Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[bigshawn]

Nice.............

 

[stoopid]

Hannah,

to the thread. And I guess I'll be the first to scold you, Marans always have the "s" at the end.
I learned the hard way, and boy, it wasn't pretty.
Triple J, nice shots! And nice wins!
How close are you to the show next week in Massachusetts?
I will be running the BYC hospitality table, hope you canmake it.
Roberta

 

[triplejfarms]

Quote:
thank you

no i live in alberta canada lil to far for that show altho i wish i wasnt!

 

[SIMZ]

Hello all! About a week ago I asked if I could get some opinions on my chickens that I hatched in October. I wanted BCM's for dark eggs and because I think they're pretty, but have no knowledge of the breed. I have 3 boys and two girls. I'd like to keep one boy in the end and would like to know which seems closest to what he should be. I'll keep both girls, but am curious as to why one has yellow legs.

They are BCM's, right?

Again - they're simply for my enjoyment and hopefully some dark eggs (and meat). I'd like to hatch in the future to add layers and for meat.

I notice one of the males has copper on his chest while one doesn't. Does this matter?

Thank you for your opinions!

 

[featherfriendlyinIowa52]

I've ordered some BCM chicks from Whitmore Farms for March shipment. I've seen posts here where some of your birds are fairly prolific layers. Whitmore Farms readily admits that their BCM's are their poorest layers. Is this genetic are can it be overcome with diet, light, etc.? Is this something I'm going to have to work on? Perhaps just breeding the most prolific layer of the bunch (as long as I like her looks)? I've never raised birds so this Spring will be an education for me. I'm very much looking forward to the experience.

 

[SIMZ]

My chickens are just about 15 weeks, by the way.

Thanks!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Beautiful birds, lovely egg colour!!! Since it's a red ribbon win and it says Alberta on the header, can I assume you are a Canadian breeder????

 

[desertmarcy]

I thought I'd post pics of the 2 brothers and 1 sister of the reddish cockerel that I posted earlier, wanting to know what he is!
I'd like to keep a nice blue copper cockerel since the one I had was sick and had to be put down. One of these has no feathering on his legs. The other one, and the pullet, have light feathering. Do any of these show promise? They are 6 weeks old. I love how the Marans mature so fast, you can tell their sex early. I puzzled over some Delawares of the same age.

Here's the one with leg feathering:

Here's his brother, with clean legs:

And here's the pullet:

And here's the red guy for those of you who don't remember or didn't see the post:

I only had 5 chicks hatch out from that cockerel before he died. Do any of these show promise, or too early to tell?

 

[desertmarcy]

I have a question about breeding for good blue copper Marans. I also keep blue laced red Wyandottes, and I have read that to get the best blue color, one should breed blue to blue, not blue to black or blue to splash. Is this the same with the Marans? Or is that only a BLR Wyandotte thing? It was Foley's Waterfowl and Poultry that made the comment about breeding the BLR Wyandottes (on his website) and he has some of the nicest of that breed, I've been told.

I have my one and only blue copper that doesn't have comb DQ faults in with my black coppers, and a splash Marans in with the black coppers. Just wondering about the results of those. If they ever start laying again

 

[janchilds]

Hey Pink... can sex based on the combs on my 2 week old BCM chicks? A few are grey, while others look more flesh tone.

Thanks!