Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[geebs]

Only have a few minutes... Harris5:

I like the black number 3 and the blue number 4 best if you are making choices for yourself.. I like the two hens on the posting below the rooster review.. I would breed the blue to the blackcopper number 3 for a longer back for males and a stronger copper and better lacing on the blue females.. I would use number 2 hen on number 4 rooster...just because... I think you would likely get a nice product from the cross. I would like to go on record as saying I really like the number 4 rooster of the four for best qualities of the grouping... I haven't given it a really critical eye... but from here I see good form... Give them a super critical eye and if you find them free from defect then make your choices accordingly... I didn't read in on what everyone else thought.. I will have to get to reading "catch up" at a later time..

Chow all!!!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Sounds like you have a fun project you are getting started on! On the double lacing with the blue, what color would be with the blue for the lacing part? Sounds like they will be truly gorgeous!! And I think I might be in trouble....I must not look at any pics of them or I'll have yet another breed and color variety I just 'caaan't' live with out. Hahaha

That pic cpartist posted of her girls, especially the blues were really striking indeed. And I bet the cross of some of her girls onto Gnarles will be very beautiful!!

Do you ever have a hard time waiting for the next generation of chicks to mature so you can set up your next crosses and breeding pens? I know I do.... maybe its because I feel like I have a very long way to go...who knows.

YES!!!!!! I go to bed at night thinking about which bird I can cross here, or which bird I can cross there.
I pick them pretty easily at an early age just by the body, comb, eye color, disposition, etc. of the birds. I usually let color correction guide me to pairing after I have grown out the first offspring of certain crosses and matings and I have seen their egg color. I want to see the foundation first and alot of this we can pick up just watching them mature. I think the only time I would let color be my first priority is if something horrible happened to one of my roosters, then if I had bird that was the very least the color I wanted and had other things not so desirable about them....I would use them just to hopefully get the color back and work my way back from there and build the barn, but this would be a worse case scenario and a very long and hard road that I don't even want to think about.
I think I have the most fun with the breeding and pairings and seeing what can be created in both bird and egg color....even if it is just a smidge of improvement or even if it is a total disaster. If it's a disaster I simply just stop doing that and move on to a new pairing, if it's good I usually stick with it and see what my odds are going to be like.....can I do it again???

As for the Barnie....tls_ranch has been working on her blue laced Barnies for a couple of years and she also started with BLRW...if you pop over to the Barnevelder breeders lets stick together thread....she has some of her birds posted there with in the last 10 or 15 pages. They are yummy! I think she also has some on her page...can't remember.

So many pages, so much BYC and not enough time to look at it all!!!

Uh oh....am I going to have to start calling you Pinkchick-the enabler?

There really are a lot of threads on here...I try to keep up with a few of the breeds I raise, but there are so, so many. I try to pick a new one to browse each time I have a bit of down time at the end of the night to see what people are working on. I don't know if I should go to the barnevelder thread...I will be in big trouble...cause I will want all of them! I just know it!

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks and thinks and thinks about birds and the possible combos for breeding. This year is a different year for me I think because I am armed with a lot more knowledge on the Marans than I had before...I will still always have my fun projects on the side for kicks, but for my main pens I feel like I will have a very good start. I am still keeping my fingers, toes, eyes...pretty much whatever I can cross that this hatch that goes into lockdown on monday goes well. If so, there should be some fantastic stock for me to use when they get a bit of age on them. I am going to be much more selective...and those girls I just can't part with I'll keep for layers for people that buy eggs from me. My main course of action is to keep less, but better quality. I think it will allow me the opportunity to be more focused.
Oh...and I just got done with chores....and I got my first egg from the pen I've divided off to start my work on a bantam line for the Marans. I have a few fully mature girls that never got bigger than 3 or 3 1/2 pounds. So, I'm gonna keep working on getting them down in size. I have an equally small black boy with really good feathering on the legs...so here's to hoping I can make progress. I worked with mainly bantam breeds growing up, so I am feeling pretty good about my understanding of breeding for size and etc with this project. But, with anything...its a project and until I start seeing the results of my pen...I'm not gonna get too overly excited.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
The blue hen in the foreground between the black and white hens is a very good example of a side view of a Marans female. She has an outstanding profile. How does she look straight on? I would go with male #1.

Walt

 

[pinkchick]

Poularde is in lockdown!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Morning Geebs!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
The blue hen in the foreground between the black and white hens is a very good example of a side view of a Marans female. She has an outstanding profile. How does she look straight on? I would go with male #1.

Walt

Walt~

Could you share your thoughts on male #1? He is a nice bird. What do you like best about him? Thanks!

 

[HenThymes]

O.k. Pink - managed to go out and take a few pics of this mixed up bunch. Mind you these were suppose to be nothing but cuckoo/gold cuckoo eggs....

Group photo, the BC are hiding in the way back, never did any good pics of them but there is one toward the back of the pic

Somehow I ended up with a barred rock cockerel and the pullet behind is suppose to be a cuckoo but clearly has yellow legs even though they are feathered.

