Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Hens and Roos]

haha...one would think I would get into lots of trouble, but I'm on a mission. Now that I really am establishing some good prospects in my different varieties of Marans, I will be keeping them trimmed into nice small tight flocks. I have a list in my head of what I'm looking for from my grow out pens and have banded some of my breeding stock that are on the slate to possibly be replaced if better ones come along from my chicks. So far on the top priority of my list is to get a nice black and blue birchen cockerel and a blue copper boy. Of course, going for nice feathering on the legs is a high priority as well, esp in the birchens since they were almost all clean legged even a year ago. I will say, in my birchen breeding pen out of about 13 girls, only 4 are making the cut to stay. The offspring this year are showing so much more progress that I can't even really compare what I have in the grow out pens to the parent stock, in the hens anyways. Its a very good feeling.

I'm also contemplating giving up my cuckoos. I find I just don't enjoy them as much as my birchens and coppers. Plus if I get a good enough start with the Silver Marans coming soon, I will be definitely working more on those than the cuckoos. That's for sure.

boy if I was closer, I would take some cuckoos off your hands- I find that I like them the best!

 

[Hens and Roos]

They both look very nice, but does the Black girl have yellow legs?? If so, they should be a dark slate color, not yellow.

I like the cuckoo

 

[ffamom3]

were they the silver marans?

About half were. Some of them are so bad, I can't tell what they are. About a third were clean legged.

 

[gilavina]

boy if I was closer, I would take some cuckoos off your hands- I find that I like them the best!

well I do have friends up in MN and WI

 

[Hens and Roos]

I'm using Internet Explorer browser, and when I click on Debbi's link there is a small gray bar just above the page title that says "Google, this page is in Italian, translate using Google toolbar?" and then off to the right is a button that says "Translate". If you click on the button it should immediately do all the translating work for you.

I was able to have the computer translate it to english- will have to read it over! Thanks!

 

[gilavina]

About half were. Some of them are so bad, I can't tell what they are. About a third were clean legged.

on the silvers they don't breed true, so selecting certain ones for continuing a line of the silvers would be necessary. It is a by product of naturally occurring from cuckoos. With as rare as they are, it will take quite a bit of work to get them to where they could be.

 

[ffamom3]

on the silvers they don't breed true, so selecting certain ones for continuing a line of the silvers would be necessary. It is a by product of naturally occurring from cuckoos. With as rare as they are, it will take quite a bit of work to get them to where they could be.

These are ones I was owed from darkeggsdaily stock from a high loss in shipping last year. That is where their stock went. They were assorted Marans. The silvers don't look too bad, there are 4 pullets and 3 cockerels that are silver. I just think the stock could have been mixed at some point. I am certainly no expert. One is red and black all over, one is blue and looks like maybe Welsummer with feathered legs, the coppers all have black eyes, the legs are almost all wrong color. Stuff like that.

 

[ffamom3]

gilavina, I am envious of your obvious knowledge and experience. Any advice would be appreciated. Maybe I can post some pics at some point.

 

[DMRippy]

I have no real interest here... but those are the same people that have a picture of a STRAIGHT comb BLRW in their ad.

 

[gilavina]

These are ones I was owed from darkeggsdaily stock from a high loss in shipping last year. That is where their stock went. They were assorted Marans. The silvers don't look too bad, there are 4 pullets and 3 cockerels that are silver. I just think the stock could have been mixed at some point. I am certainly no expert. One is red and black all over, one is blue and looks like maybe Welsummer with feathered legs, the coppers all have black eyes, the legs are almost all wrong color. Stuff like that.

Do you still have them? I bet you would have a whole slew of people wanting to help ya out identifying them. Quite a few of us on here also raise other breeds, so never know what people might be able to tell ya