Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[vebyrd36]

Ah I hate to hear that, VIVI

 

[snowbird]

Well so far I have 2 Black Copper chicks out right now. One has 2 microscopic feathers on the middle toe errrrr. So unless the feather fairy comes back and takes the feathers that she wasnt suppose to put on the toe, I already have a cull!!! i dont know where the heck those came from. A good majority of the eggs came from birds that were needy in the leg feathering dept. None of them have middle toe feathering either. Oh well thats Marans for you! I NEED MORE FLUFFY PENGUINS!

Clown, Usually if you have pretty good leg feathering you will get a few with the middle toe feathering. I have used these in breeding pen if they are males. It will most likely be a male. Using these will help in the shank and toe feathering.

 

[laughingclown]

Clown, Usually if you have pretty good leg feathering you will get a few with the middle toe feathering. I have used these in breeding pen if they are males. It will most likely be a male. Using these will help in the shank and toe feathering.

It was my understanding that as middle toe feathering was an undesirable trait that you didnt want to breed those forward? I dont want junk so I may cull. As I stated before. My birds are a little sparce on leg feathers. So in reality it shouldnt be there. Who knows.

 

[DMRippy]

Breeding chickens is happy mediums. A bird with too many points on the comb, breed them with one with fewer points. Too high of a tail, breed to one with a low tail. To short of a back, breed them to a bird with a long back.

I down loaded a GREAT book on Plymouth Rocks and it shows you how to select for breeding a certain trait like those I mentioned above. It is an old SOP type book just for Rocks and has LOADS of good info... there is one for Wyandottes too.

http://archive.org/search.php?query=Standard of Perfection Poultry AND mediatype:texts

One of these days I will get a printed copy... when the chickens can afford $50 each book for a kinko printout.

 

[vebyrd36]

I have figure out what I'm gonna do with a nice blue boy. He doesnt have feathers on his feet so I'm at a loss what to do with cuz all of mine are French except for him and his brother. So what does everyone think about putting him with a splash French?

They were given to me as chicks from a friend. VIVI

 

[laughingclown]

I have figure out what I'm gonna do with a nice blue boy. He doesnt have feathers on his feet so I'm at a loss what to do with cuz all of mine are French except for him and his brother. So what does everyone think about putting him with a splash French?
They were given to me as chicks from a friend. VIVI

I think if you mate the Blue with the Splash it should produce offspring with the feathered legs if that is your goal. Also I think even if you mated him to a bird without feathered legs you may get a small percentage with feathered shanks. It may not have a lot, but Im sure you Roo came from a line with feathers. So he is caring the gene. I found this same thing out with my recent hatch. I mated to birds that had very little feathers for my taste. The feathering should have been balance or with light leg feathering again. Instead I got feathering on the middle toe. At least thats what I thought. I thought middle toe feathering was condusive to access feathering. Anyway I hope this helped, if I am right.

 

[laughingclown]

Good morning my fellow chicken crazed friends. Well I think my hatch is done. I have 4 BCM chicks. I tell you what, the egg membrane on these eggs were the thickest I have ever seen. Compared to all the other eggs I have hatched these eggs were like twice as thick. Im amazed any got through. I don't know if its because my birds are still fairly young or what. Does anyone know if the membrane get thinner with the birds age? My last question is this. My chicks have a very slight silvery sheen on the feathers. I don't know if my other birds had that, Its only when light shines on them. Im wondering if it will go away. I hope its not due to having the white underfluff gene. Has anyone had this? Regardless of how they come out I always enjoy hatching eggs from my own stock compared to others. I think I learn more and you see what your birds throw out in genetics.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
You would not want to cross a Copper with a solid color. That just muddies the waters. If you don't have any other roo you can use a clean leg with feather legs and get about 50/50, might be lighter feathers though. I have a LIGHTLY feathered roo and a clean legged hen I am using now to get come cuckoos so we will see what I get with that cross. If you had one with middle toe feathers use that one with you clean legged roo.

 

[pinkchick]

Clown~ Congrats on your new chicks. I doubt that the silvery sheen you describe has anything to do with the white underfluff. Could just be the way the light hits the nice new soft and fuzzy down. Does it still look silvery when you hold them in natural lighting? Of course you could always post some photos.........been a while since we've had some new fuzzy butt photos to goo-goo-gaga over.
Oh and about the membrane being thick.......in my experience, the thickness of it does not change as the hen matures. Thick membranes with some Marans is just the way it is. It is something I deal with always as this is the kind of eggs my birds lay. I believe it does make incubation and hatching a bit trickier than with others but with enough monkeying around and trying different techniques I found a happy medium and am very happy with hatch rates that I normally have, but still have disappointing hatches on occasion and when that happens.......I put more eggs in and try again.

 

[pinkchick]

ViVi~
There are 3 genes involved in shank feathering. 2 are dominant and 1 is recessive. The 2 dominant genes are responsible for leg feathering and the amount of it, ie...one of them can give you shank and toe feathering heavy like a Brahma....the other dominant gene can give you shank and toe feathering like a Langshan.
The recessive one will cause clean legs. 2 birds with good feathered shanks and outer toes can produce heavily feathered offspring (including stubs on the middle toe or in between) and those same 2 birds can produce offspring that are completely clean legged or can be very sparse as in maybe 2 whole feathers. If clean legged offspring happen, it is because the recessive gene is in the parent birds. Single test mating is the only way to narrow down who carries what in the shank feathering dept. (Hope I explained that right and if I didn't...I hope someone comes by and corrects me.)

I have been very guilty of tossing good useable birds in the past because they had a stub or middle toe feather.....in hind sight, my decisions were made in hast due to a lack of knowledge on my part and I should have not culled them for this one very minor fault. Minor on the scale of importance of all things when considering Marans.....Marans give us lots of things to focus and work on and IMVHO and advise.... don't sweat this one.
Single test mate the male to 2 hens (1 with good leg feathering and 1 with sparse feathering) and see what they will produce.