Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
Not sure, but bottom roo looks yellow shanked.

Yes he is yellow shanked and also feathered shanks also plan on keeping him

If he's yellow shanked, then your eggs were not from pure cuckoo marans, at least not correct ones.
Yellow shanks are usually a culling point, if it matters whether or not the birds you breed are correct according to the standard.
If you just want dark eggs, then it doesn't matter. Usually yellow legs in cuckoos come from barred rocks crossed in somewhere, and barred rock genes don't usually help with corrrect egg color.
If you breed this rooster, even to hens without yellow shanks, he will pass his yellow leg genes on to half of his offspring. It will be very difficult to eliminate in future generations.

 

[Mountain Mel]

I have a question about a small, but very vocal problem...

My Marans Rooster, Madison, recently learned to crow

. He had a terrible sound to him at first...very much like a cat that has been run over. Well, he has developed a much more "Rooster" sound to his voice but now he crows from morning until around 11:00 every day. There is nothing going on that he is being alerted to...no activity around whatsoever...it is almost like he is just crowing to hear the sound of his own voice.

Will he outgrow this phase?

If so, at about what age can I hope that he "tones it down" just a little?

Is there even such a thing as a Rooster who crows 2 or 3 times at the crack of dawn, then quiets down and goes on about his business

? Or am I living in a fantasy world?

 

[seabreeze]

Mel, I cannot answer your question about specifics of quieting down eventually, but my BCM boy would crow on the dot, at 6 am every morning once he got his *manly* voice on. Prior to that, he crowed willy-nilly. Fortunately, it was only about 2 months of that erratic crowing before clockwork crowing set in. My other roosters (bantys, crosses etc) seem to crow around 5 am with an occasional crow in the late afternoon.

 

[loprettaerin]

Quote:
Yes he is yellow shanked and also feathered shanks also plan on keeping him

If he's yellow shanked, then your eggs were not from pure cuckoo marans, at least not correct ones.
Yellow shanks are usually a culling point, if it matters whether or not the birds you breed are correct according to the standard.
If you just want dark eggs, then it doesn't matter. Usually yellow legs in cuckoos come from barred rocks crossed in somewhere, and barred rock genes don't usually help with corrrect egg color.
If you breed this rooster, even to hens without yellow shanks, he will pass his yellow leg genes on to half of his offspring. It will be very difficult to eliminate in future generations.

Thanks for the advise. The eggs they came from were very dark. So what would the true leg color be more white or black have seen both. One of the other cuckoos I have has white with few black looking scales on the front, not feather shanks though and two hens one has white legs and feather shanks one has pick/white legs but no feather shanks. The more I have been thinking about it depending on how the eggs Im hatching come out I was thinking off just keeping the blues, black coppers and wheatons and not having the cuckoos.

 

[wannabchick]

I put this in the wheaten maran thread.. but thought I would add it here..

then I put a question with her photo in .. how and when is chicken fully grown? and people are saying its not a maran

isnt this a maran..????The breeder said maran...and that is what I beleive because she is a good person...and knows her marans... do some lines of marans not have feathering on their leggs.. and she is very coppery/buffy.. as opposed to wheaty??

let me know thank you all

I did send the breeder more questions as I didnt get to ask as many since my friend did the pick up for me..etc

 

[loprettaerin]

Im going back though this thread trying to find the post on what to look for when choosing birds to cull. If you have it some were can you PM me or just post it. If not that is ok I will find it again one of these days.

I found what to look for when culling and what age. Know just need to find some breed specifics like colors and such for each kind. lots of work to do but want to stay more true to the breed as much as I can with out breaking the bank.

 

[Ivywoods]

Wannab- Doesn't look at all like a pure marans to me. It is a mix of some kind.

Mel- I had one rooster that would crow for hours straight when he first started crowing. I timed him... he crowed every 20 seconds! He has quieted down a lot over the last few months.

Noisy little booger. Since I sleep odd hours, I had to turn on a fan so I couldn't hear him practicing his all-morning revalrie. Thank goodness we don't have neighbors!

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
Some black tail buffs are hatching from
Wheaten lines. That is what it looks like to me, although I think the body color should be the same, not have light & dark areaas. Of course, she should have feathered shanks as well. sh looks like a Marans, maybe not the best specimen of a black tail buff.

Sue

 

[fargosmom]

Hi all - not sure if I should post this here or not so feel free to send me packing . . .
I have a 6-week-old BCM roo that needs to find a new home, somewhere around Pasadena CA. I've already posted him in the "for sale" section (although I'm not out for money - just want to find him a new situation). His breeder doesn't want him back - says he has too much color. I think he's beautiful but I definitely can't keep him. If anyone here on this thread wants him, or can put the word out, I'd much appreciate it. I really don't want to craigslist him unless it's my last resort, but I'd like to move him out before he starts crowing and gets me in hot water with the neighbors. Here's a pic:

Or if you think craigslist is really my best option I'll try that next. Thanks in advance for your help!
Cheers -
Cynthia

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
Hello, I saw you were looking for some of the info on the specific colors and such of the Marans. have you tried stopping by the MCCUSA site yet? They have quite a few of the proposed APA standards for the different varieties of Marans. They are still a work in progress but hopefully it will give you a good starting point with having reference materials. You might also want to check out the Australian Marans site...while some of their standards info will vary, it gives a lot of info on the genetics of Marans colors.

Oh...and welcome to the forum! I haven't been around as much the last couple of weeks..in full swing of the spring to do lists and hatches... yikes...

(I'm ready for a nap)