Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Debbi, That is just on BC as the wheaten females will also have white in wing and tail. My BC males with the White were Presley bred and the Jeanne line. It is just easier to cull all this out rather than worry our heads off why is it happening. Some say they are looking to the Genetics experts. They know no more about this than the man in the moon. The people that have never had Marans have no idea of what is going on with them.

good post Don

 

[gilavina]

Did you happen to see my post a few days back asking about how you go about your test mating? Like if you do it in rounds and then switch out birds or do you keep them paired long term or etc? I'm working on getting things set up for this next hatching season now and just want to do things as smoothly as possible. I don't have anywhere near the number of males that you probably kept, so that's why I figured I'd ask

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
Where are these BCMs without white feathers that folks might be willing to sell??? That's my frustration. For that matter, where are your Marans? I believe you've culled all of yours. So how is someone such as me supposed to move forward? Where do I find that trio to start with, or for that matter, even ONE good bird?

Makes me want to stick with my clean legged blue without white feathers even more than ever. I love his type and I've figured out how to feather the shanks. The bonus, he's throwing copper to his daughters. However, remains to be seen if the over melanised sisters of my white leaking black boy that are feathering the shanks pass the white leakage off to their sons down the road. Those white feathers don't seem to be a huge problem until the boys are older so I'm going to have to wait to see.

 

[snowbird]

Did you happen to see my post a few days back asking about how you go about your test mating? Like if you do it in rounds and then switch out birds or do you keep them paired long term or etc? I'm working on getting things set up for this next hatching season now and just want to do things as smoothly as possible. I don't have anywhere near the number of males that you probably kept, so that's why I figured I'd ask

Vicki, When doing the single matings it is basically test mating and I have used a male over 6 female when doing this. I give each female the male for half a day and move to another cage. This way after three days I satrt over again. If we use the trap nest we can leave the male with as many females as we would like. Everything I raise from now on will be single mated with record kept.

Within the next few days if everything goes alright will have a prototype for the trapnest. Will post pictures of it unassembled in the album.

Vicki, Most of the males I keep are very seldom used as breeders, I try and use my favorites if they are bred like I want.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
I disagree. Genes are genes and they ARE predictable. "Black Copper Marans" is just a label applied to a genetic soup. Trouble is, we don't seem to have a clear handle on what is going on with that soup. Clearly, the folks working with Marans have NO real idea what ingredients are in their soup because they can't control the output so I'm going to the science folks to see if they can break it down.

 

[snowbird]

I disagree. Genes are genes and they ARE predictable. "Black Copper Marans" is just a label applied to a genetic soup. Trouble is, we don't seem to have a clear handle on what is going on with that soup. Clearly, the folks working with Marans have NO real idea what ingredients are in their soup because they can't control the output so I'm going to the science folks to see if they can break it down.

Barb, I hope you are not saying that becasue someone can read Mendel theory that they can tell all the different genes that are going on with the Marans. If there is a person that smart and mind reader they should not be wasting their time with chickens.

All I can really say for sure is that no one will ever know what is involved here.

 

[gilavina]

Vicki, When doing the single matings it is basically test mating and I have used a male over 6 female when doing this. I give each female the male for half a day and move to another cage. This way after three days I satrt over again. If we use the trap nest we can leave the male with as many females as we would like. Everything I raise from now on will be single mated with record kept.

Within the next few days if everything goes alright will have a prototype for the trapnest. Will post pictures of it unassembled in the album.

Vicki, Most of the males I keep are very seldom used as breeders, I try and use my favorites if they are bred like I want.

That's what I was wondering, if you rotate the male. I do have a few pens with trap nests, so those I'll run a bit differently. I will hold onto 6 in the coppers and I believe 5 for the birchens in males. I still have a couple I'm watching still to see if I like them well enough.

I look forward to seeing the trapnest.

 

[snowbird]

Barb, I will say this I might just be an old country boy, but believe me when I say that I can breed Marans with out white feathers.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Barb, I will say this I might just be an old country boy, but believe me when I say that I can breed Marans with out white feathers.

Well, Don, I hope you start breeding AND selling Marans again -- SOON! We really need you.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Quote:
The fact is, we have a problem with Marans. There is NO doubt, genes have something to do with it. I'm hoping the science folks can figure out what gene(s) we need to eliminate in order to fix this problem we have with our birds right now. They may not be able to figure it out but I can't see ANY harm in at least trying to figure it out. At the very least, it might help us to limp forward.

I'm not meaning to be provocative but if you are aware of a BCM line somewhere that does not have this white feather problem and the person or people that have that line might be willing to "spread the wealth", I know there are more than a few of us that would buy in quite readily - several of which, if not all, that would be totally committed to proper line breeding when moving forward.