Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Hens and Roos]

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This is interesting enough that we will try this with our blue Andalusians and see what outcome we get from it. Not sure if the male we have is dark enough blue....

 

[DMRippy]

Y'all are more fun than FaceBook. Had not really thought about using the splash with the black coppers. I was going to use him for now to make olive eggers and meat birds. May have to test mate him with the BC pullets too

but I am only going to breed the results of that mating IF they lay a dark egg. Dark eggs are important to me.

Incubator is fired up for the first test run

If all goes well with my first test hatch, soon I too can have Marans babies. I couple of hatches later my girls should be well into laying and if not may go buy me some eggs, maybe Blue Coppers....

 

[fowlman01]

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Where are the genetic formula's when you need them..

The way blue works is pretty basic info. Splash to the blue bird that looks black= blue with lacing.
In the andalusion color you get black, blue and splash. I haven't heard of anyone breeding blue to blue to produce 100% blue,, but I haven't seen everything by any means.

Walt

In Blue Andalusian's if you use Blue to Blue matings you do get Blue, Black and Splash and from what other breeders say is to keep only the blue and cull the rest.

I don't know what other breeders would do, but I would sure keep some splashes around for many reasons. Andalusian blue is a very interesting color that is pretty predictable with the exceptions of the shades of each variation. Once you add colors to the blue, it gets a bit more interesting.

I would expect that any egg color variation would be in the background genetics of whatever color bird you are using as opposed to the color of the bird being the factor. I can't think of a reason that a blue varient would affect the egg color, but I suppose it could. I would always go with ones personal experience...if it works at your place with your flock, that is all that counts.

Walt

 

[DMRippy]

Here is the Blue Copper from Raven via PinkChick is he DARK like you are talking about?

I know the picture lighting is not great. I don't really know dark from light just yet, he is my first Blue Copper and I have never seen any others in person so he is my only reference.

 

[snowbird]

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Hi, since this is what you have why not just do a test setting of eggs out of this male and the pullets you have and then go from there. This male looks to be lighter on my monitor and that is good with the female you have,

 

[pinkchick]

I love all this talk about blue...............

 

[pinkchick]

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That's Gnarles' boy.

Gnarles is not a dark Blue Copper....my boy Bill photo'd a couple pages back is and is the dark blue that Don is referring to.

 

[DMRippy]

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That's Gnarles' boy.

Gnarles is not a dark Blue Copper....my boy Bill photo'd a couple pages back is and is the dark blue that Don is referring to.

Sounds like he could use some BC pullets

 

[Debbi]

Wow, go to town for a bit and come back to all of this blue talk!

I still want a Splash roo, heavy shank/toe feathering and great comb! I'm looking at some eggs right now, so we'll see. My objective is to get to more Blue Coppers, so will breed to the BCMs. Egg color, as long as it doesn't completely stink, can be worked on later. The eggs I'm looking at seem to be very decent for Splash. That said, I hope I have some BCM hens to breed to when I'm done culling.

Here is a warning for newbies!!! NEVER use those darned spiral leg bands!! I just had to operate on a hen that had one imbedded in her leg. The darn thing lost color, and it was impossible to see it on her leg...until she was limping. Geeezzz! It had gone from bright green to a gray color and blended in perfectly with her leg. I had removed others that had them when they were out growing them, but this gal escaped me evidently. The poor girl was in obvious pain, and even calmly let me work on her. She is not typically calm, but guess she knew I was going to help her. It took a thin, small screwdriver to wedge between her leg and the band, and a clipper to get it off. I felt so awful!!! Bad chicken mama, bad!!

The poor dear is doing much better now, and I'll bet she'll be wanting out of the run for some free range time tomorrow. Glad I caught it when I did, still feel awful though...

 

[Ivywoods]

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OUCH!

I had that happen to me one time a number of years ago. I don't remember the exact circumstances except I think that rooster grew bigger and faster than I ever expected, and I had to do just about what you did, using a small blade to slide under it, then a sharp pair of pointed nose wire cutters.(I'm sure there's a better name for that tool, but I don't know what it would be.)

Glad your hen is doing better. It's kind of funny how sometimes animals are calm and just "know" you are there to help them.