Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Raven1]

URGGGHHH!!!!!

What I think too. but hey a girl can dream!
I guess I am on the hunt for a roo, might give Dick Dickerson a call can't be wasting my 2 pullets in the layer pen.

 

[flgardengirl]

Quote:
Ohh he's handsome! Is he partridge or buff? He is pretty round lol.

 

[MuffsnFluff]

Well, been a busy day, enjoying the warm and dry before the rain starts back up next week, still can't believe this is January! Got the bags of dirty litter moved out of the chicken house and all the lots scooted over to clean dry ground on top of all the normal "mommy" duties, feeding and watering all the baby chickies, etc, lol

On the mossy chicks, most of the jeane/davis (although not well bred at all) birds I had looked like that and only one was really super bad and she never grew out of it, but the others did. On the Cottage Hill line the roosters feathered out like that for a short time then moulted them out, the girls stayed black, so who knows. Of course two that I had thought were girls at first ended up being roosters too, so so much for that,

So you never know, it could moult out, time will tell for sure.

Some replies to everyone:

Quote:
Lol, I hope she does too! Been TWO WARM DAYS now, with no marans laid at all

Finally one of the jeane/davis gals laid one of the lighter eggs today, silly birds should stop free loading, lol!

Quote:
Thanks! I'm tickled pink! I'm hoping the next one will be a bit more evenly colored, but even if it isn't I won't be upset! Yeah, that boy says those are "HIS" chickens, not mine

Gotta start 'em young!


Quote:
He's a pretty good help with chickens! He catches them better than I do, and he's pretty good at gathering eggs too

Quote:
It's the darkest one I have seen too, lol! I know it's one of the two Cottage Hill line birds, since their combs got red quite a bit later than the three jeanne/davis hens, but I don't know which one for sure yet, will have to seperate them all out in a couple of months to figure out which one it is, then I will SET EVERY EGG SHE LAYS, lol.... once the incubator is fixed and back up and running again

Quote:
Frankie is SO CUTE!!! Love me some silkies, gonna have to get a few for farmer boy to love on sometime soon

Off to relax for the rest of the evening

 

[slick4591]

Quote:
Hi, When you say blue do you mean blue copper or pure blue? If it is a blue copper roo then yes you can breed him to your blk copper girls. That being said, if the blue copper boy (if that's what you have) is related to the others then he may still carry that white feathering. You could try a test hatching and see what happens. If you still come out with some babies with the white in the shank then I would look for a new black copper roo that has no white and of course has the other traits you want.
You should try and keep your 'pure' blues, blacks etc separate from coppers.

Did a closer inspection a few minutes ago and it's not that the white feathers are growing in, it's the black are turning white. Correct me if I'm wrong, but won't these molt out?

 

[flgardengirl]

Sometimes white feathers can molt out especially on young birds. Also, if you have a bird that has had a feather pulled out (traumatically by another bird etc.) the feathers can grow back in white and then molt out. I observed this on two of my black hens (orpingtons) and the feathers actually grew back in white and then later started to grow in black in the same feather. Then they shed the feather and grew in a normal black feathers. These were on the backs fo thier necks where the roos would grab them.
Sometimes a white feather is just a white feather so time will tell.
IF I had several birds from the same parents that all or many had white feathers where they shouldn't be, then I'd be suspicious that they were just plain old white feathers that shouldn't be there...unless it is a funky line that all the white just molts out or something.
Baby marans often have white on their faces and wing that does molt out normally. I don't usually get white in the shanks on my chicks so I couldn't tell ya if that is something that would also molt out.

Hope this helps.

 

[Stellar]

Quote:
My two Cuckoo boys, Alexander and Douglas

, are doing VERY well. Growing like bad weeds. Biggest boys in the box right now. Seven weeks old on Sunday. Super friendly.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/38460_img_1392-1.jpg

BOYS!!!! HAHAHAHA Oh boy! Well, they carry the gene for dark egg so all you need is a Black hen somewhere down the road OR more cuckoos

Love my cuckoos!

The egg color was this not long ago:

Getting darker!

The banties got to this color:

That was Black Copper, the cuckoos need work in the bantams. I still need to work on type and size but at least egg color is in on some varieties.

 

[slick4591]

This is not an issue of them growing in white, it's the established black ones changing into white. I didn't see this yesterday when I was looking, but now it's clear that is what's going on. Since they're are seven of them it doesn't seem like it would be an injury because they are located in the same place on all the birds. Oh well, looks like it's another wait and see situation. Thanks!

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
My two Cuckoo boys, Alexander and Douglas

, are doing VERY well. Growing like bad weeds. Biggest boys in the box right now. Seven weeks old on Sunday. Super friendly.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/38460_img_1392-1.jpg

BOYS!!!! HAHAHAHA Oh boy! Well, they carry the gene for dark egg so all you need is a Black hen somewhere down the road OR more cuckoos

Love my cuckoos!

The egg color was this not long ago:

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd435/stellargamebirds/024-4.jpg

Getting darker!

The banties got to this color:

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd435/stellargamebirds/003-6.jpg

That was Black Copper, the cuckoos need work in the bantams. I still need to work on type and size but at least egg color is in on some varieties.

how long did it take you to get that color in the first photo? and what color did you start with? I'm curious cause I'm working on my cuckoos for darker egg color...they average 4s and every once and a while I'll get something darker, but this will be my first real breeding season with the hens I bought less than a year ago, so hoping for good news.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
My two Cuckoo boys, Alexander and Douglas

, are doing VERY well. Growing like bad weeds. Biggest boys in the box right now. Seven weeks old on Sunday. Super friendly.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/38460_img_1392-1.jpg

BOYS!!!! HAHAHAHA Oh boy! Well, they carry the gene for dark egg so all you need is a Black hen somewhere down the road OR more cuckoos

Love my cuckoos!

The egg color was this not long ago:

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd435/stellargamebirds/024-4.jpg

Getting darker!

The banties got to this color:

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd435/stellargamebirds/003-6.jpg

That was Black Copper, the cuckoos need work in the bantams. I still need to work on type and size but at least egg color is in on some varieties.

I have 2 over-melanized clean legged VERY dark egg laying black coppers and an even darker egg laying with superior shape over-melanized blue copper (and a book on chicken genes that I'm despirately attempting to digest even a small part of). Long story short, your Cuckoo boys are going to work with these girls and we'll see what happens!!!

 

[Debbi]

Quote:
Hi Slick,

Are the boys getting ready to molt? All of my boys molt very slowly, and I get feathers that turn white. They don't grow in white, they are black at the end by the skin. They don't get white tips either, the white shows up in the middle of an otherwise black feather! Mine show up in the sickle feathers of the tails, and every last roo I have here on my place has at least one of these right now! Myron lost his the other day, and Pip has one flagging in the breeze like a loose tooth!

After they are done with molting them out, what grows back in is black once again.

Lynette ~ My heavier feathered shanked boys get a white feather on each foot, but I find they molt out too, and grow back in normally colored.