Quote:
She is a doll!
Rumplessness can happen in the Marans and I have seen it happen here in one of my own flocks. Don't know much about it, but know it has been around for a while. My Bill Sr. crossed over one of my original birds (that I do not have anymore, nor do I have any offspring from her either) that was a mix of Presley/Jeane lines produced a rumpless little splash gal. I have no clue if it came from Bill or from the dam, but has never popped up since, but then I haven't had that bird to cross Bill back to for a long time to see if it would happen again.
Will say give me rumplessness, a white feather, dark eyes, and a thumbprint in the comb anyday, verses the pretty little flowery comb.
SPEAKING of pretty little comb suprises........I found the dreaded comb on one of my little 4 week old Birchen cockerels yesterday.
Note to All~
By the way.......after alot more research and hoping after a couple more emails are answered (so that I know my terminology is correct)...that I can comfortably say that we have been wrongly calling it the carnation comb, when all along it is just side sprigs, like our very dear Snowbird stated they were several months ago.
(Don~ I am sooooooo sorry I didn't heed that when you said it.)
Raven~ Check your Birchens!
I strongly disagree with the idea that these "things" are just side sprigs! They may work like sprigs, but these combs are more like a mutation. I have a nice, triangular side sprig here on Blue Butt, it's a good size, and obviously a sprig. The thing connecting the Carnations are the other factors that these birds carry as well, such as feather shafting. Blue butt, with the sprig has NO feather shafting. JR with the moderate Carnation has slight feather shafting. Muttley, with the huge, tree looking comb has LOTS of feather shafting! So does his sister with the same type of comb on a smaller scale. Another thing I wondered about in that e-mail you sent with the Leghorns; they talked about a lot of small hatches, and high mortality rates. Now granted, that article was written some years ago, like the 30s? So mortality must have been common back then with the lesser incubators of the day, BUT, could there possibly be a "lethal" gene connection with these combs too?? I wonder why I have such small hatches, and yet such a high percentage of these combs? It's obvious, it has nothing to do with the sex chromosomes, as I have both sexes with the comb, but has anyone thought about the lethal aspect? At first, I thought it was my newbie hatching abilities, but after the great Silkie hatch I had (14 out of 17 shipped eggs), I am beginning to wonder why my best Marans hatch has been 5! That's with shipped eggs and my own eggs, FIVE! Something else to ponder I guess.
Well I am not the final say so....I'm just throwing out what I think and read. There is new discussion over at the coop about it....some think it is sprigs and others also think it is something different. Who knows really, but I can say that I don't think it will be eliminated easily if at all. I think the best we are going to get for a long time is suppression, until it can be slowed in its rampant path. It seems with the wildfire speed in which it is expressing....the speeding truck may be going toooooooo fast for the runnaway truck ramp to help slow it right now.
I do agree that there are varying degrees of the effect of this comb, such as some looking as though they may have been hit with it twice, and then others that have neat little sprig off either side of the blade. I have had one REALLY fugley one and the other 2 of recent are very neat with a sprig off either side.
It's exhausting to think about and lately.....it's all that is on my mind about these birds.
She is a doll!
Rumplessness can happen in the Marans and I have seen it happen here in one of my own flocks. Don't know much about it, but know it has been around for a while. My Bill Sr. crossed over one of my original birds (that I do not have anymore, nor do I have any offspring from her either) that was a mix of Presley/Jeane lines produced a rumpless little splash gal. I have no clue if it came from Bill or from the dam, but has never popped up since, but then I haven't had that bird to cross Bill back to for a long time to see if it would happen again.
Will say give me rumplessness, a white feather, dark eyes, and a thumbprint in the comb anyday, verses the pretty little flowery comb.
SPEAKING of pretty little comb suprises........I found the dreaded comb on one of my little 4 week old Birchen cockerels yesterday.
Note to All~
By the way.......after alot more research and hoping after a couple more emails are answered (so that I know my terminology is correct)...that I can comfortably say that we have been wrongly calling it the carnation comb, when all along it is just side sprigs, like our very dear Snowbird stated they were several months ago.
(Don~ I am sooooooo sorry I didn't heed that when you said it.)
Raven~ Check your Birchens!
I strongly disagree with the idea that these "things" are just side sprigs! They may work like sprigs, but these combs are more like a mutation. I have a nice, triangular side sprig here on Blue Butt, it's a good size, and obviously a sprig. The thing connecting the Carnations are the other factors that these birds carry as well, such as feather shafting. Blue butt, with the sprig has NO feather shafting. JR with the moderate Carnation has slight feather shafting. Muttley, with the huge, tree looking comb has LOTS of feather shafting! So does his sister with the same type of comb on a smaller scale. Another thing I wondered about in that e-mail you sent with the Leghorns; they talked about a lot of small hatches, and high mortality rates. Now granted, that article was written some years ago, like the 30s? So mortality must have been common back then with the lesser incubators of the day, BUT, could there possibly be a "lethal" gene connection with these combs too?? I wonder why I have such small hatches, and yet such a high percentage of these combs? It's obvious, it has nothing to do with the sex chromosomes, as I have both sexes with the comb, but has anyone thought about the lethal aspect? At first, I thought it was my newbie hatching abilities, but after the great Silkie hatch I had (14 out of 17 shipped eggs), I am beginning to wonder why my best Marans hatch has been 5! That's with shipped eggs and my own eggs, FIVE! Something else to ponder I guess.
Well I am not the final say so....I'm just throwing out what I think and read. There is new discussion over at the coop about it....some think it is sprigs and others also think it is something different. Who knows really, but I can say that I don't think it will be eliminated easily if at all. I think the best we are going to get for a long time is suppression, until it can be slowed in its rampant path. It seems with the wildfire speed in which it is expressing....the speeding truck may be going toooooooo fast for the runnaway truck ramp to help slow it right now.
I do agree that there are varying degrees of the effect of this comb, such as some looking as though they may have been hit with it twice, and then others that have neat little sprig off either side of the blade. I have had one REALLY fugley one and the other 2 of recent are very neat with a sprig off either side.
It's exhausting to think about and lately.....it's all that is on my mind about these birds.
