Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Debbi]

I AM 9 ROOSTERS LIGHTER!!!!!!

It is sooooooo quiet out here I can hardly stand it! All Carnations and Sprigs are gone!!! Even one snotpuss Silkie roo is gone!!! And the best of all...Big, Mean, Blue Butt is going to be soup and is GONE!!!!! Everyone left is a tad still freaked out. They don't know what to think of all the room and quiet. This has made my day, now I feel I can get down to business...finally!! The only boys left are Clyde, Roy, and Pekker in the run, and of course the unique Mr. Pip, aka, the Feral roo who does not breed! Time to start building pens........

 

[Christie Rhae]

Hi, I would not breed these unless you absolutely had to in case of nothing else. I would not breed the females at all. If you had some female like most everyone with very little feathering you could put one of the males over. This is one of the draw back to getting the feathering real nice like is required. If you breed these back together they will only get worse. I would cull anything with stubs and fuzz between the toes on the web.

I should also say that most of the judges will spot this , and you will have wasted a lot of time and money.

What does this mean? If you have two birds with desirable leg feathering and you breed them together the feathering gets worse? Goes onto middle toe? How do you maintain the correct feathering when making breeder selections?

 

[Debbi]

What does this mean? If you have two birds with desirable leg feathering and you breed them together the feathering gets worse? Goes onto middle toe? How do you maintain the correct feathering when making breeder selections?

Christie, I think what Don meant here was breeding some of the birds with the middle toe feathering? They can pop up from time to time, although thankfully, I have not had this problem yet. Cull out the birds with the middle toe/web feathering from the breeding stock. Pardon me Don, if that is not what you meant...

 

[Hens and Roos]

I AM 9 ROOSTERS LIGHTER!!!!!!

It is sooooooo quiet out here I can hardly stand it! All Carnations and Sprigs are gone!!! Even one snotpuss Silkie roo is gone!!! And the best of all...Big, Mean, Blue Butt is going to be soup and is GONE!!!!! Everyone left is a tad still freaked out. They don't know what to think of all the room and quiet. This has made my day, now I feel I can get down to business...finally!! The only boys left are Clyde, Roy, and Pekker in the run, and of course the unique Mr. Pip, aka, the Feral roo who does not breed! Time to start building pens........

Yeah!!! Glad to hear that!

 

[stoopid]

Good for you, Debbi!
The last time I tried to give my roos away, my faithful "roo eater" had too many, and declined my offer.

 

[Debbi]

The other good thing is, that the little Mexican man that came with the guy I know, is very adept in chicken butchering, and he would be happy to butcher birds for me in the future!! Win, win, win, win situation!!

I'm sure your guy will run out of chickens soon, so hopefully he'll be back before too long.

 

[culler]

Christie, I think what Don meant here was breeding some of the birds with the middle toe feathering? They can pop up from time to time, although thankfully, I have not had this problem yet. Cull out the birds with the middle toe/web feathering from the breeding stock. Pardon me Don, if that is not what you meant...

I didn't explain that very good did I, When you get the feathering real nice and heavy it is a very fine line not to get the middle toe feathering and the fuzz on the webs. I would not breed one of the over feathered female. In case of an emergency you could breed the over feathered male and probably get away with it , Best policy is just cull the over feathered soon as you spot them. No way you can show these and win with them so why even keep them . You could possibly raise some good fowl but you will get more junk that good one's.

 

[stoopid]

AWW cool. We are in the presence of some very important peeps.
Hi Mr. Brush!

 

[SBRUSH88]

Well, considering that the BYC forums and search functions are a bit like slogging through molasses, my Long Island forum denizen caught me browsing pretty quick!
Yes, I often get encouraged to plow through the BYC forums to keep up on the latest scuttlebutt and pull folks (like WALT!) back into line.

Marans folks have been a busy little clan over the past week.....

While I was at Newnan (judged the SCCL class, including some 95 Seramas), I unfortunately didn't set foot ONCE in the large fowl tent, so I didn't get to see any of the big birds, Marans included. I did find myself faced with the dilemma of having to judge a pair of "Silver Cuckoo Marans Bantams" as part of the SCCL class. They had clean legs! In deference to the ABA Standard, which lists the Marans bantams as clean legged, I judged the pair. Placed the hen 1st, despite her very smudgy color, and I DQ'd the cock due to numerous red/orange feathers throughout his hackle and saddle. I think it was reported elsewhere that both placed, but that is not the case. Perhaps I should have made my "D" more prominent.

Where on the Long Island are you situated? The Brush clan actually has a sizeable enclave out in Riverhead, where several had large potato farms.

Sam

 

[stoopid]

Sam, get out! Are you related to Joe Brush?
He was a partner at Fanning and Brush, customers in the car biz from many wears ago.
Last I heard, he just inherited some teenagers, tragic story.
But a very great man! I often wonder how he is doing....
Roberta