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I agree. At this early stage of breed development in the U.S., I think good dark egg lines should be improved and created first. After that has be accomplished and stablized, it's easier to breed to feather coloration.
I really agree with your point on showing birds. If you are going to attempt to show any animal in a breed show you absolutely have to totally understand the breed standard at a basic minimum. If you do understand the breed standard then you probably won't end up showing any animal that doesn't come close to meeting the standard or has disqualifying faults. Why would anyone do that? Who likes to lose or be disqualified?
With a well established, approved breed, when people who don't have a clear understanding of the breed standard bring stock to a show that misses the standard by a wide mark, they really don't do any harm to anyone. But with a newly approved breed or in the case of the Marans, a breed not approved yet, this does do damage to the breed. Everybody makes a big deal out of it and comes down really hard on the breeders and breed clubs.
But it does seem very clear to me that a lot of Marans in France are bred primarily for their egg laying capability and not being bred primarily to meet standard of perfection (for the appearance of the bird). The French understand the difference and they make a distinction between the two types of stock. They state on their site in more than one place that their best egg layers are not the ones they are showing in the hall. And several people over here who have been to France to see the birds there have said they observed the same thing. I am not saying I think they don't breed to the standard in France, I am just saying I get impression that they don't throw out their best egg laying birds because they aren't show quality stock. And, unlike here, they don't stop calling those egg-layers Marans, just because they aren't show quality stock.
Now, maybe the MCC believes we should should take a different route here; that we can do better than that. I don't know. I think to make a determination like that you need to understand the genetics of the breed well enough to understand why the best egg laying stock in France is not in the show halls. In others words, perhaps it has less to do with genetics than commerce/egg production. But I don't think the breed is a mess (as some people are saying) at all. I think it is a new breed here and still evolving some, but it's not a mess.
I think that people who want to show the birds just need to understand what type of birds they should to bring to the show and which ones need to stay at home.
