Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Hens and Roos]

So, i dont believe my friend has gotten to post yet so i will for him.
He Has some black coppers that have developed white feathers on the breast. Not just a couple here and there but Full White patch. What might cause this? Any and ALL ideas would be great. He believes that the hen that threw this are of the Wade lineage. Thanks

The white feather issue is one that everyone is still trying to figure out what causes it. According to the SOP(standard of perfection) it is a DQ when raising birds to show and therefore one wouldn't use it in their breeding program to be on the safe side. How old are black coppers? Is each feather fully white or just a part of it? Sometimes young chickens will molt out the white feather as they put in adult feathers, sometime stress or injury can cause a feather to turn white. Are the black coppers just for eggs or are they part of a breeding project, this would determine what needs to be done. If possible post pictures so that hopefully others will post ideas and help.

 

[gilavina]

Pretty sure that I'm over 2/3 done with this hatch....Its impossible to count the chicks, so was counting the eggs left or in various stages of pipping and it looks like there are about 20 left....so they are doing fantastic! Some real beauties in there from what I can see.

 

[Barnmaradotte]

I will have to get a pic. The white seems to be on the entire feather and on just the chest. I know some of the birds have white feather tips popping up but they molt out at about 13weeks. So are the white tipped flight feathers ok IF they molt out?

 

[flgardengirl]

Pretty sure that I'm over 2/3 done with this hatch....Its impossible to count the chicks, so was counting the eggs left or in various stages of pipping and it looks like there are about 20 left....so they are doing fantastic! Some real beauties in there from what I can see.

Congrats sounds like you are having a great hatch. I have some regular cuckoo eggs coming tomorrow (I think) then my bator will be full and I still have that BCM sitting on the Silver Sussex eggs. She kicked one out of the nest so I stuck it in the bator, I will have to candle it in a few days and see if its any good lol.

 

[DMRippy]

Vicki, good job on the babies.... pics will be coming soon?

Today I have to weed through all the chicks to see what I am taking to the sale tomorrow.

Hope I come home empty handed

This is WAY more chicks than I could need....even with what I am keeping. I can't believe I am selling pullets

but they are not what I want to breed so out they go!

 

[gilavina]

Congrats sounds like you are having a great hatch. I have some regular cuckoo eggs coming tomorrow (I think) then my bator will be full and I still have that BCM sitting on the Silver Sussex eggs. She kicked one out of the nest so I stuck it in the bator, I will have to candle it in a few days and see if its any good lol.

sounds like you have lots of different eggs going into the incubator! How far along are those silver sussex eggs now?

 

[gilavina]

Vicki, good job on the babies.... pics will be coming soon?

Today I have to weed through all the chicks to see what I am taking to the sale tomorrow.

Hope I come home empty handed

This is WAY more chicks than I could need....even with what I am keeping. I can't believe I am selling pullets

but they are not what I want to breed so out they go!

yeah...pics will be coming soon...they are getting rambunctious, but I'm not gonna open the hatcher til this evening at the soonest. There are so many eggs in different stages of zipping that I don't want to shrink wrap any of them....so as soon as I can, I'll get some shots when they come out. Did you see my blue copper chick pics I posted yesterday? They are from my first hatch and are approaching the dinosaur phase of growth, so are gettin kinda awkward, but have great copper coming in!

 

[pinkchick]

I wonder if this will ever post, LOL!

Pressed submit at 7AM this morning.
The funny thing is.....I stuck around watching it to see how long it was going to take.

 

[Hens and Roos]

I will have to get a pic. The white seems to be on the entire feather and on just the chest. I know some of the birds have white feather tips popping up but they molt out at about 13weeks. So are the white tipped flight feathers ok IF they molt out?

I am not sure on that, I think this is where the debate came in as to what is causing the white feather and if it is molted out will the chicken pass it on to offspring. This is still one of the areas not much seems to be known about. Sorry I can't be more helpful in this, if there is space and time one could always let the bird finish maturing and see what happens and then run some test mating to see if the offspring show this problem- this seems to be the key on learning more about things. A picture would be interesting to see.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Congrats! On the hatching

Yes Pink the post did show up!!