Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Wynette]

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.

Awe.....I'm sorry! I'm not personally educated enough in genetics yet to know the possibility of this breeding forward. Do your females have it? If they do not, perhaps you can breed this out.

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!

I know, right? The only bad part about this (for me) is that I won't be able to see it firsthand, although I did see a judging demonstration at Crossroads show last year.

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.

I'm having a difficult time seeing - I see the back part of the comb is flopped over, but it doesn't appear to have flopped past the point where it would be counted against the hen. It looks like the front part of the comb is flopped the other direction, though - is that right?

 

[Hens and Roos]

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

the 4 cuckoo hens are a little over a year old and have been laying for awhile. Took a look at the blue copper hen that we hatched from your eggs and she is over a year old too and has been laying regularly and her comb is still up right

 

[Hens and Roos]

Awe.....I'm sorry! I'm not personally educated enough in genetics yet to know the possibility of this breeding forward. Do your females have it? If they do not, perhaps you can breed this out.

I know, right? The only bad part about this (for me) is that I won't be able to see it firsthand, although I did see a judging demonstration at Crossroads show last year.

I'm having a difficult time seeing - I see the back part of the comb is flopped over, but it doesn't appear to have flopped past the point where it would be counted against the hen. It looks like the front part of the comb is flopped the other direction, though - is that right?

yes the back part goes one way and the front the other- she wasn't really into me taking pictures today.......

 

[snowbird]

Six points, and if this is Marans, it would be a .5 point deduction for the extra point.

I would not use this as a determination for breeding as it carries such a low point value, and there are so many more important things to worry about at this stage in this breed.

It's nice & upright, I don't see any sprigs or waves, and I'd be it's aesthetically pleasing, so I sure wouldn't worry about it (my personal opinion).

Just keep in mind that the points on the blade do not count when adding up points.

 

[pinkchick]

Borrowed from one of my favorite sites to visit and read......
http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page2.html


Genetics of eggshell color:

Brown eggshell color is a complex trait and as many as 13 genes have been proposed to account for the range in eggshell color. The white eggshell color is due to an absence of blue and brown, and perhaps some modifying factors (genes), since there are different shades of white. The blue eggshell gene, O, expresses if it is present which is why it is considered to be dominant. The gene symbol for the recessive, wild-type gene is o or o+. My understanding at present is that the locations of the brown eggshell genes are not known and it is not known how many brown modifying genes there are or where they are in relationship to the genes of known locations. Brown may itself be just an array of white modifiers. There is a recessive sex-linked gene, pr, that inhibits the expression of brown eggshell genes and can be used to help remove the brown tint from white eggs, for example.

The brown pigment, ooporphyrin, is deposited primarily on the outside of the eggshell and is a chemical compound resulting from hemoglobin metabolism. In fact, much of the brown pigment can be buffed off with a common kitchen (plastic) scrubbing sponge and warm soapy water. The blue eggshell pigment, oocyanin, is a byproduct of bile formation and is present throughout the eggshell.

The eggshell color genes interact in the following way. The effect of the blue gene is dominant over white. The effect of the brown gene is dominant over white. When blue and brown genes are both present, both genes contribute to the eggshell color making the eggs appear green. In this case, the inside surface of the eggshell will be significantly less green and more blue than the outside surface, which is where most of the brown pigment is.

Since the blue and brown eggshell color genes should be at different locations, we need at least two pairs of genes to describe the genotypes of the blue, white, green and brown layers. For the purposes of this discussion, I use the fictitious symbol, Br, to indicate a brown eggshell color gene. I represent the complementary recessive gene that takes the place of Br when it is absent as "br" (lack of brown gene). We can represent the genotype of a blue eggshell layer as (O, O) with (br, br). Blue and white genes, (O, o) with (br, br) also yields a blue egg, but perhaps a lighter blue. The pair of eggshell color genes, (O, O) with (Br, Br), are the genes for producing a green egg, (o, o) with (Br, Br) produces a brown egg and (o, o) with (br, br) yields a white egg. Females having one blue gene and one or more brown genes will lay eggs having a greenish color. My personal experience with eggshell color makes me believe that this genetics picture of eggshell color is oversimplified (there are certainly more than one gene for brown eggshell color. In order to account for the wide range of shades of brown eggs we see in our Sil-Go-Link line, there must be a relatively large number of eggshell color modifying genes that are not yet known. Most people accept a rule of thumb to the effect that a daughter will lay eggs that are a color between that of the parent lines.

To explore the genetics of eggshell color, let’s cross a green egg layer (faux-Araucana or Easter Egg Chicken) with a white egg layer (Leghorn). Here as before, I will use the fictitous symbol "Br" to represent brown eggshell genes. The genes of the green egg layer are (O, O) with (Br, Br) assuming the locations of the blue and brown genes are not the same. The Leghorn is (o, o) with (br, br) for eggshell color (white). In this example, the daughters will all have one gene for blue eggshell color and one gene for brown. They will all be green egg layers! My personal experience with eggshell color genetics leads me to believe it is more complex than this. There certainly must be a number of brown eggshell genes and once you have them, it is difficult to breed them out completely.

 

[snowbird]

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

With this amount of white in the ear lobe should not be bred as it will breed forward and get worse each generation. The culling is the hardest part of breeding to the SOP.

 

[Raven1]

Don could you go back and look at my cockreland tell what you can about his ear lobes getting the chalky look to them please. No none of my other birds have ever had white in the ear lobe.
Never mind we posted same time

 

[Raven1]

Why would it just show up after this amount of time?

 

[Raven1]

He is about 10 months old

 

[snowbird]

Why would it just show up after this amount of time?

Sometimes it just takes time to show up. We all know that white ear lobe fowl has been bred into the Marans over the years and it can appear at the least expected time. It is an absolute must that these birds are not bred forward if you are interested in breeding to SOP or plan on selling eggs in the future. He sure is a nice male bird though.