Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[snowbird]

Quote:
Kim, The type on this male is what I like on my Marans males. The comb is nothing to worry about, the non show people put too much emphasis on the comb points. The only thing I see is the Copper is more Mahogany and dark. Good male to use for adding color to the females. Would work really nice with some splash from the Blue Copper matings. Best male picture I have seen you post.

 

[ccshambhala]

GORGEOUS bird - chics in the sun love that she saved the marans babies

she reminds me (in personality) of my blue marans hen

also GORGEOUS roo pinkchick - (and hen in the background) (let me preface this with I'm a novice but...) the lacing on him is very nice and he seems to have the perfect amount of copper - and he has a beautiful conformation

i learn so much here

 

[gilavina]

I do show several different breeds of birds and have since I was a kid. Just sharing what I saw with Kim like she asked us to.

 

[Ivywoods]

Kim-Don't throw rocks at me... my personal preference is I really don't care for blue birds, BUT.........

YOUR ROOSTER IS GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!

 

[chics in the sun]

Quote:
This bird has an outstanding body...anymore pics of her?

Walt

Yes, I love to take pictures of her - and share them.

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
This bird has an outstanding body...anymore pics of her?

Walt

I'm really glad you said that! I am working on breeding for that body type and have been told that when the body is like that the back is not long enough, but that is how I prefer mine to look ideally. When would you say the back is too short? I guess how can you tell on a Marans? I also raise Wyandottes with very short backs, but in comparison to them, where is the line with Marans in your opinion? Also...do you think it is possible to have backs that are too long? I hear so much conflicting info, that I thought I'd ask you as a judge since you've popped in on the thread.

Oh...and glad to see you here again! When reading my way through this thread, I really appreciated some of the things you said that clarified questions I had since the Marans are a newer breed for me.

It is hard to tell in pics how long a back really is. The Marans should have a long back, but even if it has a short back, the body of the bird would make me want to breed from it. Use an extra long male if you have one.

Don: that is one of the best colored BC females I have seen. I think it is one of the few I have seen that is really black where it should be black.

 

[Debbi]

Walt, nice to see you back here!

Kim ~ That's the worst blue boy I've seen yet

Send him to me so you don't have to be embarassed when people stop by!

JK, he is a beauty! His daddy sure does throw his weight around, and he has the Bill face too.

 

[aChickted]

Great thread - so much info here!

I have a few questions about my growing flock of marans. I bought both blue birchen marans and solid blue marans eggs this year, and unfortunately wasn't smart enough to separate them during incubation. The chicks hatched at the same time, and now I can't 100% tell the difference between who is who.

So, here goes nothing. Could/should a splash of the blue birchen marans have red in the breast the way a black copper does?

How would one tell a splash birchen marans apart from a splash marans?

Does a splash of the blue copper variety have copper in the hackles or is it solid splash?

And, what age do your birds get their copper hackles and wing feathers?

Thanks!!!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
my first question is how old are they?

If you have birchens and sold blues you ideally shouldn't have coppering coming in at all. It isn't uncommon to have them show copper leakage however in the blues. Who did you get your hatching eggs from? I raise both solid blues and birchens and have ordered quite a few hatching eggs off and on from different people to get my start.

if you have some pics to load? Perhaps we'll be able to help you out more being able to see what you see?

 

[math ace]

I have just confirmed that the first hatching of my own delaware eggs produced 6 cockerels and 0 pullets!

REALLY, I just don't get it!
I seem to do better on the shipped egg hatching, but not on my own home grown eggs - - MARANS or Delawares.
I had 3 different hens laying eggs for that batch of 6 cockerels...


I think I need to have my well water analyzed. It must be the sulphur or iron....

I've done a lot better on the marans front once I eliminated eggs from the one hen.

All the eggs in the incubator are from my own stock..... Lordy, I hope I get a least a few pullets from the batch!