Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Wynette]

speaking of combs. When you are picking out the hens, I know the combs can flop a bit to the side once they start laying but if they start developing waves or twists should they be removed from the breeding group?

they wouldn't "develop" a wave or twist after beginning to lay...they'd already have it before then. Comb issues like this do breed forward, and it's a personal choice whether to use or not. If you have an equally typey hen that does not have issues, I would use the better combed hen. IMO, waves or thumbprints are a bigger issue than, say, an extra point. Thoughts??

 

[pinkchick]

Becky~ Just watch the white on the earlobes for a while......I've had some birds (females, never males) do that same thing. It went away over a a week to a few weeks.
2 times it this happened to one of my Welsummer hens.....funny thing is that I never found or figured out what it was but she did have one other sign that went along with it, both times her lobes turned chaulky white for a week......so did her eggs. When the earlobes went back to normal so did the eggs. She never showed any symptoms of illnesses or feeling off...neither did the couple of Marans it happened to, though it did not change the Marans egg color. Some one mentioned to me after the fact that it may have been fungal something or another. Still don't know and hasn't appeared for a long time now.

 

[Raven1]

I have a very sick feeling its not going to just go away its on both and more han a "smatering"

 

[pinkchick]

Wynette~

I am excited to see this video. I think this is a great idea!!!!!!!!! When I saw it being discussed at first over in the BCM thread I was thinking to self......wish I could be standing there with Walt and Peter when it gets done. That would be a treat!

 

[Raven1]

I love this guy! I am sick about this. It is thin and you can see the red thru it but I could just pull my hair out! I just placed my other roo so this oneis it. I will have to test mate and see I have no other choice.

 

[pinkchick]

Crossing my fingers for you Becky. He is a nice looking bird.





Clown~ Your babies are adorable and they look perfectly normal to me. Thanks for sharing them with us.

 

[pinkchick]

I got my first Marans Egg for this year   I am sure it was from my Blue Copper Pullet.  She is with Kim's Dark Blue Roo so SPLASH is a possibility for the first time since I have had Marans

 
Her egg was as dark as the one from my hen.  Almost the exact same color. Hoping it will get a little darker, but BIGGER is all I expect. 

Congratulations! Super excited for you! I am patiently waiting for my 2 Splash Copper pullets to start. I think we are getting close with one of them, noticed her nice red comb yesterday that seems to have gotten larger over night. Now I am having a hard time telling her apart from her Mother my Splash hen Darryl LOL~ the only difference in the 2 is that Darryl has dark eyes and no copper....the pullet has correctly colored eyes and some faint copper, so I am now doing double takes. Guess it is time to band the young pullets.

 

[Hens and Roos]

they wouldn't "develop" a wave or twist after beginning to lay...they'd already have it before then. Comb issues like this do breed forward, and it's a personal choice whether to use or not. If you have an equally typey hen that does not have issues, I would use the better combed hen. IMO, waves or thumbprints are a bigger issue than, say, an extra point. Thoughts??

here is a picture that I went out and took this am.....not the best as the hens were not standing still
to the best of what I remember when doing chores, it was more recently that I saw this with the combs.

 

[pinkchick]

Regarding crossing the Marans to a Leghorn and what color egg a person would get...........brown, but probably not as dark as a Marans egg. I have crossed my Marans to Barred Rocks, Wyandottes, Delawares and Welsummers, every cross produced a bird that laid eggs very similar to a Marans egg.

One bird I got from making olive eggers (she was so ugly... she was cute with her big puffy bearded throat and huge puffy cheeks and her large single comb) gave me an egg so dark like a Marans egg that I could not have her anywhere near coops or pens of Marans for fear that I would mistake her eggs for the pure Marans eggs.


Will be back with some more info that I have on the white egg and the brown egg...must go find it. Interesting stuff.

 

[pinkchick]

Hi Hens!

How old is she? Has been in lay for a while or is she a new layer?