Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Christie Rhae]

I am interested in this black copper discussion. Will chicks eyes lighten up over time? I have a 3 1/2 month old pullet. She has copper feathers on her hackles but her eyes are very dark. She is the only marans chick growing out with a variety of other chicks and everyone else had much lighter eyes. I thought it was just cuz she is a diff breed that her eyes looked so dark. Is this something that can be worked on with "compliment breeding"?

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Hi Marcy!
It is pretty common for some Black Coppers to show very little to no copper in the hackles and happens more often (IMO) with the females vs. the males. This is because the birds are "over melanized" or you may see it referred to as "too dark" and it just means that they have too many melanizers or melanotic in the genetics that cover the copper, but it is still there. In my experience, the males that are "too dark" generally have very dark copper in the hackles, little to no copper in the wing bow and little to no copper in the saddles. The females will look all black, but if a person looks close enough and in the right light you will see some very very dark copper in the hackles that almost looks black, but a slight copper or mahogany color will be there, it just hard to see.
In theory, if these hens are mated to an overly red or more red cock bird the chances of getting better copper in some of the offspring is more, but offspring that are still too dark always (In my experience) happen too. On the other hand, many folks have breed the "too dark" birds and got offspring that are rather nice. Also, males can continue to color up for up to 2 years in my experience, so giving them the time they need to mature fully can be very beneficial. I don't notice the females still changing at that age though...pretty much I notice mine are done changing around 6-7 months of age.
A person can still breed them, but just be prepared that it may take a while and some luck (lots of breeding and culling) to get copper back.
I say test mate your birds and see what becomes of the pairings. If you do not like the results you can always switch up birds and try different parent bird combinations to see what the pairings produce. It's all trial and error really.......... and about 90% chance. Hope this helps.

This is a photo of one of my over melanized hens when she was young, now at 1.5 years she still looks the same. Look very closely at her hackles and I believe you can see some color (not black) there that is very dark.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Usually the eye color of the male changes upon sexual maturity or in the females just before they reach point of lay or as they start laying. I have not seen eye color change after that. I have seen both the greenish gray eye color and the dark eye color in youngsters change to good color, but does not mean that all dark eyed birds are going to change.
I have good luck with the dark eyed females (though the bird has to be good in all other aspects if I am to breed it with dark eyes) crossed to a male with good eye color producing offspring with good eye color and not the dark. I usually only see the dark eye in the females also, but have had a couple of males with dark eyes that did not change upon maturity, believe it or not they both had nice copper color and were not over melanized but I did not use them for breeding.
I personally associate the dark eye color with melanizers, but I do not limit it soley to that.

 

[Christie Rhae]

Quote:
Usually the eye color of the male changes upon sexual maturity or in the females just before they reach point of lay or as they start laying. I have not seen eye color change after that. I have seen both the greenish gray eye color and the dark eye color in youngsters change to good color, but does not mean that all dark eyed birds are going to change.
I have good luck with the dark eyed females (though the bird has to be good in all other aspects if I am to breed it with dark eyes) crossed to a male with good eye color producing offspring with good eye color and not the dark. I usually only see the dark eye in the females also, but have had a couple of males with dark eyes that did not change upon maturity, believe it or not they both had nice copper color and were not over melanized but I did not use them for breeding.
I personally associate the dark eye color with melanizers, but I do not limit it soley to that.

Thank you!
I have 8 BCM eggs in lockdown. Due on Wednesday so crOssing my fingers I have more babies soon!

 

[pinkchick]

Jeremy I love your BLUE eggs. Who laid the one on the top left? It looks really cool, like a watercolor kinda batik washed blue. I only have blue ameraucanas but they are apparently on hiatus from egg laying lol. My olive eggers, however, are laying up a storm I got 2 1/2 doz from them over the weekend!

Love the eggs Jeremy! They are beautiful!!!!!!!



