Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[PetRock]

What cuties! Hopefully someone will have an answer for you! I am new to Marans and have 3 little ones of my own about the same age as yours. I am watching them grow and hoping that at least 1 is a pullet!

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

Spot



BCM #2


BCM #3

 

[slick4591]

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....

So what are you doing now? Laying them flat?

 

[Lotsapaints]

Pure blue or black Marans are rare that should give you one answer. Crossing another color into your birds only makes it worse...over melanized birds are most likely what you have that is a common fault easy to get stock that has it. I'm growing out more copper splash babies now that I have enough blue and splash birds to breed and I find that my copper splash females have the copper necklace. Since most pictures that I've seen show splash females only blue and black I'm betting that breeders are using over melanized birds to achieve the look you bought but they are not true blacks......and I understand why some breeders used cuckoo birds with the splash because most of those birds do have a black gene. My suggestion is to find true blue Marans and work your way from there or work with what you already have and understand your limitations.

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

 

[Oakieridge]

Okay reading about the splash Marans, what is more preferable in breeding, more blue look or more white? I will have to take pictures of my chicks tonight and see what everyone says. I need to cull the ones we won't be using for breeding this next year now that they are getting over a month old.

 

[Lotsapaints]

At a month old it's difficult to cull unless for an obvious DQ. Splash will probably never be approved so you should pick what pleases you color wise. Pullets that pass the muster in type should stay until they begin to lay then you pick your breeders. For me I only keep the ones who lay #6 to use for breeding and as you build up your flock you keep raising the bar higher for egg color. I use my splash for creating the best laced blue coppers for showing though I think my splash birds are beautiful.

Okay reading about the splash Marans, what is more preferable in breeding, more blue look or more white? I will have to take pictures of my chicks tonight and see what everyone says. I need to cull the ones we won't be using for breeding this next year now that they are getting over a month old.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

So what are you doing now? Laying them flat?

I've hatched with the egg cartons and lost a chick that was zipped and dried to the carton as well. I was using Cardboard egg cartons. A mistake. I've heard people have success with styrofoam, cutting the egg carton down very far below the zip line and keeping a close eye.

I'm not saying this works, just what I've read other people have had success with. So, if you really want to use egg cartons to keep your air cells up ~ styrofoam, cut down far. Good luck with your hatch!!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

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

hope I get a bunch!

Me too!!! Can't wait to hear how it goes ....

 

[Oakieridge]

At a month old it's difficult to cull unless for an obvious DQ. Splash will probably never be approved so you should pick what pleases you color wise. Pullets that pass the muster in type should stay until they begin to lay then you pick your breeders. For me I only keep the ones who lay #6 to use for breeding and as you build up your flock you keep raising the bar higher for egg color. I use my splash for creating the best laced blue coppers for showing though I think my splash birds are beautiful.

Thanks, I have one splash that is so pretty, he/she is such a nice color of blue almost with some splashes in her/him. But none of the others are like that. I will just save all the pullets and then keep one or two roos and sell the rest. I LOVE my Marans, I only have one pair of breeding age in the splash so hatching every egg I can which is 3-6 a week.

 

[slick4591]

 


[COLOR=0000FF]I've hatched with the egg cartons and lost a chick that was zipped and dried to the carton as well.  I was using Cardboard egg cartons.  A mistake.  I've heard people have success with styrofoam, cutting the egg carton down very far below the zip line and keeping a close eye.  [/COLOR]

[COLOR=0000FF]I'm not saying this works, just what I've read other people have had success with.  So, if you really want to use egg cartons to keep your air cells up ~ styrofoam, cut down far.  Good luck with your hatch!![/COLOR]

I guess we'll find out if it works 'cause that's what I did. Thanks for the tip.

 

[bmatrow]

Went today to get some black copper marans and some hatching eggs. When I got there the lady showed me her chicks and out of the six 2 of them were greyish to white. She told me they were pure bred from the bev davis line and that she gets these "self mutant" chicks about every 50 she hatches. I had driven well over 100 miles to get these chicks and eggs and looked at her flock they were very pretty birds. I didn't want to go home empty handed. My question is about the self mutants. I really am new to a lot of this and want to start off with pure stock. Anyone here know much about these types of mutations in BCM's?