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

[drom]

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Well, Tina explains it best and I am no expert on this. I am just a fancier, but it means the offspring are mixed and that the parents have genes from other varieties/birds in their background.

 

[drom]

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Again, Tina explained this very well the other day. Black Copper Marans rarely happen by mistake because they are usually line bred by private breeders. The Cuckoo variety is a little different because those are sold by the commercial hatcheries and are much more common and available. However; if there is reason to believe the people selling the birds had Marans, you might want to just wait and see what kind of egg she lays. You never know. But the best way to get a Marans right now is to just contact a Marans breeder and buy some eggs or birds.

 

[amazondoc]

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Well, Tina explains it best and I am no expert on this. I am just a fancier, but it means the offspring are mixed and that the parents have genes from other varieties/birds in their background.

Technically, a "sport" is a spontaneous mutation that makes an offspring plant or animal appear different from its parents. However, the term is often used in chicken circles to mean ANY offspring which unexpectedly looks different from its parents, whether that difference is actually from a mutation or just from some hidden genes being expressed -- as might happen, for instance, with birds that had some other breed introduced several generations back down the line. Since chicken breeders very frequently introduce other breeds to bring in desired traits like new colors or such, these "sports" happen much more than one might expect otherwise.

 

[drom]

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Well, Tina explains it best and I am no expert on this. I am just a fancier, but it means the offspring are mixed and that the parents have genes from other varieties/birds in their background.

Technically, a "sport" is a spontaneous mutation that makes an offspring plant or animal appear different from its parents. However, the term is often used in chicken circles to mean ANY offspring which unexpectedly looks different from its parents, whether that difference is actually from a mutation or just from some hidden genes being expressed -- as might happen, for instance, with birds that had some other breed introduced several generations back down the line. Since chicken breeders very frequently introduce other breeds to bring in desired traits like new colors or such, these "sports" happen much more than one might expect otherwise.

thanks! I was hoping someone would jump in and provide a little more knowledge on the subject.....

 

[tfpets]

Once again, Amazondoc and Drom, just the "folks" I was lookin for earlier to have pipe in!

I just got home and I'm tryin to catch up on things! I know that sport vs splash are two different things, but if the bird in the pic has known Marans parents, it would be interesting to see them, and how these sports came about. They are pretty, and they are still Marans, just as I understand it sports are not "accepted" as breed standards, cause their colors are mixed, those non-conformist birds!

THE OFFICIAL VARIETIES OF THE CURRENT STANDARD

Silver-cuckoo Variety
Golden-cuckoo Variety
Black Variety
Brown-red Variety
Birchen Variety
Wheaten Variety
Black-tailed buff Variety
White Variety
Columbian Variety

The Bantam's Marans

OTHER VARIETIES NOT APPROVED YET

Golden-blue and Silver-blue Varietys
Splash Variety
Golden-salmon and Silver-salmon Variety

Just because they are not APPROVED does not mean that they do not exist....
I would like to know more about the OP's parent stock BECAUSE of the genetics (I'm a genetic Moron, but I so want to learn?)

This is what I copied from the French Marans site on the Splash Marans:

The genetic bl Splash Marans cock, a 100% pure variety called "splash". In english, it means streaked with bright colors or spattered with spots. We can notice, by the presence of sharp fawn marks, that the Splash (off-white) cock is made on the Brown-red basis (ER/ER) and not on the pure Black basis (E/E), which is usual for a Marans. When it is associated with Brown-red hens, it gives 100% of young Blue-red subjects.ue (BI) factor acts in a very particular way to appear in the plumage. It must only express itself at the simple state and not at the double state about the chromosomes, i.e at the impure state or heterozygous for the (BI) factor.
On the other hand, at the double state (BI/BI), also called homozygous for this (BI) factor, it gives birth to another color, the off-white color or "Splash" and not the blue color any more.
The off-white plumage (Splash) appears like a white plumage and which is irregularly streaked with blackish or fawn marks which can even be found on the tarsus.
On the esthetical plan, this color is not wonderful (even through…) to such an extent that, to date, the various standard don(t accept it like an official plumage color variety.

