Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[DMRippy]

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Are you going to be selling hatching eggs, chicks? If so don't buy from a hatchery. The egg color is very poor from what I have read. Get the best you can and cull.

If you are wanted to sell eating eggs, Rocks. My Marans have blood spots so I don't sell them for eating. I have not had that problem with rocks any variety I have had.

It is very hard to get good looking, dark egg laying Marans and would be a bigger project than Rocks. JMHO

I'm going to be selling chicks and maybe eggs, just depends on what people want. I do sell eating eggs, and would sell the majority of these eggs for eating purposes. How often do you get blood spots, and is that genetic? I think the people I sell eggs to would love the dark eggs, but not if they consistantly had blood spots...

When they first started laying every egg had it and pea size spots in each egg. Now they still have them but it is pen head size. Some are regular with no blood, but I don't give them to anyone, I just scoop it out and use them. I have heard similar stories on here and it is just a bigger problem in Marans. Sorry.

 

[geebs]

Breeding Maran with the Side Sprig and Carnation Combs

I see several asking about what it takes to get the side sprig in Maran. It takes the sprig gene on both sides mom and pop. The sprig can shown up in any breed of poultry even in the rosecomb. If one shows up just keep culling as you go along. There have been many studies done in years past and a lot of research info. is available.


Carnation Combs in Maran, There have been no studies done on the Carnation problem with the Penne blood being mixed into the Maran by the dark egg experts.

In my own mind I think it only takes one bird with the Carnation Comb gene to produce some Carnation combs. Anyone with these Carnation combs needs to document the test that are done with them in trying to test mate them, as there is nothing that has been documented at this point.

I have only ever had some ebay wheaten eggs from Wisc. that showed the Carnation comb, I culled the entire hatch and should have done a test hatch with them to see what happened, but that is water under the bridge.

With the sprig if you get a comb with a double sprig near the rear of the blade that is not carnation. By this I mean a sprig on both sides of the Comb

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Don

I agree with Don here... truely the only way to eliminate it.... is to eliminate it.... Otherwise it doubles up on you when you least expect it and foils generations of work. Cull cull cull without hesitation.


Blood spots? ... found that if the eggs are fresh...some of them tend to have them from time to time... if you refrigerate... you will see less of them... Lots of theories as to why they occur.... just don't know... Fresher eggs seem to have them.​

 

[poultryluvr18]

It's okay... I just found some things out and I don't think I'm going to be able to breed the Marans after all

I think I'm still going to get some, but not for breeding. Thank you so much for all of your help!

 

[geebs]

ya they can have that affect on ppl.....

daunting huh????

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Joymac,

I will try to help you out.
Fused toes indicates that there might of been issues with your incubator. There may be other problems effecting her gorwth rate too.
The one chick we had that ate like a pig and didn't put much weight on had scissor beak. You might want to examine her beak closely and make sure all that food she is trying to eat is actually getting in her belly.

Your marans should be bigger than the ameraucana. Are these the only two chicks from the hatch?

Do you have a current picture? I am wondering if the ameraucana might be a cockerel and is growing a little faster...

Just a little correction here. The fused toes is a genetic defect and should be culled .

 

[math ace]

Quote:
Their beak grows as they grow. So, a slight deformanity at birth will become more pronouced as the bird grows.

Here is something else to watch for . . .. a vision issue. I've recently hatched two pullets that had depth perception issues. Their beaks were perfectly normal, but they weren't able to find any thing thrown on the ground for them. They would peck all around it without ever hitting their target. I didn't notice this until my girls were older because they were gaining weight just as well as everyone else. They were able to hide the disability and work around it becuase I feed chick starter in deep dishes where it didn't matter if their target was right on.

 

[math ace]

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I will second that there are many causes of blood spots AND yes they can be genetic.

I ran into a HUGE problem with blood spots last winter when I started using artifical lighting to increase egg production.
When I stopped using the lighting, there was a dramatic reduction in blood spots.

My F1's are laying now and I am having no problems as of yet with blood spots.
I am not running any supplemental lighting this winter and I will see if the problem stays gone

 

[flgardengirl]

Are you guys seeing blood spots in older hens (a year or more) or just mostly the newer layers? I seem to only get them in the new layers and then they go away. Not all the new layers have them just a couple in each batch it seems.

I haven't had any vision problems in my Marans except one little blue girl who got pecked in the eye when she was younger. She is almost blind in that eye but gets around just fine. I have a hatchery light brahma girl named Pickles who has very bad vision far vision and with depth perception. She used to get lost all the time and get herself into crazy situations thus her name lol.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
My girls were exactly 1 year old last year when I ran into issues. I do know that I read it can be an issue with new layers and then go away too.
Like Geebs said . . . . there are a lot of possible causes.

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
Hi Don,

With my limited experience with the Carnations, I do feel it is a two gene deal as well; one gene from each parent expresses the Carnation comb. The first hatch came from birds (my very first Marans), that all carried at least one gene, and one of the pullets expressed the actual carnation, although at the time I did not notice it due to the back of the comb being flopped over. When this pullet was bred to her hatchmate, who did NOT express the comb, I got HUGE Carnation combs (2). It expressed in both pullet and cockerel offspring. There were 5 chicks hatched in that fist clutch, and 4 expressed the comb, one did not, but I consider a carrier of the one gene for it.

The second clutch of F1s was a mix of two different roos. I had been under the misconception that to clear a hen of a previous roo's sperm took a two week withdrawl time, this is NOT the case, I later found out. So, this second clutch still had some sperm from the first roo, but one of the cockerels was very obviously from the second roo (Clyde) who I had intended on being the father in the first place. There were 3 chicks hatched from this mating, still from the same hens. One cockerel got a double dose of the genes, meaning he must've come from the hen expressing the comb and her hatchmate (the old roo). One pullet expressed a much smaller carnation comb, I feel getting one gene from the old roo, and one gene from one of the carrier hens that did NOT express the comb. The third chick, was a cockerel with a normal looking comb, just like his father's comb, albeit with one more point than dad's, but normal. I believe here that Clyde was the father, bred to one of the hens that did NOT express the comb. This means to me that Clyde is NOT a carrier of the gene, but his son no doubt, carries one gene due to his mother.

These were more or less experimental matings, so until I can single mate some more hens, this is all I have to go on, but I strongly believe I am correct in my thinking. A third hatch from the Clyde x carrier hen, produced one pullet, also expressing a nice, erect, normal comb. So that's two good combs for Clyde, bred to carriers. I know this is a small amount, and more will have to be tested, but I do believe it takes TWO GENES for the carnation comb to be expressed. Once I can get the pens set up, hopefully by spring, I will start single mating with Clyde, to specific hens. The first pairing will be with his daughter, this last pullet produced with the normal comb. I believe she will indeed carry the one gene from her mother, so she will be my "control" pullet. If I breed her to Clyde and I get Carnations, then that will dash my hopes that he is not a carrier. I believe that the chicks produced from these two will be all normal combs...we'll see. Then I have the two hens from Pink, that were the Gnarles' daughters. While neither one of them express the carnation, I do believe they are carriers and carry the one gene for it. I will breed both of them to Clyde as well, again, if I get all normal combs, I will consider Clyde "clean". I will then take the pullets from these breedings, and breed them back to Clyde. Again, all combs should be normal...hopefully. Luckily for me, I have a small flock to keep track of at this time, so it will be easier for me to keep track of. It will however, be very time consuming. I will NOT be including in the test matings, any pullets or hens that express the carnation combs. Those birds will be culled from the breeding flock. This is my theory and my plan for starters. If you, or anyone else has any other suggestions, please let me know.