Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[jmanderson777]

here are my marans. any thoughts on sex? Approximatley 2-3 weeks old

Spot



BCM #2


BCM #3

 

[slick4591]

Good morning all!

  Wheatie lockdown today. Tried to candle, can't see squat! I guess I'll get what I get...

Mine go into lockdown this evening. I just plan on cutting off the lids to eggs cartons and setting them that way. Is there a better way?

 

[stoopid]

I tried the egg carton thing ONCE, and killed 2 chicks.
They pipped against the side of the carton, and suffocated.
They were bantams, but it turned me off to that way....

 

[stoopid]

OOH, my eggs from Wynette are due to pop this weekend

hope I get a bunch!

 

[Lotsapaints]

My Birchen hen has 3 babies and she took them outside today. I fixed her up a large dog kennel to set in and now last night night my husband helped me make a pen right next to her buddies where she'll stay until the chicks get big enough to not go through the chain link. She's not sharing those babies either fierce mamma ....I need to clean up her house but I value my arm and fingers LOL. All I have is my phone camera so I'm going to try and get posting that figured out I left my camera at my brother's house

 

[qball53]

Let me start by saying sorry if this is the wrong way to post these remarks/questions. I have searched through the threads best I can but have not come across the information I seek. We are new to Marans. We have started a pen of Silver Birchens and a pen of Splash. We have also acquired some Blue Birchen eggs and hatched some chicks from them.

We acquired two splash hens and one rooster at a show around College Station Tx a few months ago. The rooster was second and one of the hens first in the show. We noticed a spot of red on a wing feather of the rooster and inquired of the breeder. We were told it did happen but was not the most desirable. We were under the impression that it was a fairly infrequent occurance but have since come to realize it is quite frequent indeed. Most of the splash demonstrating some red just looked smudgey or dirty looking. We decided we did not like the occassional red spot or the smudgey look and thought to try and breed the occurance out. That may be a much bigger undertaking than I thought!

My first thoughts were that some splash birds were derived from blue copper and some from blue birchen. Thinking birchen covered the copper with silver, I assumed that was the way to get splash birds without red. Now I read here and there about red leakage? We have hatched 30-40 splash birds breeding splash to splash and are watching them grow. We seem to have a number of hens without any red but seem less lucky with the roos. We have one nearly mature roo that we have not spotted red in as yet but he is nearly all white, very few blue spots. Does using a nearly white splash produce more nearly white splash? We do have one very young roo we have high hopes for, he is more blue than most even has a blue hue and as yet we have seen no red. Is culling for red the correct way to breed splash in order to eliminate the red? Or do I need to introduce the birchen or blue birchen in order to eliminate the red?

We have now come across some splash roosters that demonstrate a lot of red throughout including red in the hackles. These birds show enough red that it does not have that dirty look. Instead it is a red/blue/black splash on white that is very attractive. I think we have decide to try and propagate this look independent of the clean blue splash birds. We are wondering what others are doing with their splash marans. Are you trying to avoid the red or trying to increase it? Are you breeding both in the same flock?

I also have a question about the chicks we hatched from the blue birchen eggs. I understand the blue black splash nature of the blue gene. I was however surprised to see several of the chicks hatch with very copper colored down covering most of their body. Is that to be expected as well? If they are not blue birchen what do you think they are?

Thanks for any time any of you take to help me with these burning questions.
Mike

 

[mstricer]

I tried the egg carton thing ONCE, and killed 2 chicks.
They pipped against the side of the carton, and suffocated.
They were bantams, but it turned me off to that way....

The same thing happened to me. I now use the top part of the egg carton. Works well. Congrats are hatching of Wynette's eggs you won't be disappointed.

 

[stoopid]

Mike, welcome to the world of Marans!
The red you are seeing (in my opinion) is the copper leaking.
It is rare to get a pure splash, and that is mostly in the hens.
I have never seen a roo without the red.

Maybe someone with more experience can step in and help.

And welcome to the thread!
Roberta

 

[qball53]

Thank you Roberta,

I understood the red was copper leakage guess I should have just said copper. I have now heard that the splash roosters always, or nearly so, demonstrate some copper leakage. I have also heard from another that they have never seen the red in the hens. It sounds like somehow this is a gender linked problem but I don't inderstand how. Doese anyone know how the splash came about? I understand that blue has been introduced to the brown/red the black birchen and the wheaten. Do the splash from each of these groups demonstrate the same color characteristics? Does anyone make an effort to keep each of the splash varieties distinct? I didn't give "splash" enough thought before I bought!

Mike

 

[qball53]

Another thought and another question ... as I started to write this it occured to me I always forget about solid black in the Marans. The blue influence on solid black should produce clean splash blue, would it not? How do you get clean black ie no red or silver in the hackles? Does the black cover the red/silver or is the black an expression of the lack of red in the hackles?
Thanks again Mike

Thank you Roberta,

I understood the red was copper leakage guess I should have just said copper. I have now heard that the splash roosters always, or nearly so, demonstrate some copper leakage. I have also heard from another that they have never seen the red in the hens. It sounds like somehow this is a gender linked problem but I don't inderstand how. Doese anyone know how the splash came about? I understand that blue has been introduced to the brown/red the black birchen and the wheaten. Do the splash from each of these groups demonstrate the same color characteristics? Does anyone make an effort to keep each of the splash varieties distinct? I didn't give "splash" enough thought before I bought!

Mike

An