Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[pinkchick]

Vicki~ Did you candle?

 

[gilavina]

LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

Thanks lady! I love them too! I should see if I can round up the cats here, they are all variations of blues and are just gorgeous. I usually end up with a herd of chore kitties following me everywhere!

I'm praying I can get going on the solid blues. That would just about make next season the best hatching season ever! haha

 

[gilavina]

I had a blue boy just like that. the silver seemed to come in over night. Alas he also suddenly grew a side sprig at 6 months

Love that blue girl!!! Please keep us posted on those solid blues (being optimistic

)

I'm certainly with you on being optimistic about the blues. I'm going to spend quite a bit of time with test mating this coming hatching season to see what is behind those girls for sure. They are by far some of my favorite birds on the place. I have to admit I love watching the rejects in my layer pen too tho. They are eye candy and a half.

 

[chicken pickin]

Hi I was just wondering at what age should the copper start coming in on the black coppers and blue coppers?

 

[gilavina]

Vicki~ Did you candle?

I haven't yet. I will tonight when it gets dark. I'm leaving for work in a bit and by the time I get home it will be dark. The temps and humidity have been holding steady so I am looking forward to seeing if I can see development. I'm also nervous...there's always that let down of looking at clear eggs, but I'm hopeful. I'll post when I see what I have. I've been praying like crazy something is going on in there tho!

 

[gilavina]

I thought the same thing!

But in all seriousness, I think they are kinda cool when they lay them like this.

me too. I have a cool egg from the other day. A first egg from a pullet, where its like smudgey waves of dark over the lighter color.

 

[pinkchick]

Hi I was just wondering at what age should the copper start coming in on the black coppers and blue coppers?

Depends on the bird....some can start getting color as early as 3-4 weeks and others can seem like they take months. I have a blue copper male that is going on about 10 months old and he has just started showing copper in his hackles only. I also had a blue copper male that was still getting color at 2 years old.
How old is the bird and are they male or female?

 

[pinkchick]

me too. I have a cool egg from the other day. A first egg from a pullet, where its like smudgey waves of dark over the lighter color.

One of the neatest things in the Marans IMO, is the wide variations of the eggs that we get. Speckled, smooth, stippled, half painted, etc.........

Marans bring so many things to the table.....LOL, in more ways than one! Ha Ha!

 

[pinkchick]

I am sending positive thoughts out on those eggs Vicki! I hope you get something out of all of those eggies you are so lucky to have got......especially out of the eggs from the solid birds. Can't wait to see what you get there.

 

[chicken pickin]

Depends on the bird....some can start getting color as early as 3-4 weeks and others can seem like they take months. I have a blue copper male that is going on about 10 months old and he has just started showing copper in his hackles only. I also had a blue copper male that was still getting color at 2 years old.
How old is the bird and are they male or female?

They are going on 8 weeks old. My blue copper pullet has very light copper on the back of her neck and my bcm roo has reddish gold(copper) coming in on his neck down the center of his back and a tiny hint on his wingbow. my othe bcm pullet shows no signs of copper and my other odd color chick shows now copper. I just thought I read somewhere that they arent supposed to get it so young because it could mean they will end up with too much copper as adults but maybe I mis read. Im still learning so sorry if I ask silly questions