Flgarden~
Sometimes eggs with this appearance in the shell (regardless of the breed of chicken) is suggestive that a bacteria may be in the egg. NOT SAYING Jeremy's eggs have bacteria....just using this egg as an example because it is an AWESOME photo and resembles the dipiction of other photos I have seen and studied about eggs and the shell and what the shell can tell us about our birds and what could be going on in the egg or with it.

Oh 2.5 dozen beautiful olive eggs is too many for you to have all to yourself.....my 'bator has plenty of room in it, if you are looking for a place to store them.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
man...I must be distracted! I meant replacer parts for my dremel so I can work on my jewelry. doh! Oh...and I got an awesome set up for working on close up work..with clamp arms and a magnifier with lights so I can do detail work much easier and free up my hands at the same time. I don't know where my mind is...I might have lost it

I requested a deep fat fryer for Christmas. I know "Something ain't right with that girl!".

We live so far away from a drive thru that FRESH hot Fries are a real PITA to get.

LOVE a few french fries with my SALT if you know what I mean!

So today I tried my hand at homemade Doughnuts. I am on the way to the store to get the ingredients to stuff them wiht Barvarian Creme!

NOW, ya'll can return to the topic of marans....

 

[pinkchick]

I got 2 Marans eggs for Christmas.

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
man...I must be distracted! I meant replacer parts for my dremel so I can work on my jewelry. doh! Oh...and I got an awesome set up for working on close up work..with clamp arms and a magnifier with lights so I can do detail work much easier and free up my hands at the same time. I don't know where my mind is...I might have lost it

I requested a deep fat fryer for Christmas. I know "Something ain't right with that girl!".

We live so far away from a drive thru that FRESH hot Fries are a real PITA to get.

LOVE a few french fries with my SALT if you know what I mean!

So today I tried my hand at homemade Doughnuts. I am on the way to the store to get the ingredients to stuff them wiht Barvarian Creme!

NOW, ya'll can return to the topic of marans....

Are you serious...there's like a zillion Mcdonalds around here LOL!
They don't have really good steak fries though so homemade will prob be better. Get some of that blackened seasoning from Zatarain's looks like this http://www.zatarains.com/Products/Spices-and-Extracts/Blackened-Seasoning.aspx and sprinkle some on them. So awesome!
Its good on deep fried zucchini in a beer batter too.

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Love the eggs Jeremy! They are beautiful!!!!!!!



Flgarden~
Sometimes eggs with this appearance in the shell (regardless of the breed of chicken) is suggestive that a bacteria may be in the egg. NOT SAYING Jeremy's eggs have bacteria....just using this egg as an example because it is an AWESOME photo and resembles the dipiction of other photos I have seen and studied about eggs and the shell and what the shell can tell us about our birds and what could be going on in the egg or with it.

Oh 2.5 dozen beautiful olive eggs is too many for you to have all to yourself.....my 'bator has plenty of room in it, if you are looking for a place to store them.

Got another dozen today..so yummy lol. Those girls are on fire! Too bad the others aren't.

Didn't know that about the bacteria ewww. Is it because the shell is thinner? Speaking of thin shells, I need to get some more calcium some of my sexlink girls are having a few thin shelled eggs lately.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
man...I must be distracted! I meant replacer parts for my dremel so I can work on my jewelry. doh! Oh...and I got an awesome set up for working on close up work..with clamp arms and a magnifier with lights so I can do detail work much easier and free up my hands at the same time. I don't know where my mind is...I might have lost it

Ohh I have a Dremel as well. I just love it. I used to have one with a cord then liked it so much I got a cordless one. It is MY powertool and dh is not allowed to touch it muuuhahaha!!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Jeremy I love your BLUE eggs. Who laid the one on the top left? It looks really cool, like a watercolor kinda batik washed blue. I only have blue ameraucanas but they are apparently on hiatus from egg laying lol. My olive eggers, however, are laying up a storm I got 2 1/2 doz from them over the weekend!

Nice! I have the cordless one and I love it and use it for all sorts of stuff. I am building up my tool inventory slowly as I find things i can't live without. Its one of the most handy ones i have.