Marans Thread for Posting Pics of Your Eggs, Chicks and Chickens

[pinkchick]

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Sorry this should have said my very first batch of Marans eggs ever shipped. I've have and will ship my Welsummers and I have shipped my Salmon Faverolles when I had them........just something about sending off these eggs just un-nerves me. Don't know why but looks like I'll be getting over it today as they are all packed tight and ready to go.


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Yeah.. come to think of it I think she is a BYC'er....does pugmom sound familiar?

 

[geebs]

Pinkchick she has no posts... You need to poke her and tell her that it is no fair owning marans now if you aren't going to post pix... You have a way with posters.... You go get em Pinkchick!

 

[kathyinmo]

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One roo has too heavily feathered legs, the other is much better. The girls have a variety from sparse to a little heavy.

 

[Bravo]

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Kathy, I have a BCM roo that hatched from eggs I bought off eBay and he has SOOOO much feathering on his legs they look like feather dusters! The female from the same eggs has very sparse feathering and both have black legs.

Other than the heavy feathering and leg color he is looking pretty good.

How easy is it to breed out leg color and heavy feathering? He and his hatch mate are joined at the hip so there is no way I can part them.

Here is Pierre & Francesca pictured back when they were 7 weeks old.

(I have a photographer friend that is fascinated with my chickens hence the pro shots lol)

 

[crazy4eggsJulie]

I have several BCM cockerels-about 17 of them. This is our first time dealing with this breed. I have researched the standards online but did not find much information on when they are young.

At 6 weeks, they are all marked very different. Some have copper at the necks while some do not. Some are very black. Some have alot of copper on the back. It appears that they are almost all completely feathered in. Is this a good indication of how they will be marked as an adult or will they change quite a bit more? I have way too many and they are ALL trying to establish dominance. I don't want to let them go too soon, but really need to narrow down my choices. What should I be looking for at this age?

Any help is greatly appreciated!
I've got to let some go and at least get it down to 10 or so to wait on.

This guy has too much gold right?

How 'bout the rest of these? Any thoughts? Maybe I'll get some colored zip ties and photo each "bachelor" for you guys to vote on!

 

[berkeleysprings]

interesting on the leg feathering . i have a few young birds that i hatched with alot of feathering compared to the adult birds from the 2 pure
line birds in the breeding pen,i have seen other peoples pics in the past with lots of feathering . i wish i could see a good example of how many leg feathers is good and a picture of whats exceptable also i wonder if them molting will change things .....i have so many questions for the experts, like are certan lines of birds (wheaten marans ) prone to alot of leg feathering ? all the hens i hatched has leg feathering like there pure line of adult birds so i wonder if its a rooster thing geneticly speaking some of the roosters i have hatched have moderate leg feathering close to there pure parrents but i have one with zero leg feathering . it must be hidden in his genetics but he shows no feathering on his legs so the last thing i wonder is if i test breed the zero feathering roo to his sisters if the resulting sons will have more moderate feathering?or result in more off spring
with zero feathering. this shouldent be hard to figure out because i only have 4 adult birds from 2 different breeders i am working with
(and around 50 young birds lol ) i have lots of time
.......................oh the fun of marans!



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One roo has too heavily feathered legs, the other is much better. The girls have a variety from sparse to a little heavy.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/31282_furry_and_group_4-11-10_045.jpg

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/31282_wheaton_marans_4-14-10_001.jpg

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/31282_wheaton_marans_4-14-10_013.jpg

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/31282_wheaton_marans_4-14-10_016.jpg

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/31282_furry_and_group_4-11-10_026.jpg

 

[geebs]

Crazy4eggsJulie:

My personal choices would be... pic 3, both in pic 4... The gold is the most difficult thing to breed out... I would reserve the other 3 roosters and see how they mature... Eye color, lenth of back, tail faults, any deformities etc I would rule out later... The last thing I would worry about is leg feathering... The hen can contribute that. For a starter bird you want to line up as much as you can... Conformation and overall shape/health of the bird should be formost... The gold is an unforgiveable show fault and should be eliminated first... That does narrow your choices..Eye color doesn't develop till much later on... I would alway keep my best two birds... in case one gets sick or killed.

 

[crazy4eggsJulie]

Geebs-
Am I understanding correctly that anybody who looks like pic1 can pack their bags? If so, that alone will knock out 3 or 4 of them.

I have some that have really great copper in the neck, but very little of it ...look more like a hens neck....or mainly black across the back. None of that crimson color. I have read the standards but have no experience with the breed yet. Will these almost black guys get color later on?

 

[Illia]

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I believe I already told you this, that yes, your birds are far too young to judge just yet. Any "blonde" coloring, though is indeed not desired. But remember - Focus on egg before you focus on the bird.

Right now they're really young and to some people are even hard to sex because of such slow coppering coming through. I have a cockerel that looks like a hen compared to the others right now because he's still not getting copper in his shoulders and saddle as he should. . . It will take him some time. I'm not keeping him regardless though, because he's a Jeanne/Davis cross cockerel with mossy genes hidden in him, and his parents laid too light of pullet eggs for my taste. . . A good pullet to me must lay 8-9 eggs, not 6-7 eggs.

 

[halo]

I got some black copper eggs off of ebay. Now tell me if Im just being a whiner, but I am not happy with these eggs. Im inclined not to even incubate them. Am I being too fussy and whiny? (taken with a flash, but this is exactly what they looked like; the picture without the flash was way too dark).