Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[chic-a-deee]

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Oh my....

Sorry for that awful disease. Glad to see such cuties

 

[wyan_zen]

I'm trying to figure out the coloring of Marans eggs coding. To what reference when folks say "#4 eggs will be considered Marans"?

I am having a hard time differentiating #4 brown from different photos posted online, in part due to the flash while photographing, color distortion of pictures posted online, lighting etc. How about using a color reference like http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/paint_colors/ideas/color/index.jsp and tag each color number to a paint color? I could go to my local paint store and pick up a paint chip for reference!

 

[gilavina]

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well...to be honest...i had three of them...all carbon copies from three different hatches...turns out the hen they came from is one I ended up culling not too long ago because of a weird anomally i found in her wing. I went back and looked at my hatching records and realized she was their momma so I started looking them over pretty carefully. I don't believe it was a split wing...have plenty of experience with that in other breeds, but the wing shape itself was just odd...and carried it too low...so didn't think much of it, until those three boys all had similar carriage. I felt like the best thing I could do for my program was not take the chance and introduce something into the line that i would regret later. They were the only chicks I hatched from her as she was quite a bit older and at the point her laying was sporadic. So...long story short...they were gorgeous...and it hurt a bit of my heart to do it, but just had to. three out of three is not a coincidence to me. Plus...he really did have an ugly comb....all of his points were kind of lazy and would flop where ever they felt like it...plus, I've been really picky about combs, so I do have other boys with much better combs.

 

[Debbi]

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well...to be honest...i had three of them...all carbon copies from three different hatches...turns out the hen they came from is one I ended up culling not too long ago because of a weird anomally i found in her wing. I went back and looked at my hatching records and realized she was their momma so I started looking them over pretty carefully. I don't believe it was a split wing...have plenty of experience with that in other breeds, but the wing shape itself was just odd...and carried it too low...so didn't think much of it, until those three boys all had similar carriage. I felt like the best thing I could do for my program was not take the chance and introduce something into the line that i would regret later. They were the only chicks I hatched from her as she was quite a bit older and at the point her laying was sporadic. So...long story short...they were gorgeous...and it hurt a bit of my heart to do it, but just had to. three out of three is not a coincidence to me. Plus...he really did have an ugly comb....all of his points were kind of lazy and would flop where ever they felt like it...plus, I've been really picky about combs, so I do have other boys with much better combs.

Well then you had good reason. I don't like the droopy wings either. Had a split wing on the roo from my very first batch, no more thankfully, just the horrid combs!

 

[Debbi]

Guess I'll have to get some new pics of Pip, I evidently "culled" him out of the photos!

Had some baby pics, but can't tell it's the same guy.

 

[gilavina]

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haha culled from the photos.

i cant wait til next spring when i can hatch to see if things improve with all the careful cullin im doin now. i hope you have great luck with your birds too so you can move forward again

 

[Debbi]

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Here is a link to the newer shade card. You can purchase them on the site, don't know if you have to be a member or not. This shade card shows the #4 egg color much darker than some in the past.

http://marans.org/merchandise.html

 

[Debbi]

Yes, looks like you are heading in the right direction. I hope I can start over better this time. Roy & Clyde will be my main men, Pip will be a total experiment, so he may just end up heading down the road later on. It's just a nagging feeling I get from him, kind of like in my dog days. I did some breedings there that turned out to be real shockers to the other breeders that saw what I had started with!

Took one nine month old pup from that litter and went Best of Breed at a Specialty match, under a breeder/judge of high esteem. The upper crust all dropped their jaws, especially with me handling him!

 

[gilavina]

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i love when things like that happen!

 

[gilavina]

can you just imagine a silver birchen boy that nicely colored as big as Gigantor and a nice set of feathered legs? i seriously can't wait!!