On the contrary, on a purely genetic plan, it is obvious that off-white is a pure color because it represents the plumage which is strictly reserved to the only pure and homozygous genotype (BI/BI).

Indeed, it is a case which is a little similar to the one of the different silver-cuckoo breeds when the (B) gene at the homozygous state gives birth to lighter subjects which are in this way always pure as for this (B) characteristic.

Anyhoo, Now I'm wandering through my favorite threads and stuff...

We lost a baby pygmy goat during her birth today, so I'm trying to keep her mom comfortable, I'll be in and out checking on her.

Gotta go for now........
Tina/tfpets

 

[onthespot]

here's a splash hen behind the barred Ameraucana girl. I do not know who is the breeder, because the woman I got her from had bought eggs from several different breeders and then mixed the birds together. Some of the breeders were Julie, Bev Davis and Ray Valentine. I do not expect great things eggs wise, I just couldn't pass up the bird, sorry. I'm a color fool too. The other two pullets are blue, all clean legged. I got a splash roo too, but all birds show some barring, and the splash girl looks kinda dirty around the neck, so I suspect she is copper splash.

 

[tfpets]

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Okay, so I gotta admit, I went somewhere else online and took a peek at this pretty guys possible mommy's and his daddy. Pretty birds, just one thing confuses me. His Daddy has one huge disqualification as a Marans that grabbed me from his pic, if I am correct, and that is that his legs are very Yellow. Not the light, but the roosters legs are Yellow. No one has mentioned it yet, but its been on my mind...
So he would in some recent generations have had other breeds introduced into his lineage that is causing this crossing or mutation instead of breeding true, does this mean the offspring are Marans, or mix?
Is the rooster, with his yellow legs, although a pretty Cuckoo guy, a Marans. Do you go by whether or not his offspring lay dark eggs, and are they Marans or almost Marans. What makes a Marans a Marans, since we know it's genetics, but there are so many breeds having been put into the gene pool. How did this little bird come about? Does anyone have a geneticist friend around to help with answers!
Am I making sense? Im tired....Im going to bed early.....

Take care,
Tina

 

[amazondoc]

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For me, this is a very muddy question in chickens. It's not like dogs, where the breeds have precisely recorded pedigrees and closed studbooks. In chickens, basically if it looks like that breed and it breeds true to that breed, then it is that breed. But even people who very carefully breed "purebred" birds for years will sometimes get birds that don't meet the standards -- and some breeds, like blue Andalusians or Araucanas, never do breed true no matter WHAT you do. So I don't think there's anybody out there who can positively tell you what is or is not purebred!

 

[ginasmarans]

If a marans has yellowish legs,it is either not a pure marans or has a genetic disposition,which is a breed fault. These birds should not be used for breeding. The problem is that sometimes a chick will have yellowish legs which fades as it matures or in the case of hens,when she starts laying eggs. I had a hen who threw yellow legged chicks and it took forever for me to identify her and cull her. I also had to cull all of her chicks because I could not be sure if they would pass on that trait. Now when I say cull, it doesn't neccessarily mean they became dumplings. I have a coop for eating eggs.

 

[tfpets]

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I had to laugh at your explaination about the dumplings......like you think people are gonna go....oh no.......cull them????????.........you fiend.........you killler........how could you???????? Its okay.....its very nice that you chose to do what you do.
As to the yellow legs...that would most likely be due to the introduction of a yellow legged breed into the Marans for the purpose of feather or egg quality at some point, and the trait pops up over time........and yes, as I understand it, it would be best for the Marans part of a breeding program, not to continue to use that bird or its offspring, as it displays such an obvious disqualification.

So now to the matter of the Splash or Sport Marans produced by the Cuckoos that were being discussed. The parent rooster, a Cuckoo Marans, has very prominent yellow legs. He in reality should not be being used as a breeding Marans rooster anyhow, should he? I mean, who cares if he's only for a backyard flock of pets only, and makes cute little chicks n eggs n stuff, but they're basically becoming lesser Marans with each hatch?? Arent they?? The parents are not even throwing Cuckoo's anymore?? This is where I get confused about how far of a deviation from the standard and the original "lines" we can go.......

Still thinkin........

Tina