Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Mel, I use a 16-1 bleach mixture on all of my waterers at least once a week. I wash them with soapy water and rinse and then dip in the bleach mixture. Don

Sanitizer....I didn't think of that.

I need to put a large, deep sink in my shop so that I can better do this...
Thanks for the input, Don.

Pink sings that song....."No one said it would be easy"...(edited to add) "Lovin' chickens like we dooooo"..................... *inserts giggles here*

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Sanitizer....I didn't think of that.

I need to put a large, deep sink in my shop so that I can better do this...
Thanks for the input, Don.

Pink sings that song....."No one said it would be easy"...(edited to add) "Lovin' chickens like we dooooo"..................... *inserts giggles here*

so silly, you crack me up

 

[Wynette]

Quote:
Pink sings that song....."No one said it would be easy"...(edited to add) "Lovin' chickens like we dooooo"..................... *inserts giggles here*

so silly, you crack me up

I don't do bleach; I use Oxine mixture, clean waterers/feeders out, then spray Oxine mixture. That stuff is awesome - I swear by it.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
so silly, you crack me up

I don't do bleach; I use Oxine mixture, clean waterers/feeders out, then spray Oxine mixture. That stuff is awesome - I swear by it.

Wynette, In the past when at MSU for testing certification I ask DR Fulton what was the difference when disenfecting between Oxine and bleach and his reply was " about $40 " They use bleach at MSU. I have used Oxine before but not for disenfecting the waterers. Don

 

[Wynette]

Quote:
Hmmm...ok..I think I am following you on that....what would happen if I were to try and enhance the lacing on her instead of going for barring, but trying to maintain that pattern only with the blue...? The lacing type pattern she does have is not clean like you would see in a lot of laced birds. I found another pic of her closer up, this is when she was a bit younger, but her lacing is still pretty much the same. I don't know if it any of what I'm trying to do is possible or even logical, but I really do like her..and would love to see what i could do to improve and clean up the color and etc.

ETA: I seem to always somehow pick things that aren't easy, but I like a challenge

I also got to thinking about your post. I would think that she has to have birchen behind her because of what that guy was breeding for. He was using birchens to work on developing lemon blue patterns and this was one of the sport chicks from that project.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/77986_img_0495.jpg

FORGIVE ME...still catching up. Okay, this chook looks EXACTLY like a silver penciled plymouth rock X white rock! (don't ask me how I know.)

 

[VillageChicken]

Yep. Exactly. SPPR x WR would leave a silver bird with only half the pattern gene it needs for penciling.

 

[Ivywoods]

Quote:
Sanitizer....I didn't think of that.

I need to put a large, deep sink in my shop so that I can better do this...
Thanks for the input, Don.

Pink sings that song....."No one said it would be easy"...(edited to add) "Lovin' chickens like we dooooo"..................... *inserts giggles here*

I keep a spray bottle of Clorox cleanup (essentially bleach and detergent mix) and a stiff scrub brush on the water hydrant. I don't keep track of how often I use it, but it's probably every few days. If if it looks dirty, I use it. Then I rinse it all very well. Works for me and no mixing.

 

[Wynette]

Quote:
I don't do bleach; I use Oxine mixture, clean waterers/feeders out, then spray Oxine mixture. That stuff is awesome - I swear by it.

Wynette, In the past when at MSU for testing certification I ask DR Fulton what was the difference when disenfecting between Oxine and bleach and his reply was " about $40 " They use bleach at MSU. I have used Oxine before but not for disenfecting the waterers. Don

Oxine isn't the same as bleach. Mainly because it's not toxic like bleach can be - you can actually mist it right into a chicken's face without ill effect, at any dilution. But both work great. I just "trust" Oxine more.

If you want to pull out the "big guns" for disinfection, use Virkon(s).

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
Hi HenThymes!

I am not sure what to say and don't want to say the wrong thing or mislead you so maybe we can get Geebs, VillageChicken, Wynette, Ms. Bev Davis, Snowbird, Walt and all the other greats that I know am I missing to come by and start up a discussion on them for us. It's always interesting to see how they mature, we can all learn a great deal I think from them. Thank you for sharing them and keeping us updated and giving all the opportunity to learn along with you.

I'm sure someone will come along soon.

I just realized your eggs were supposed to be golden cuckoo/cuckoo. Does that mean they were from a mixed pen of cuckoo and golden cuckoo? The problem with cuckoo is that they are often a mixed bag beneath all those stripes. I have yet to read anywhere what the bird under the stripes SHOULD be. Golden cuckoos can be Gold based undermelanized extended black, or Wheaten, or Black Copper, or some crazy mix of any of the 3. Even standard cuckoo can be Silver Birchen or Extended black based.

It is possible that Db lurks in the genes of someone's cuckoos. It's a Columbian restrictor, but on the Extended Black (EE) allele it does nothing. On Birchen (ER) and Wheaten (eWh) however it pushes all the black out of the chest and into the hackle wing-tips and tail, like Silver Sussex or Blacktail Buff. A hybrid EE/eWh or EE/ER would also not show the effect of this gene.

So someone's mixed flock of Golden Cuckoo, with barred BCM, a barred Wheaten rooster, or barred silver birchens or hybrids of any of these, could produce pure birchen or wheaten based cuckoos where the Db could then kick in and produce the columbian restriction you are seeing in your birds.

 

[Ivywoods]

Okay folks. I have a few questions. Right now my marans look like crap. I believe a number of them are molting. Their feathers are scruffy looking all over. My rooster that I kept for breeding had way too much copper on his chest, but I liked him otherwise. (someone posted a picture of a roo waaaaayyyy back on this thread... they named the rooster Agent Orange. My roo's chest looked like that.) NOW he has lost a lot of the coppering in his chest, and his hackle feathers look almost curly... kind of frizzy.

Are the frizzy hackles due to the molt?

At what ages are these chickens most likely to molt? Mine were hatched around March 23 last year, so they are 11 months old.

Do you think the extra coppering on this roo's chest will come back, or has he "shed" to a more appropriate color.

All answers welcome and appreciated.