Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[SuperPeacockman]

Hey, I dont have Marans but I was wondering if it would be possible to create sex linked chicks by breeding two types of marans. Hopefully creating a sex linked chick that lays dark eggs. I was wondering because I was reading the post on sex links and it said a cuckoo marans hen could be used with a non barred to produce sex links, so basically I want to know if that non barred male could be another marans and if so what type.

 

[gilavina]

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Fantastic pic of the garden....but you know what this means? We need to see the other two now!
Thats an interesting idea about taking pics of your stock, I've thought about it, but haven't made the time to do it yet. Do you take pics of all your stock or just the ones you feel show the most promise? Do you also take notes and such with the pics or?

 

[Debbi]

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Hello ~ I don't have Cuckoos, but seems to me that they are already sex linked? Seems I've read that the males have a light spot on the head, whereas the pullets don't? There are Cuckoo breeders in here that should chime in...and tell me I'm probably wrong!

 

[pinkchick]

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Okay Steve here are my guesses........

Black Coppers~
#1 pullet
#2 pullet
#3 Roo
#4 roo

Blue Coppers~
#1 Roo
#2 pullet "Toby" right?
#3 pullet

Splash~
I say the first one is a Roo and the second one looks like a female...but I am not 100% sure on the Splash babies. The last 4 splash babies that I have hatched out have me on a roller coaster ride right now.....one day I think I know what gender they are the next I'm all confused.

 

[flgardengirl]

enggass you can try and straighten Blue chick #2's toes easier now when she is still young but making a chick shoe. Take a peice of cardboard and tape the toes down good or some people will use two peices of tape. I use either duct tape or usually plastic or cloth medical tape.

Math that is a great winter garden. You've done a fantastic job. Do any of your freerangers get into it? I didn't do a winter/early spring garden again this year lol. I still need to get some fencing to fence off my garden plot so I can put my seedlings in before it gets to hot. I don't have as many problems with the chickens getting into the garden last year but now the muscovies are a different story. They like to wait until you water and then go stick thier beaks way down into the mud, rip stuff out and eat the roots!

Debbi it sounds like you and the chooks had fun yesterday. I let my girls all run around all yesterday too. I still have muddy runs and they wanted out to dirt bath. I have to bribe them with treats to go back into thier pens and they know it LOL!
I know what you mean about how they like to go into the other's pens and eat thier food and like it better, even though its the same as thier own. As soon as I let the girls out of the main coop they run around visiting the other freerangers' food dishes, the dog's food, and then go harrass the guineas and ducks for thiers lol. If they knew what was on the Ice Cream truck they would be chasing the Ice Cream Man too

 

[pinkchick]

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If you used a Cuckoo hen over a solid colored bird all the male offspring would be barred and have the tale tell signs of the barring gene sex linked traits at hatch....but the males produced from this cross would not be homozygous for Barring so they would be colored like that of a female cuckoo. The females from this mating would be solid.
Expect loss of egg color. Hope this helps!

 

[SuperPeacockman]

I was wondering if the solid colored male could be another type od marans

 

[Debbi]

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You could use a unicolor BLACK male, not a black copper, bred to a Cuckoo hen. Look at this link and scroll down to the pics for what these two birds produce. Black barred males, and unicolor black females. Is this what you are looking for?

http://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html Well never mind, that link didn't work!

 

[SuperPeacockman]

Yes

 

[enggass]

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I tried that when she was very young, but she kept managing to get the shoe off somehow... She gets around great so i think I will just leave her be. It make her unique - besides her being the first born...

Kim~ Thanks for the input... I will monitor and let you know how things look in a week or so. Really is hard to tell anything with the splashes. The stance and posture of the first one really says roo to me. The other one is much more meek... What are you looking at at this point for clues?
Steve