Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Thanks! Thats the plan for today. Gonna tackle cleaning and sorting birds at the same time, going breed by breed. Should go pretty quickly once I get goin, I hope anyways!

Oh, and I got another batch of first eggs yesterday and this morning! Definite progress!

 

[gilavina]

I've got some young ones growing out - I think they're 8-9 weeks, so I can't even begin to think about culling them for at least another month. I'm highly annoyed by that. I did a TON of hatching this year and frankly, I'm sick of it! I just want my growout pens back. I don't have enough electric in my barn to run heated waterers for all the growout pens, so I've been knocking out ice twice daily & refilling waterers. GRRRrrr....

I hear that on the waterers and breaking ice and being sick of hatching. I'm hoping to get something out of the eggs I have in the incubator tho!
My personal favorite is to put in pans that fit in a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with hot water and dunk the whole pan in and the ice releases and can discard the frozen part. I use a radio flyer wagon and wheel it around from pen to pen. Works well.

 

[Hens and Roos]

I've got some young ones growing out - I think they're 8-9 weeks, so I can't even begin to think about culling them for at least another month. I'm highly annoyed by that. I did a TON of hatching this year and frankly, I'm sick of it! I just want my growout pens back. I don't have enough electric in my barn to run heated waterers for all the growout pens, so I've been knocking out ice twice daily & refilling waterers. GRRRrrr....

that stinks!

 

[mountaintopchicken]

Can I ask a WWYD question?

I've got some really really old Bev Davis hens, like 5 yrs old, that have thrown side sprigs. They are with a younger Bev Davis line (but not directly from her) rooster who I think is pretty great.

Meanwhile I've got some of this year's hatch from another breeder who I think has a pretty good reputation - 5 hens and a billionty roosters. A high percentage of these roosters have side sprigs. They seem really nice and uniform to me (I'm not an expert breeder or anything!) other than the comb issue though.

I'm thinking, these Bev Davis birds are hardly laying. They are ooooooold. There has been, like, 5 years of breeding work done since I've gotten them, working on mossiness etc. (These are Black Coppers I'm talking about). They throw sprigs. One I have to cull anyway, she has a swollen abdomen, some kind of internal issue.

Would you cull all the ancient Davis birds if you were me? I really don't know if they will even squeak out a dozen eggs in the spring, or what their fertility would be. I'm considering saving a couple of the unsprigged new roosters from the other breeder, all of the hens, and using the awesome Davis line rooster over everybody, and using the other roosters alternately to see what they throw. I know that no matter what there are genetics for side sprigs in the flock but everyone's birds seems to throw them. Even when someone says their birds don't throw them, they seem to show up. So that's something I'd have to address later if I have the resources to do the complicated test mating you need to do to really eliminate them.

Please tell me what you think?

 

[Hens and Roos]

Can I ask a WWYD question?

I've got some really really old Bev Davis hens, like 5 yrs old, that have thrown side sprigs. They are with a younger Bev Davis line (but not directly from her) rooster who I think is pretty great.

Meanwhile I've got some of this year's hatch from another breeder who I think has a pretty good reputation - 5 hens and a billionty roosters. A high percentage of these roosters have side sprigs. They seem really nice and uniform to me (I'm not an expert breeder or anything!) other than the comb issue though.

I'm thinking, these Bev Davis birds are hardly laying. They are ooooooold. There has been, like, 5 years of breeding work done since I've gotten them, working on mossiness etc. (These are Black Coppers I'm talking about). They throw sprigs. One I have to cull anyway, she has a swollen abdomen, some kind of internal issue.

Would you cull all the ancient Davis birds if you were me? I really don't know if they will even squeak out a dozen eggs in the spring, or what their fertility would be. I'm considering saving a couple of the unsprigged new roosters from the other breeder, all of the hens, and using the awesome Davis line rooster over everybody, and using the other roosters alternately to see what they throw. I know that no matter what there are genetics for side sprigs in the flock but everyone's birds seems to throw them. Even when someone says their birds don't throw them, they seem to show up. So that's something I'd have to address later if I have the resources to do the complicated test mating you need to do to really eliminate them.

