Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[karlamaria]

honest opinions on my 20 week old Blue Copper .



and of my Blue copper pullet approx. 20 weeks old.



sorry their not the best photos, hectic chickens. Please tell me what you see thats right and wrong. thanks in advance

Beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[karlamaria]

todays Maran egg and yesterdays maran egg, look how big todays egg is !!! , its lighter in color then yesterdays, but of course the flash washed out the color of all of todays eggs as the egg carton is a dark green color.... the tiny one is a deep green/blue, the others are RIR eggs. ( brown) but its a giant egg. the carton will not close, nor will a white paper carton lol, its truly giant. oh and a few days ago we got a 3 yolker. this is her second week of laying. loving the giant eggs !

 

[coolcanoechic]

Yum! What a nice variety!

 

[karlamaria]

Yum! What a nice variety!

LOL this was last weeks ...3 days worth

 

[karlamaria]

Yum! What a nice variety!

your coop is awesome!!!! I love all the rocks around it, and the top window that has three different ways to open it. you and hubby did a wonderful job.

 

[gilavina]

Ok...Don... are you around?

I have a young boy I like quite a bit, but has a two tone color on the hackles and I've never had that before. He's wide, has a really nice shaped head and I like a lot about him. He's from a test mating I've never done before and has some assets I like more than some of the other matings I've done before. I just was wondering if you would weigh in on him. He doesn't have a perfect comb, and I see with the extreme heat he's gone pale. He doesn't have white on the earlobe, just the effects of the heat taking the color out of him (picked him up and looked him over really well). Also, he does not have white on the wings that I could see, except for about 1/16" on one of the very tip of one feather on one wing. I'm trying desperately to thin out my last BCM grow out pen and think I've looked at too many birds cause now I'm all wishy washy on him. Mostly its just the hackles I'm not sure about. Oh, and yeah, most of my boys in that pen have fallen prey to a feather eating pullet. I thought I had taken her out, but I see they've been mad at work over the last week. They are just growing so fast!

 

[gilavina]

Here's a couple of the young ladies in the grow out pen. I'm going to be culling pretty heavy this time around, but like different things about each of these

She's the oldest and I'm pretty certain she's just about to start laying. She's the sister to the cockerel in my previous post. Very beefy, not perfect comb...grrr



Another sister from the same mating, also very beefy! Way better comb and about a month or so younger




another beef cake, dark eyes and a slight wave in the comb




kinda fuzzy from running away from me, but shows some of the copper

 

[laughingclown]

I use photos and a written log together and the photos really do help a ton with tracking progress on quite a few levels.

If you don't mind can you post or scan an example of your log. Would like to get an Idea how I should put in mine?

 

[gilavina]

If you don't mind can you post or scan an example of your log. Would like to get an Idea how I should put in mine?

Haha...I'm afraid I'd make you crazy with how I do it, I've been doing it for the last 3 years or so and have gotten less formal and just use a notebook I jot notes in and have folders in iphoto where I put photos from different matings and mostly use numbered bands of different colors to track my progress. I'll try to give you a quick run down of how I do it. I hatch on average between 300-600 chicks a year, so my tracking starts at photos of day olds in groups of each pen I collected the eggs out of. I then watch those chicks and take just random photos each week if I have time, every other week if I'm super busy and will make notes to myself if I see ones starting to stand out. I write down what I like about them, and what I don't. Then as they get a bit bigger and I know for sure I have some that I don't want, I'll separate the ones I don't think I'll keep and the ones I definitely like, and sometimes if I don't have room, I'll leave the ones I don't want to keep in the same pen, I just take the band off. Since they are in the same pen I know where they are still out of. Then as I pick out the top ones from each pen, I'll start tracking them by band number, when they are big enough to keep a numbered band on. Always jotting notes and taking photos. Most of my process in selection comes from having done lots of it over the years, so that's why I let the birds do their thing and just observe. It certainly helps to decide for yourself the things you absolutely can't live with in birds tho. Once you do that, you can start culling them as soon as you know they have one of those no no things you don't like. I should add I've always done the notes on my birds since I was a kid, but the photos are the newer part of my processing and its made a huge difference.

 

[snowbird]

Ok...Don... are you around?

I have a young boy I like quite a bit, but has a two tone color on the hackles and I've never had that before. He's wide, has a really nice shaped head and I like a lot about him. He's from a test mating I've never done before and has some assets I like more than some of the other matings I've done before. I just was wondering if you would weigh in on him. He doesn't have a perfect comb, and I see with the extreme heat he's gone pale. He doesn't have white on the earlobe, just the effects of the heat taking the color out of him (picked him up and looked him over really well). Also, he does not have white on the wings that I could see, except for about 1/16" on one of the very tip of one feather on one wing. I'm trying desperately to thin out my last BCM grow out pen and think I've looked at too many birds cause now I'm all wishy washy on him. Mostly its just the hackles I'm not sure about. Oh, and yeah, most of my boys in that pen have fallen prey to a feather eating pullet. I thought I had taken her out, but I see they've been mad at work over the last week. They are just growing so fast!

Hi Vicki, This male does not have the a;most mahogany feathers that the other males you have put up. Have you checked the undercolor on the hackle? He has super Marans type with big broad chest and the back looks really good also, looks broad entire length. The tail set will be good also when he gets his feathers. This is the color of males I was using on the real dark female I was using for breeders. His shank and feet color is super also. Bred to the right female should produce some really nice BC Marans. Job well done, thank your Dad for being such a good teacher..