Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Hens and Roos]

Congrats on a great hatch!!

thanks, I'll post some pictures once we move them out of the incubator- the last splash to hatch is still drying off so we'll probably move them tomorrow am, this will be the 1st group we don't keep in the kitchen for awhile

 

[Arielle]

Quote: IF there is some gold, how could it be bred out? I suppose we would know more if the coloring could be repeated. Will you be breeding that splash any time soon? I know you have been trying to find the right hens to use. Have you decided which test cross?

Your splash cuckoo is very handsome.... love his tail!

 

[gilavina]

blech....sounds like a miserable week.

hope everyone does okay and that you still get to thin out!!

indeed...meeee too! It didn't get as hot as they had predicted most of last week, so I am hopeful they are off on tomorrow at least too.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: IF there is some gold, how could it be bred out? I suppose we would know more if the coloring could be repeated. Will you be breeding that splash any time soon? I know you have been trying to find the right hens to use. Have you decided which test cross?

Your splash cuckoo is very handsome.... love his tail!
I will be putting a WL with him. It will be a long time before I have some cuckoos to put with him. He has clean legs, so I want feathered pullets for him and then I can just cull the clean legs. Did you get any splash chicks? if so they came from him.

I would think the only way to get it out is to breed and select AGAINST the gold. IDK I think I just need to step back and look really hard at all my chicks and cuckoos. I still have some time. The lady that wanted them is having animal issues with all the heat so she wanted me to wait. Fine by me... I might change my mind. LOL

 

[Arielle]

DId you contact the person whom you bought the stock from, probably some good info from that direction.

I did n't get any splash, I'm assuming they would hatch as a yellow or white chick? ALl the chicks were mottles black , blue and white. THe barring is coming in. SOme are blue barred others reg barred. Guess that makes them black barred. ThHey live with the OE which are black and blues.

No wonder it's easy to get impure stock. Divider jumpers at hatch drives me nuts. I have a hard time keeping the two groups identified. COmb, I guess is the easiest.

I really like the egg size on these, so I think I'll give breeding them a shot. Adding one other blood line to help, if the eggs hatch from Mr. HEinz

 

[ChickenExtreme]

Just getting into the Marans and loving it

.

 

[hennesseyt]

me too ChickenExtreme

 

[3riverschick]

A little cooler here today, Yay! Foxes are still terrorizing us. Got traps and a 22, still haven't been able to solve the problem. My poor chooks are stuck in their runs night and DAY. I just can't commit to a LGD. Don't want to take the plunge until I'm ready to dedicate myself to training.
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LGD and chicken guard dogs come already trained. there are a couple of breeders on the Net who breed, train and sell them.
Karen

 

[ChickenExtreme]

I was going to purchase some more this evening. The flock that the guy had looked different then mine, I got to looking and one had a pea/rose comb, I asked about it, he said he's had a rooster before like that, and it did not mean anything. I ask if it was a mix, he said no. Then I noticed another chicken that was a hen looked like it had hairs growing on her cheeks. Needless to say I didn't feel right to buy them. He said he'd been raising BCM's for 5 or 6 years. And he had some WM's and he said they get a lot bigger than BCM's.

 

[Debbi]

Gooood morning Marans people!

Welcome to the newcomers!

ChickenExtreme ~ You did right to walk away from those birds! If that guy has been breeding them for that long, he should know that Marans should have a 5 point, single comb! There are other problems with combs in the breed as well, such as side sprigs, and Carnation combs. Check any combs well on the parent birds, if possible, to see if they have these problems. You can go back through this thread to see pics of sprigs and Carnation combs. We love pics here, so post some of your birds too. This breed is very chanllenging to get correct, but hang in there, they are worth the effort!