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

[hcammack]

Very pretty eggs

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Third times the charm? Does anyone know?


What should we be breeding for first in the Roos. Is it first--body type?

Then what goes next? Comb or eye color or feather color,

Feathering on feet are last right because that is fairly easy to obtain?

I am just trying to narrow the 4 Roos down and each one has good points and bad points.

Oh and one more They should have pumpkin colored eyes, but is it ok for the iris to be black? Or is that supposed to be pumpkin too?

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
I think that nobody is answering your questions because there IS no simple answer to them.

It is probably easiest to breed for color, because it's easy to see when a roo has too much red or too little, and so on. It takes more practice to appreciate good body type, so for many people that's harder to breed for. However, body type is one of the really important things that ties the breed together across color varieties -- so, in an important sense, it's more fundamental than the color itself.

As for the comb, the APA only allots 5 points to comb judging. A lot of people focus on combs, again because it's so easy to see the comb and count points and so on -- but even if the bird had NO comb, it could only lose 5 points out of 100 while being judged. So there's more important things to worry about!

I personally would not put leg feathering last. If you lose it, it's gone. And if somebody buys eggs from you and hatches a lot of clean legged birds, they are NOT going to be happy.

As for the eyes -- the iris IS the orange part of the eye. So, no, the iris will not be black. The only black portion will be the pupil.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Thank you so much amazondoc. You have answered what I needed to know. And I goofed when I said iris, I meant pupil, sorry!

I have been looking at my 4 roos and overall they all look good, but the big beefy one just always catches my attention more. There is another one who looks good except that you can tell his body type just isn't right. Too thin.

Thank you for the input on the feathered legs too.

Now I have a better understanding. Many thanks.

 

[roostercruiser]

I hope everyone helps each other out with getting the Marans into the APA standard. I just didn't know why everyone was so big about the color of the egg and nothing else.

 

[bonnylass79]

I got a better head shot of my new roo. What do you guys think? He's 4 1/2 months old. Could his ear lobes still turn red?

 

[amazondoc]

Err.....his earlobes ARE red....

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Bonnylass, are you meaning the hair (fur) whatever you want to call it LOL that is the litle circle of black by his ear? I don't think it changes color. He's a good looking boy though.

I don't know how everyone gets such good pictures. I get to close and they get blurry.

 

[bonnylass79]

lol, I meant the tuffs. Doesn't that determine how much color he passes to the hens? Still trying to learn chicken genetics.

Sometimes I think the pictures are just luck. Mine are pretty hit or miss. This pictures was the middle of the day, not too sunny, not too cloudy, so the lighting was really good.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I believe that does determine the hackle color in the hens. Anyone else have any input?