Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

Quote:
Okay here goes, this is what I'm thinking......

#1 is a Black Copper and a pullet.

She should be much bigger compared to the others..is she?

#2 is a Blue Copper and I believe it looks like a pullet. Why do you think this is a roo? What do you see that says roo to you?

#3 is a Blue Copper roo.

#4 is a Black Copper pullet.

#5 is a Black Copper pullet but looks like the size of one of Bill's kids.

#1 - is bigger, and definately looks pullet. Guess all the blue chick down is cause of the blue influence?

#2 - I definately see blue, but this one has a larger comb. He/she would NOT cooperate with the pics, so you may not be able to see it. that said, I won't go by combs alone, been there done that, been fooled! Looked again, different pic, she does look pullet!

#3 - YES! Does he look like a Gnarles Jr. ??

#4 - No doubt in my mind this is a pullet and a BCM, very petite

#5 - Again with the blueish feathering, but has gotten much darker since last week. Not a Bill baby, but as big as the one that is!

Thanks Kim!! Holy crap! Could I have finally gotten more pullets than roos??????

 

[enggass]

Ok... Hi Kim,
My Marans are now 9 days old. I have not had a chance to take/post any more pics but am curious as to if I am seeing things correctly. Remember, they were hatched over a period of 3 days or so, but traits are starting to balance out. At this point what I am seeing is most have decent wing feathering with the tips of their wings almost reaching their tail and these same ones have decent tail feather about .5"-.75"+ in size... A couple have what I would describe as stubbier wings that fall about an inch short of their tails and have smallish tail feathers if barely any at all. I have just begun to see some shoulder feathering, but not enough to make judgements based on this. Comb development doesn't show much at this point either. Is it safe to assume at this point that the stubby winged ones with shorter tails may end up being roos? What should I look for next? When will combs become a sign...? Does the color at the top of the beak mean anything? Some have darker beaks than others... I will try to post some pics next week.
They are all healthy and strong - they eat alot!
Steve

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
No it's not any different. I know what you are seeing that would make you think possibly blue...it's around the shoulder and neck area where the black kinda gives way to the grayish shading before turning to the creamy white, right? I have chicks hatch like this from my pure Davis birds too.

It's been my experience that as chicks you can definately tell the blue chicks from the black chicks (with the exception of Bill...will get to the story of Bill later

) when they are completely dry, no matter what they are still noticeably blue compared to a Black Copper...some of them may be a very dark smokey blue, but they are still blue....it's so hard to explain with out being able to show you the differences in person, heck I even question myself about Black or Blue until they are completely fluffed

. I have every color of blue in the brooder that you could imagine from very smokey dark blue to very light blue to Splash.
Where the very very dark blues become hard to discern for some is when they start to feather out because trust me those very dark blues that appear black can take several months to show signs of something that just isn't black like with Bill, I swear to you that Bill looked black as night for the first 4 mos., then by 6 mos of age I could see he had very defined dark lacing on the breast and the rest of the feather seemed to lighten a tad.....all that time I thought he was a Black Copper like his brother that my best friend has (Mr. French..now he's a looker

and very dark like Bill, but clearly black) the only way for me to know for sure if Bill was Black or Blue was to test mate him with a black bird. I did just that and put him over some Barred Rock hens that I had....sure enough I got blue chicks, but until know I haven't had another as dark as Bill and even Blue Bill Jr is still not as dark as his daddy. Blue is fun because of the vast varying shades that blue expresses in....love the diluting thing...it's like we never know just how much it is or isn't going to dilute. There did that help cornfuse you even more....it did me.

I still think those 2 of yours are Black.

 

[enggass]

Quote:
How old were your chicks in these pics? I have 9(4 Blacks, 3 Blues & 2 Splash) from Kim I hatched 9 days ago... The 2 Splash are Bill's and on of the others as well but I'm not sure which... The rest are Gnarles x Black.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Color of the beak does not indicate sex.

You can do the assumptions on feathering that you are because you have PINK's Stock. If you had some one elses stock - - - no gaurantees!

Combs - - - 2 1/2 weeks - 4 weeks of age . . .. you will see size and pink coloring and wattles start to form.

 

[math ace]

HOT HOT HOT HOT weekend. I spent it working in the yard. . . . I had to stay out of the house because I have had babies hatching all weekend. ..
Here are some pics. . . and no they are not all marans

I think the one chick is illustrating that "HURRY, HURRY, check me out - - I might be Dead" pose

 

[Debbi]

Ok, I'll go with your opinion and knowledge!

It was the last chick pictured that I'd really had doubts about. She looks much darker now, but the infant coloring was very bluish. The black on these chicks is very different than what I am used to seeing in BCMs. It's almost a "flat" black, as opposed to a very much softer black in the BCMs I've had in the past with no blue influence. I have never yet seen the combo blue/black infant patterning that has shown up in these chicks; but then, the only ones I've had before were either BCMs only, or blue/blue copper only. Even the very funny colored chick I had was distinctly black, no trace of blue, where it wasn't cream/yellow.

The Bill chick and the last chick kind of have a combo of blue and distinctly flat black infant fluff, along with the cream. Give them a week, and I'm sure we'll see you are correctomundo!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
How old were your chicks in these pics? I have 9(4 Blacks, 3 Blues & 2 Splash) from Kim I hatched 9 days ago... The 2 Splash are Bill's and on of the others as well but I'm not sure which... The rest are Gnarles x Black.

Steve, I think Debbi's babies are around 2 weeks old. What you are saying about your chicks sounds like you have figured right. Sounds like my birds. When you get pics up I will be sure to come by and give you my run down of them. You should be seeing some comb action and development very soon, I'm very sure... I can say I promise you will see combs happening something over the next week.

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
Oh shut up!!

It was 34* here today and dreary!! Snow predicted for tonight!

Yes, that is the "dead pose", although mine did it better by laying on her back with the leg stretched out!

Juuuuusst sleeping Mom, CHILL OUT!!

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Thanks Jeremy for posting some pics. As I mentioned in my PM - I had one lone Blue Copper roo from Whitmore Farms who was clean legged. I put him in that pen of my FBCM (feathered legs) in hopes of getting some feathered-legged blue offspring. I too just hatched my first eggs from that pen and I got 4 blues, all with feathered legs, and 3 BCM. I have more due to hatch in a week so I'm hoping for some more Blue Coppers. I've removed the roo from the pen so now I only have the pure BCMs in there. I'm hoping to start my own line of Blue Coppers with this group of hatchlings. I hope you end up with a few more - keep us posted.