I have had 2 fully feather shanked roosters who lost all their leg feathering when they molted. It took forever, but of course they grew back in.

You can still use a clean shanked or sparsely feather shanked bird if you would like too, the only thing that is going to happen is...you will get some clean shanked birds in the offspring. Feathering is pretty easy in the realm of things considered Marans to breed back into the birds. Whether or not they need to be culled is all in the eye of the beholder and what your goals are with your birds. If your are breeding to show or to standards then you would want feather legged birds.......but don't let one very nice clean legged bird slow you down if you think that bird will improve the next generation of offspring.....it may take a little more time, but building the barn and making sure the walls and roof are structurally sound are priority in my book, painting it and putting on trim can be done later.

Pink, or anyone else -

If I understand correctly, feather shanks are a dominant trait. Is it possible, or in your experience, does feather shanked parent throw a clean legged offspring?

Thanks ~ Sandy

 

[berkeleysprings]

we should do this in other thred but i think they are more white in color dont u ?
Quote:

Randy , I looked it up in the SOP and it says Ear-Tuft and on the wheaten female should be a light cream color. I hope they start working on the proposed standard for the wheaten soon. Don

 

[snowbird]

Quote:

Big!

It's been my experience that what they have upon hatch is what they have.....I haven't had one clean legged chick or bird ever grow shank feathering in..... but I have had 2 fully feather shanked roosters who lost all their leg feathering when they molted. It took forever, but of course they grew back in.

You can still use a clean shanked or sparsely feather shanked bird if you would like too, the only thing that is going to happen is...you will get some clean shanked birds in the offspring. Feathering is pretty easy in the realm of things considered Marans to breed back into the birds. Whether or not they need to be culled is all in the eye of the beholder and what your goals are with your birds. If your are breeding to show or to standards then you would want feather legged birds.......but don't let one very nice clean legged bird slow you down if you think that bird will improve the next generation of offspring.....it may take a little more time, but building the barn and making sure the walls and roof are structurally sound are priority in my book, painting it and putting on trim can be done later.

Pink, or anyone else -

If I understand correctly, feather shanks are a dominant trait. Is it possible, or in your experience, does feather shanked parent throw a clean legged offspring?

Thanks ~ Sandy

I believe it is always possible to get a very few clean leg Marans from feather leg parents, and also some that have very little feathers. I believe also if they aren't there at hatch they will not have feather shanks. I try and use a heavy shank fethered male when at all possible. Don

 

[berkeleysprings]

The gene for Marans type shank feathering is a dominant gene, Pti-1.
So a birds that is heterozygous Pti-1/pti-1+ will have shank feathers.
Two heterozygous Pti-1/pti-1+ birds mated together will produce (in large numbers) 1:4 clean shanked chicks.
However just to complicate things there is also a recessive 'feather shank inhibitor gene' (no symbol) and even birds that are homozygous for Pti-1, but also carry the recessive 'feather shank inhibitor gene' can when mated together produce chicks with clean shanks. As a result of the combined action of two opposing genes you can get a big variation in the degree of shank feathering. As far as breeding is concerned you have two choices:- 1 cull all clean shanked birds ( you can sell them to the people that prefer the English type birds), or only use males with good feathered shanks over the hens.something i picked up along time ago in my trying to understand genetic , i think david written it
thought it might help