Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[ronott1]

Hi Mycutekitties,

He is only 5 to 6 months old, his offending tail feathers may fall out. The color can be caused from sun bleaching. We live in CA and it is very very sunny here. We have only had cloud cover for one day in several weeks. It was 95 degrees on Saturday here.

For the experts, other than the tail and the color, how is his body shape? The comb looks straight and I don't see any sprigs. Does it have the correct number of points? at only 6 months old, he looks quite big and robust to me. On other Heritage threads they say to work on the house and to then paint it or something like that

I think you may have a very nice rooster here. Walt says you have to wait a year or two to see what these guys will look like.

Send me some eggs before you get rid of him. I would love to hatch some of them.

Ron

What can you tell me about the quality of these Marans? About 5-6 months old:

 

[gilavina]

Hi Vicki!
I would love to see your Blue Copper girls and very happy that you are rehoming some more birds. I too am downsizing once again. A very difficult decision but must be done as it is just not feasible or economical at this time, I have decided to get out of Welsummers completely and probably the Wyandottes, not 100% sure on this one because I love them sooooooooo much, but I can have the blue lacing with the Blue laced Barnie project I have going so it kinda makes it easier....but...........

I wish I could keep them all but it is just not working out that way right now.

Eventually I will probably only have the Barnies, Copper Marans and Birchens.

I'm probably going to be doing some of the same this year as well with thinning down. I sold off my Partridge Wyandottes last week and as much as I loved them, I didn't love them as much as some of my others. This week the remaining Old English Game bantams and at least 1/2 my doves will go. I might also be getting out of the regular cuckoo Marans once I see how these Silver Marans start looking when I get them in. The ones that will never leave will be the B/B/S birchen Marans and the B/B/S Copper Marans. I won't ever get out of the wyandottes completely either, always will have the B/B/S and probably the Silver Pencileds once I get them going. It is really hard to narrow it down, but the one bonus is having worked with poultry all my life, I am comfortable with the culling process and start when they are young. Keeps the numbers down and put more of my energy into the ones that have the best potential.

By the way...my pygmy Ina's tailbone is totally soft, so should be babies anyday! You wouldn't believe how big her belly is! Please be tiny ones!

 

[gilavina]

Ok Kim, here are a couple quick shots of two of the girls. I have more that are younger, but this is about all I have time for today before I gotta start rounding up birds and leave. Both of these are about 11 weeks or so.

The first 3 shots are of the same girl from different angles. She's my fav so far, but both are really still shy from moving them to the bigger run. I think they don't know what to do with all the extra space! haha







the second girly is reaaaally shy. The only non blurry shot I could get of her today. Doesn't have the nice depth of copper yet, but she is getting it in. She's a regular butterball and should end up being nice and wide.

 

[Christie Rhae]

Ok Kim, here are a couple quick shots of two of the girls. I have more that are younger, but this is about all I have time for today before I gotta start rounding up birds and leave. Both of these are about 11 weeks or so.

The first 3 shots are of the same girl from different angles. She's my fav so far, but both are really still shy from moving them to the bigger run. I think they don't know what to do with all the extra space! haha







the second girly is reaaaally shy. The only non blurry shot I could get of her today. Doesn't have the nice depth of copper yet, but she is getting it in. She's a regular butterball and should end up being nice and wide.

Sigh... beautiful!
I have so many plans of how I want to use my marans. I want blue copper... I want blue birchen... I want.. I want... This is gonna take me years... lol

 

[Christie Rhae]

Ok I need some help. Here is a lil girl from my bunch. She is supposed to be black I believe. But she does not have the green sheen to her feathers. They are dull more like a blue but I have counted my chicks and all my blues are accounted for. Could there have been a mix up in labeling? She has one copper feather that I can see in her hackles.

I read stuff all over so sometimes do not remember where I read it. But this is something I have been reading about... black should only be bred to black to get the best blacks. Could this chick be an example of why blue/black/splash should not come out of the same pen?
I am leaning toward the opinion that blues should only be bred to blues to get good blues. (Obvious by product is splash) To get the best color of each we should not breed them all together.

Thoughts anyone?

 

[lvnmychicks]

This is my first Black Copper Marans. She is around 9 weeks now but I thought this pic just says it all about her personality. Just thought I'd share

 

[slick4591]

Sure is cute! Welcome to BYC and the Marans thread.

 

[Christie Rhae]

This is my first Black Copper Marans. She is around 9 weeks now but I thought this pic just says it all about her personality. Just thought I'd share

Cute! I love how chunky they are. At first I thought you meant the chick was 9 weeks in this pic. I thought.. no way...it must have some serious slow feather genes.

 

[flgardengirl]

What can you tell me about the quality of these Marans? About 5-6 months old:

Hi I think your male has half decent coloring compared to some I've seen but my concern would be his tail. It is very high and squirrel-like. He does appear to have a double serration in his comb towards the back. This is where there is 2 points that do not go down all the way in between the points. Not a DQ but a fault as far as I know. Just something to consider. He does have nicely feathered shanks but does not extend all the way down the outer toe. Most of the birchens seem to be a work in progress either on egg color or conformation. Mine are terrible LOL!

 

[flgardengirl]

Ok I need some help. Here is a lil girl from my bunch. She is supposed to be black I believe. But she does not have the green sheen to her feathers. They are dull more like a blue but I have counted my chicks and all my blues are accounted for. Could there have been a mix up in labeling? She has one copper feather that I can see in her hackles.

I read stuff all over so sometimes do not remember where I read it. But this is something I have been reading about... black should only be bred to black to get the best blacks. Could this chick be an example of why blue/black/splash should not come out of the same pen?
I am leaning toward the opinion that blues should only be bred to blues to get good blues. (Obvious by product is splash) To get the best color of each we should not breed them all together.

Thoughts anyone?

I think she looks more of a dark blue than black. What is her undercoat feathering look like? That is one good way to tell. Black birds should have a dull black undercoat/down and blue birds have more of a gray. Sometimes the nice dark blue gals or bl copper gals have almost black heads and dark blue bodies.