Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[snowbird]

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Somehow you are missing the whole point of my comment on not breeding the BC from the Blues back into the BC. The reason is because most of the good lines of BC are farther ahead type and genetically than the other colors. If you breed these BC back into the BC you are weakening the genetic base that is already there. I believe some think the Blues are on the same level as the BC but it just is not a fact.

 

[math ace]

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[math ace]

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Dad is still with us. So, I can so relate to the "Can't possibly keep up" concept.

Flock is doing good and I am hatching the F2's as we speak. I had kept one pullet and one cockerel from the 5 that survived the hatch my dad tossed across the living room. Neither is from my stock.... both are dark. I had a couple of breeders eggs in that incubator. So, I don't know which line they are from after the great egg scramble. These I want to post pics on and will do soon. They are so very different from my stock. It will be interesting to see what results from their matings. I will need to do some careful documentation with them!

 

[geebs]

This computer isn't working right or something I had to log in again just to see your responses.... It is DURPED!!! UG... It didn't notify me that there was a post....

Well sad to hear about the Dad catapulting incident.... Dang... hang in there!!! I think of you often.... F-2's you must be excited!!! Do you have any pix??? I can go back and look if you have page numbers...

 

[pinkchick]

Geebs~ I do notice that my older birds, including the females will lighten just before molt. Their feathers start to look all faded, dirty and dingy, especially the blues, then all of a sudden they start to get a few new feathers in and those new feathers are nice and bright clean laced blue scattered amongst the old dingy feathers.

Don~ If I used this BCM male that is a product of a BCM dam and a Blue Copper sire to make more Blue Coppers would that be ok? It's just making more BC from the BC produced from the blue that you disagree with right?
Well....this is my best colored BC male that I have ever produced, nice dark black without the brown tinge, he has good type, his biggest issue is that stupid comb and lack of feathers on his toe.......so if I cross him to a couple of nicely coppered BC hens, are you saying that it is impossible to create another nice BC, male of female and I have weakened the gene pool by doing this? Call me very dense but I still can't wrap my head around this concept.....if the good genes are there in the BC used and the Blue used, how can passing on good genes make a mess of things? Sorry if I frustrate you on this, I seriously try to see your point and I appreciate it greatly, just can't register it in the ol' knoggin.

Wynette~ You commented earlier about your Giants and breeding black to blue to keep nice crisp lacing.......that is exactly why I breed black to blue here.....for the lacing. For a long while I only owned 2 BCM hens and didn't use them for breeding because I was bent on making all the blues I could. Slap in the face for me.....when I only used the blue to blue or splash to blue, I lost lacing bigtime and some of my birds started resembling a self blue bird. I learned my lesson the hard way and will forever use blue and black to keep the lacing crisp.

 

[pinkchick]

About Blue:

I guess it does depend on the quality of the melanistics in the bird in your yard. I would use Kim's dark Blue bird... not a splash rooster to a blue hen... Her rooster does contain a nice amount of melanisers... Another bird wouldn't likely be as suitable and it also depends on the females as well... JMHO here... I guess there is different approaches to everything... I don't have dark blue like that so I would use the black (two times) on blue to get the color I was after... again... just the way I do it.

When I put this bird (Bill...not the bird photo'd below) over BC.....I end up with jet black pullets and VERY DARK males that do not show enough copper......however, me thinks I may have won the lottery this time with my Lil Bill.....we will see how the test mating goes. If I get some nice chicks out of this bird....I will do the happy dance all the way to the chicken coop and back again......50x.

When I put Bill over Splash hens I end up with some VERY NICE BIRDS...good colors, good lacing and good copper...but usually clean shanked because Bill is clean shanked. It's one thing or another.

Lil' Bill for ya again in case you missed him the last time I posted him Geebsie.

 

[pinkchick]

Oh and my dear friend Don......you still haven't commented on this BC males comb.

 

[gilavina]

Mornin everyone

Loving all the blue talk, its making my heart happy!

I did some sorting through part of my stock hatched out this year and am finding some good potential. I have more to go....probably gonna start today, but am realizing its time to think pretty seriously about overhauling the outdoor pens. I'm thinking I am going to do a U shape set of breeding pens with a roof for all the crazy weather we get here and then alternate letting the pens out for freeranging everyday.

My question is what size pens do you guys use for breeding pens and how many do you keep in each? I also am wanting to build a couple of pens for test mating. They won't need to be as big, but for those of you that do test mating, what kinds of pens do you use?

 

[pinkchick]

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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

Some of the nicest quality birds I have produced have been Splash birds......only problems I have had with Splash is too dark of eyes and a little lighter egg color, though I will say that I have also had some Splash birds that have given me some very nice eggs. I love my Splash birds and keep them around for making some blues.....when the color of blue gets too dark, like this male, I will breed him to a Splash, it helps lighten the blue and I get some nice lacing out of it.

 

[pinkchick]

Hi Vicki!

All this talk about Blue does make a heart happy doesn't it?