Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[UrbanFarmerGirl]

Hello Marans folks! After looking for awhile a kind BYC'er pointed me in the direction of a local French Black Copper Marans breeder, and I picked up two pullets today. I am very excited! We are not planning on breeding or showing- just getting to know these pretty birds and adding some lovely eggs to our basket. Here are 4 pictures. The first two are the new girls- "Rosie" and "Toesie". Toesie was half priced because she has a funny foot deformity on one foot, but is otherwise healthy. The last two pictures show her foot. I posted about this in the injury/disease thread- but if anyone here has any idea what this is called I would definitely appreciate it. Also, do you think this would affect her laying or overall health in any way? She walks just fine.

Thanks for any feedback. I can't wait to watch these ladies develop. I love the leg feathering and calm personalities!

Rosie

Toesie

Foot from above

Foot from below:

 

[syble]

just a few questions about maturing marans. I have some blue and splash juveniles. At what age are the extra roos ready to eat. they have been growing like weeds lately but it seams to be all frame and feathers

I want to grow them out to pick the best 2 roos, but they seam to hard on other chickens to justify keeping them till they are fully mature. I also have other breeds and everything hatched roo heavy, my marans are 7 roos to 3 hens

. At what age on average do the hens start to lay.

As a side note, how well do younger birds handle the cold? If we get eggs with a few months before it gets cold out, we'd like to hatch a few more in hopes of having a half decent base of hens in the spring for eggs. our barn is insulated and doesn't get below freezing in there usually until December at most.

Thanks
Sib

 

[Keara]

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I would say you have a slow feathering male there. I have seen it in some of my hatches. I do not think the size has anything to do with the slow feathering. Keep an eye on the growth, he may catch up.

 

[pinkchick]

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Hi!

Congrats on your birdies! As for the foot thing.....it just looks like crooked toes to me and should not be an issue for her as you intend to use them for pretty eggs. Crooked toes usually are the result of something that happened during incubation, but sometimes can be genetic and also sometimes can be caused from having birds on wire floors. Not a big deal unless a person is planning on breeding or showing where it would be considered a fault, but since you are not doing either with them....it is just fine. Can't wait to see the pretty eggs that they are going to give you. Enjoy them....Marans are incrediably sweet birds.

 

[pinkchick]

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Hi Sib!

I don't usually process a Marans until they are just over 6 mos. of age, some of them are just as you describe all frame and fluff until about 6 mos. when they start to bulk up. I don't process too many Marans simply because they eat alot and it does take a little longer to get them to a good enough size for butcher....they get expensive to raise for the freezer. I like using the Delawares and Welsummer and Marans crosses for the meat birds....something about the crosses where they get all the right genes for some reason and they tend to mature faster and I can normally butcher at around 4 mos., which helps on the feed bill.

And how do the younger birds handle the cold?????.....I happen to do the majority of my hatching during the winter months...if it is unusually cold I will keep them under a light for a little longer than normal, but otherwise, I raise them no differently than if it were spring and summer.....but I also do not have horribly cold winters. Hope others that share your climate come by and give their opinions.

 

[berkeleysprings]

we get perty cold here in west virginia and the young birds , or chicks do fine even sub zero , i used to worry about them freezing but the silkiee mothers call em out even in the snow , now my big comb roosters have the most trouble they loose the points on the comb to frost bite
Personally I think Vaseline does nothing at all but others may differ . I think younger and older birds like winter time better except the free range bugs and grubs are gone in the winter . now if I could only get thru this recessive yellow leg gene popping up every once in a while id b ok but its slow going ,the first hen I tried test mating didn’t lay a egg for 2 weeks finally she started .. lesson learned , test mate siblings


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[StevenW.]

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All eggs were Rotten.
Maybe Marans aren't for everyone!

 

[Hens and Roos]

we're in WI and we start hatching for Jan 1st and the weather is cold. We incubate all the eggs as we have breeds that don't usually go broody. I guess we are lucky because we can incubate and keep the newly hatched chicks in the house for the first 3-4 weeks and then move them out to our heated garage(done for our business). We did have a broody hen last year but she hatched out chicks in this garage- we did provide extra heat right in her area for the chicks. She was a very good mommy and kept the chicks close to her.

 

[Arizonachicken]

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All eggs were Rotten.
Maybe Marans aren't for everyone!

I'm sorry to hear that.

. You'll have better luck next time

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
All eggs were Rotten.
Maybe Marans aren't for everyone!

Maybe you could find someone in your area that has Marans eggs or chicks for sale. Our 1st hatch of Marans only had 3 make it, I just started the incubator again with 7 eggs as a test hatch from our Blue Cuckoo Marans cockeral and 2 Blue Marans hens and 1 Cuckoo hen so we'll see what kind of luck we have with this one.