Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[BarnGoddess01]

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Prevailing comment about Marans overall - including Wheatens - we need to become more consistent. Biggest problem with the Wheaten females - white 'fluff' under the feathers. Fluff needs to be darker (like buff/tan) which will improve the colour on the boys down the road. Also, there was a lot of black "spray painting" on the females. (Tiny black speckles) Not good. (I hope Edgar comments as I'm going from memory and he knows!) The boy that won at Crossroads had an almost white butt. Not good.

Leg feathering was also all over the place. Edgar didn't seem to feel any of it was sufficient. All TOO sparse.

I hope I don't insult anyone by saying the Cuckoos were a disgrace. I know Marans folks were encouraged to bring birds to Crossroads just to keep the numbers up. Cuckoos still need a lot of work before bidding for acceptance to the APA. Barring is not good so far.

Bev's watch was a gift from her son.

 

[pinkchick]

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Kathy you are one funny lady!

 

[flgardengirl]

Thanks barngoddess. I hope Edgar will enlighten the rest of us as well

So what all is wrong with the cuckoos? Is it just the silver cuckoos or the golden cuckoos that you are referring to? I didn't see very many cuckoos at all at Newman. I wonder if not alot of people keep them? I really love the barred birds and hope to help improve on them with both egg color and form.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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There were only "silver" cuckoos and not even a handful of those. And the pullet looked to be maybe 12 weeks old, if she was that. And there was a notation to that effect on the card on her cage. I have zero experience with golden cuckoos so I am not commenting on those. The "cuckoo" that Edgar pulled out to show us was sort of mid-moult - half washed out, dull feathers, half, shiney new and he pointed that out. But the barring was not well defined and that was the complaint. I believe he even suggested that the barring would get worse as the bird aged. I am used to Barred Rocks where barring has been perfected. It seems we have a way to go with Cuckoo Marans and their barring.

One thing that I'm wondering about - Cuckoos are one of the varieties being considered by the club as the next pitch for SOP inclusion. But it also seems at this point not many people are keen on them or keeping them. I am also a fan of cuckoos and hope the 6 eggs I have actually hatch because I would like to "work" on/with them. (Whites and Blue Coppers were also mentioned.)

 

[Debbi]

barngoddess ~ I may be way wrong here, but my understanding is the cuckoo pattern is much less regimented than the actual "barred" varieties, like the BR. Am I wrong in my thinking here? I'm not into the cuckoos, and really have no interest there, but that seems to be what I've read that distinguishes the actual barreds from the cuckoos. Did the Cuckoos you saw have feathered shanks/toes? In my opinion, they should go for the Blues and Blue Copper's approval before they go for the Cuckoos, just going by what I've seen in pics. Did you get any Blue/Blue Copper pics??

Neat watch Bev!!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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Debbi, you are not wrong about the barring, and Wynette was also quick to point that out to me but Edgar DID complain about the barring. So perhaps we need to check with him for clarification. The cuckoos did have feathered legs, no better or worse than any of the other Marans varieties. That wasn't the issue. And I also agree, we aren't ready to promote the cuckoos. Blue Coppers are VERY popular. Just the one blue copper female for pictures from me from Crossroads. Perhaps other members will have more ....

Edgar's bantam Black Marans were fabulous and Bev Davis has got really nice dark bantam egg colour already ....

We are on the map ...

 

[gilavina]

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this is what I am afraid of!! just got in from setting the traps and shutting up all the animals. I am determined to get this problem under control

 

[gilavina]

With all this talk about the cuckoo patterning that I missed out on today...and also about the things discussed at Crossroads. I'm wondering for educational purposes if someone could help those of us out that raise the cuckoos and possibly provide a pic or a link we can go to in order to see what the ideal pattern is supposed to look like on a Cuckoo Marans?

Also...i was wondering if someone could provide a pic of the ideal amount of feathering desired on the leg and outer toe of a Marans since "sparsely" is open to interpretation quite a bit.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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Gilavina .... I think this is what we would ALL like to know.

There were some birds at Crossroads that certainly seemed to be "well" feathered from a sparse point of view for at least a couple of us but Edgar still suggested it was TOO sparse. Even in person, we still had questions.

 

[gilavina]

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Gilavina .... I think this is what we would ALL like to know.

There were some birds at Crossroads that certainly seemed to be "well" feathered from a sparse point of view for at least a couple of us but Edgar still suggested it was TOO sparse. Even in person, we still had questions.

yeah....it seems like everyone has a viewpoint on several factors, I'm hoping at some point someone will peg down the "sparse issue"....and this is the first I'm hearing about the cuckoo pattern. I remember reading as well before I got into the cuckoos about how their pattern is not supposed to be the same as a barred...so i'm just confused

Maybe this could be a starting point? I'm not sure...
this is my cock Claude Hopper...I'd love to hear in comparison to where the cuckoos "should" be with their coloring where he fits? I'm a very visual person, so I'm just trying to figure out how to understand all this.

here is some patterning one of the pullets from this years hatch out of him.