Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Quote:
I tried a kiddie pool for the runners...they didn't really use it at all....probably because they are not dependent on water like some of the other breeds. They prefer finding shallow little puddles and fishing around with their bills for goodies....they love the worms! The only reason my ducks have a run is for when I'm not out there with them and I know the hawks are out. I live next to an old cemetary and have a pair of hawks that I'm sure spend alot of their day drooling over my lovelies....and I say no to them getting a chance to snatch them.

 

[Debbi]

Thank you Raven. I hope that's how it goes.

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
What a handsome fellow. He is really really NICE! I think I heard Sassy let out a wolf whistle

Neat color on that ameraucanax (Is he a male?) are you going to cross it to a blue marans hen? Too bad you don't have black tailed buff hen, that might make a cool cross. How about a wheaten marans hen?

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
I tried a kiddie pool for the runners...they didn't really use it at all....probably because they are not dependent on water like some of the other breeds. They prefer finding shallow little puddles and fishing around with their bills for goodies....they love the worms! The only reason my ducks have a run is for when I'm not out there with them and I know the hawks are out. I live next to an old cemetary and have a pair of hawks that I'm sure spend alot of their day drooling over my lovelies....and I say no to them getting a chance to snatch them.

Ours like to do that too stick thier beaks down in the mud and eat muck or minerals or something. I had to cover the worm bins under the rabbit cages once the ducks and chickens found them. Plus one of the younger blue marans pullets decided it was a good thing to lay her egg in there. EWWW

 

[syble]

I need some help with blue maran pitfalls. I really need to shave down some roos, I still have 6 or 7 and only 3 hens. they are starting to mature and trying to mount the wee pullets(not marans about 1/3 their size and half their age). They came from helen byers... forgive my spelling. they were from her blue flock, but i've noticed on 1 or 2 of the roos now that their sex feathers are coming in that some are coming in with bits of orange. How hard will that be to breed out? one of the roos i like has it. Also comb shape... I had posted a picture of a blue roo earlier and got rave reviews about his comb... to me now it looks huge! like unrealistically huge... I have another roo that i like that has a wrinkle in the front of his... What are some major pitfalls to watch out for with them. they were near the end of april hatch so are about 3 months old now. i know its best to hold on for a while longer but i need to cut 3 or 4 loose.
here are some shoddy photos, sorry bout all i can manage, they seam to hate their photos being taken

Big comb roo, like the shape of his head, and width of back, concerned a bit that his comb is that big at 3 months old, and has yellow/orange bits showing up in his hackles. I also like his foot/leg feathering, full but not on the middle toe


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Dark blue roo. only have 1 like him, have lined up the clean legged one for sale. This pic isnt good for shape sorry. I think the proportion of his comb is safer. Dont think i've seen any coppering on him yet. Decent leg feathering, probably could use more on the toe. nice and wide back



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Splash roo, think hes the best of the 4, not sure what to make of his comb, he has the wrinkle. Good leg/foot feathering, hes the widest of the splashes no color leaking through.


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Crow splash one of 3 identical splash roos... they seam narrow through out (i would expect that if they were gonna have width they'd have had it by now right?), heads seam crowish. tail might be pinched a bit, feathers growing on the middle toe...


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Critiques are welcome.
Thanks
Sib

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
What a handsome fellow. He is really really NICE! I think I heard Sassy let out a wolf whistle

Neat color on that ameraucanax (Is he a male?) are you going to cross it to a blue marans hen? Too bad you don't have black tailed buff hen, that might make a cool cross. How about a wheaten marans hen?

haha that's hilarious! is Sassy snooping on you? hehe I do like his prospects so far. I have another nice boy in that same run that is mostly blue starting to get birchen markings on the neck, but in my youngest run I have 15 or 20 birchens running around...lots of boys, but I'm not complaining...It will take a few to be able to pick out a couple good ones for my flock of girls. I have one boy that is reallllllly heavy on the leg feathering but is the sweetest soft blue....he's a butterball, so I think I will be putting him on the girls with no leg feathering. If his size now is any indication, he will significantly help increase the size of some of my birchens. They do seem to run smaller than my other Marans.

That Ameraucana I keep going back and forth on. I'm secretly hoping its a pullet...the only reason is that I have a nice solid black boy I'd like to use for my olive egger project. I would like to get some solid blue olive eggers or even some birchen ones i wouldn't complain about. I do love me some birchens!!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
I tried a kiddie pool for the runners...they didn't really use it at all....probably because they are not dependent on water like some of the other breeds. They prefer finding shallow little puddles and fishing around with their bills for goodies....they love the worms! The only reason my ducks have a run is for when I'm not out there with them and I know the hawks are out. I live next to an old cemetary and have a pair of hawks that I'm sure spend alot of their day drooling over my lovelies....and I say no to them getting a chance to snatch them.

Ours like to do that too stick thier beaks down in the mud and eat muck or minerals or something. I had to cover the worm bins under the rabbit cages once the ducks and chickens found them. Plus one of the younger blue marans pullets decided it was a good thing to lay her egg in there. EWWW

haha...it is so true that animals and little kids must get their play book from the same place. Into everything and always find the worst stuff at that.

 

[Debbi]

Syble ~ I like your first Blue boy, and the first Splash boy. I wouldn't worry about the big comb, it has a nice shape to it, and he will more than likely grow into it. That last Splash boy is very odd looking to me. His tail is all wrong, looks like a pheasant's? If it were me, I'd keep #1 and #3.

ETA: Oops! I now see you are going for solid Blues? That first boy will be a Blue Copper, so you can send him to me!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
I think if it were me...at three months for prospects of the pics you show I would hold onto that second and third pic roos. Those are the ones that I like the best....the only thing on that splash boy would be watching to see if any coppering comes in...do you have another angle on that comb? I'm curious to see how it looks from another angle.

I forgot to add that I have some of helen byers splash stock and my boys looked similar to their body types at three months...they are right at 5 months now and have significantly beefed up since then...the ones I picked were of similar body type to my best cockerels now.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
haha...you are so funny debbi! I have a blue birchen cockerel that had a big comb like that when he was young and man is it ever huge now. I held onto him mostly because i had lost my black birchen boy in the first string...so i needed something, but he will be culled from my breeding program immediately once i see how some of the chicks finish growing out. He's a sweet boy, just hope his comb was one thing NOT passed on...