This was suppose to be a gold pullet according to color at hatch time (obviously not a gold or pullet) So what am I???

This was suppose to be a gold cockerel according to color at hatch, could he still get gold as he feathers out??

Here is the cuckoo that I am wondering if it gold I see coming in, so would he be a gold cuckoo or a mix of something else?

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:

Those are some awesome -pretty birds! Wow, I didn't even know this color pattern existed...I want some!

I got them from a guy as young pullets that I'm sure were sport chicks from some of his experimental crosses in his quest to develop lemon blue marans...but I too love this pattern. I'm toying around with a couple of ideas to sharpen the color up a bit and localize it a bit more, so its not so willy nilly. They remind me a bit of East Frisian Gulls, an eastern German chicken. I'm hoping to get a few of them in that same white neck and etc, but a blue body instead. I think I will probably feel like I've died and gone to heaven if I do... They are truly striking in person to look at as they are, I can't imagine what they will look like if I can get the blue coloring in there...

The East Frisian Gulls look like Campines or Braekel, with autosomal barring. They call them gulls because of their stripey chickdown. I've seen a few out here, but not with blue barring. Blue barring on silver would be beautiful.

HenThymes, thanks for the updated pics. What a menagerie! They look great together though. Looks like your brown boy could be blacktailed buff with mahogany and melanotic... meaning extra black and red darkeners. It may be from a gene called Darkbrown. The lighter one looks to maybe have picked up Columbian but just one copy that is pushing black out of the wing area. No idea how that could have gotten in there.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
I got them from a guy as young pullets that I'm sure were sport chicks from some of his experimental crosses in his quest to develop lemon blue marans...but I too love this pattern. I'm toying around with a couple of ideas to sharpen the color up a bit and localize it a bit more, so its not so willy nilly. They remind me a bit of East Frisian Gulls, an eastern German chicken. I'm hoping to get a few of them in that same white neck and etc, but a blue body instead. I think I will probably feel like I've died and gone to heaven if I do... They are truly striking in person to look at as they are, I can't imagine what they will look like if I can get the blue coloring in there...

The East Frisian Gulls look like Campines or Braekel, with autosomal barring. They call them gulls because of their stripey chickdown. I've seen a few out here, but not with blue barring. Blue barring on silver would be beautiful.

HenThymes, thanks for the updated pics. What a menagerie! They look great together though. Looks like your brown boy could be blacktailed buff with mahogany and melanotic... meaning extra black and red darkeners. The lighter one looks to maybe have picked up Columbian, but just one copy that is pushing black out of the wing area. No idea how that could have gotten in there.

Quick question for you since I know you have a much better grasp on genetics than I do...if I were to try to get that pattern on that girl of mine, but with blue instead...what would you think the best way to go would be? Such as crossing her with a straight blue or? She does have some lacing...its not crisp...so I know she is not like an east frisian gull in that sense...she just reminds me of one. I do think they are absolutely beautiful tho...but I'll work with what I've got for now haha...

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
The East Frisian Gulls look like Campines or Braekel, with autosomal barring. They call them gulls because of their stripey chickdown. I've seen a few out here, but not with blue barring. Blue barring on silver would be beautiful.

HenThymes, thanks for the updated pics. What a menagerie! They look great together though. Looks like your brown boy could be blacktailed buff with mahogany and melanotic... meaning extra black and red darkeners. The lighter one looks to maybe have picked up Columbian, but just one copy that is pushing black out of the wing area. No idea how that could have gotten in there.

Quick question for you since I know you have a much better grasp on genetics than I do...if I were to try to get that pattern on that girl of mine, but with blue instead...what would you think the best way to go would be? Such as crossing her with a straight blue or? She does have some lacing...its not crisp...so I know she is not like an east frisian gull in that sense...she just reminds me of one. I do think they are absolutely beautiful tho...but I'll work with what I've got for now haha...

I have to add too that I'm officially jealous you've seen some of those east frisian gulls in person. The first time I saw pics of them, I fell in love!!

 

[VillageChicken]

It depends on what your chickens are based on. If they are Birchen or Partridge based, then it looks like you need to add the Db pattern gene to get the barring with the clean head and neck. It's not as simple as just breeding to something with less pattern. Looks like your birds already carry at least one copy of the Pg pattern gene, two would make a cleaner pattern. Db changes the way the pattern forms on the feather as it grows out, and in combination with Pg creates the horizontal barring, or autosomal barring because it is not sex-linked like the cuckoo pattern.

You'd have to breed Db in, using another breed. The closest to Marans in type would be Braekel, but they're rather rare, and Campines are pretty small and not at all the same type as the girls you have. Hamburgs, spangled ones, will carry Db, but they'll also have Melanotic (changes the barring to spangling) which you'd then have to breed out without losing the Db.

It's not a simple path... but I think they'd be beautiful birds. I've read it's quite difficult to get good clean striping on the birds, even when all the correct genes are there. If you do introduce another breed, stick to something silver based, to keep the blue and white.