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

[snowbird]

Drom, Thanks for posting all this info. for everyone to read. I believe the group working on getting the Black Copper approved knew that the Brown Red and Black Copper were different. There is a Brown Red color recognized already by the APA and the Black Copper would not work there.



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[huckleberryfarm]

Thanks everyone for the help on the pronounciation. I guess it's okay to pronounce it anyway as long as we take care of these beauties! I've been saying Mare-uns. The other lady said Ma-ran with the accent on the second syllable. Looks like those are the two most popular versions. I'm going to go Google Martha Stewart's video and her pronounciation!

 

[flgardengirl]

Martha Stewart calls her Easter Eggers Ameraucanas. I wonder if she knows how to pronouce Marans.

 

[drom]

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Yes, I wasn't aware of that and I am wondering now if the MCF has the genotype listed for the FBCM. I can't find it on their site.

I am interested in understanding what the different possibilities are in the crosses of ER/EWh birds so the calculator is fun for me. And I think it means that you can have ER/ER birds which have varying degrees of color which aren't carrying wheaten at all- just different versions of the Mahogany gene. Obviously the only way to tell, provided the birds have black wings and correctly colored feet, is to test breed. But it also means the hackle color is not a sure fire way of judging if your bird is ER/ER or ER/EWh.

 

[pinkchick]

Drom~

That is fabulous information and makes perfect sense. Thank you for taking the time to post that and share with everyone. Your a doll!

BTW: How are all those babies doing that we hatched out together. Out of the all the babies that I hatched along with you, I narrowed it down to 7 birds that looked as though they would make it to the breeding pen, well now at 3.5 mos. I have narrowed that down to 3 pullets and possibly one Blue Copper boy. I am not sure of the boy yet as he is the only one that has not shown any signs of coppering yet.....darn it! All those babies hatched out last winter and this spring to only keep 3 for breeding....but that is what it is all about isn't it?!?!?

 

[geebs]

here is a explaination from a friend of mine that you folks may or may not find useful. I rely on this person for expert advice.

True wheaten? Well, if you breed a BC that carries wheaten, then it's base is half wheaten, half birchen (with gold instead of silver). So, you can eventually breed the base out to pure Ewh (wheaten) and pure E^R (birchens for black coppers).

So crossing a E^R/eWh with another E^R/eWh will give you 25% eWh/eWh (pure wheatens), 25% E^R/E^R (pure birchen), and 50% mixed (E^R/eWh).

Telling the pure wheatens will be easier than identifying the BC's because birchen is dominant and they can look just the same as a homozygous birchen base.

I hope this help some ppl working with that color.

 

[drom]

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Well, yes but what the calculator is showing, that I wasn't aware of, is that there are 3 different types of ER/ER birds and 3 different types of ER/EWh birds that can come from that cross. They can each have 3 different types of mahogany genes which modify the color on the bird.

You can get an ER/ER bird that has MhMh (red necked birchen) and you can also get an ER/ER bird that has mh+mh+ (gold necked birchen) ...etc. There are more combinations

 

[geebs]

Yes, my friend mentioned that, but I couldn't quite make sense of it so I left that part out... He he... I don't work on this color and the calculator confused me... I am not smarter than a 5th grader!!!! ha ha...

I was validating your find to a point... by using "phone a friend"

 

[drom]

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[drom]

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Yes exactly, that's not unusual from what everyone says. Nice to get 3 good pullets!
I hatched 14; 8 cockerels/6 pullets. I have 3 cockerels I am very excited about. They are all very correctly colored. And the calculator really got me going. I went outside and looked at all of them trying to figure out who carries which type of mahogany genes.

Not as happy with my pullets. I wish I had gotten better pullets. Of course they are all keepers because they can be layers or breeders. But I am happy about the 3 cockerels. They are looking (at this point) like they will be better than the roosters I currently have.

Almost forgot, I have the two babies from my hen, Dave. One looks very good and she is actually a pullet, the other one has brown spots.