Please tell me what you think?

From what I have read on here- side sprigs will breed forward and cause alot of problems with future hatches. If you have a group of hatch mates out of the same pen and some are showing side sprigs and others aren't-you would need to test mate to check if the ones not showing sprigs are carriers. Hopefully others with give you some ideas as well.

 

[mountaintopchicken]

From what I have read on here- side sprigs will breed forward and cause alot of problems with future hatches. If you have a group of hatch mates out of the same pen and some are showing side sprigs and others aren't-you would need to test mate to check if the ones not showing sprigs are carriers. Hopefully others with give you some ideas as well.

Yes, I know. I've read about how to do the test matings. That's a source of major frustration for me, I can't seem to get started with a flock of birds that don't have side sprigs. The Davis birds I started with had them (one of the roosters that I hatched out was sprigged, obviously other birds in the flock were carriers).

Now I've got this other flock, from a breeder that shows well, and that seems to have a good reputation. I asked this breeder if they had a problem with their birds throwing sprigs, and they said no. AAAAANNND... I get a flock with a huge percentage of sprigs.

Last year I hatched out some birds from a different breeder that were so abysmal that sprigs were the least of their problems. They weren't even black coppers, it seems she breed color varieties randomly. We ate those, gave the hens away. That breeder had an excellent reputation in another breed, was just getting started w/Marans but she told me her source for her birds, she had shown well, and when I google-stalked her there was nothing but positive mentions on BYC.

My multi-year attempt at getting started in Marans has been very, very bumpy. Like almost all bumps. And side sprigs!

 

[3riverschick]

Originally Posted by Wynette

I've got some young ones growing out - I think they're 8-9 weeks, so I can't even begin to think about culling them for at least another month. I'm highly annoyed by that. I did a TON of hatching this year and frankly, I'm sick of it! I just want my growout pens back. I don't have enough electric in my barn to run heated waterers for all the growout pens, so I've been knocking out ice twice daily & refilling waterers. GRRRrrr....
----------------------
Hi Wynette,
Some time ago, I was conversing with a poultry expert in Englad who ran a poultry education center. We were discussing keeping water from freezing in cold weather. He stated that in England, they put a bit of glycerin in the water which keeps the surface from freezing. I thought that was clever.
Best,
Karen in western PA, USA

 

[chickenguysmom]

Trying to learn all I can. Can you describe side sprigs for those of us new to the breed and without having to read all 40,000 posts? Thanks.

 

[gilavina]

Here's a chart of some of the most common comb defects found in poultry in general. Side sprigs affect all breeds of chickens and are a defect that will breed forward.



From The Mating and Breeding of Poultry by Lamona and Slocum (1920) Digitalized by Google

 

[Wynette]

Originally Posted by Wynette

I've got some young ones growing out - I think they're 8-9 weeks, so I can't even begin to think about culling them for at least another month. I'm highly annoyed by that. I did a TON of hatching this year and frankly, I'm sick of it! I just want my growout pens back. I don't have enough electric in my barn to run heated waterers for all the growout pens, so I've been knocking out ice twice daily & refilling waterers. GRRRrrr....
----------------------
Hi Wynette,
Some time ago, I was conversing with a poultry expert in Englad who ran a poultry education center. We were discussing keeping water from freezing in cold weather. He stated that in England, they put a bit of glycerin in the water which keeps the surface from freezing. I thought that was clever.
Best,
Karen in western PA, USA

glycerin? Wow - apparently, it's okay for them to ingest it, then...gosh, I looked for glycerin a couple years ago as I'd been told by an "old-timey" breeder to put a few drops in the last rinse when you wash them for showing - I never could find it. I do have heated waterers (just need to get them up & running!), but I also have a few pens of birds growing out that I do not have heated waterers for, so the glycerin might be a good thing to look into. Thanks!