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

[berkeleysprings]

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Wow, look at the difference in size and color on her 2nd egg. Mine did the same thing. Which Wheaten pen is she from, your Presley or Davis?

i am mixing the lines or crossing the lines but i think the eggs are fron davis hen and roo
but i do have a back up presley roo and 2 presley hens that look good .the two eggs are from the same hen ,,, she has just started her paint shop ./ and i wont no the eggg color till she lays 10 or so

 

[geebs]

okay folks... Which "lines" are compatible... Like Presley and Davis... are they compatible w/o losing the egg color? Or Channing/Grisholm... ??? Is there a place to go to find out about the imported lines and who/when/where so that all of us out here with the desire to be part of the good breeding don't have to make the same breeding mistakes and therefore make a more motttled mess. Any help? Where can a guy go to get these questions answered?

 

[greathorse]

I think many if not most would tell you to pick a line you like or are convinced it is best or available to you and breed from that. Some like to cross lines but one can have everything a breeder bred for fall apart in one breeding. Marans as you know are complex with type being an issue and egg color something one always needs to pay attention to. In general they are not the greatest layers either and that too could be something to work on.

It is a project breed for sure

 

[drom]

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I have just started hatching BCMs. The parents tend to mossiness. Most of the chicks have small amounts of brown in their baby down -- while one, the chick with the most white in its face, has absolutely no brown showing (yet). You can bet that I'll be keeping track of how those chicks turn out!

That's precisely what I noticed.

 

[drom]

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I agree with greathorse. Not because of any experience I have with breeding poultry, but from years of breeding and showing other animals. In general, the less genetic diversity you have in your stock, the easier it is to predict what type of characteristics your breeding animals will give to their offspring. So far, to me it seems that poultry breeders follow all the same rules most other breeders do. They want their stock to be homozygous for the specific traits and type they wish to produce in their breeding program and that is why they line-breed. They want to lock in all the (hopefully good) characteristics in the line and be able to reliably produce the same good type every time they breed their animals. They want their best breeding animals to be genetically prepotent and to put their stamp on all their offspring.

So, the more genetic diversity you have, the less predictable the outcome of your breedings will be.

That is the simple, 50,000 ft satellite-level explanation anyway. That is about as granular as I can get on this topic.

 

[frenchblackcopper]

With only 5-6 "named" lines of Marans in the USA,,I'm sure they all have been crossed back and forth many times.Let's face it,not everyone that keeps poultry cares where it came from,or even looked at the parent stock.And I'm sure many people have sold their birds at swap meets ect. saying their birds are from such and such bloodlines when they have no idea where they came from.Unless you buy birds direct from the "named" importers-breeders then your possibly getting a big melting pot of genetics from several weekend experimental pairings.
Everyone owns chickens for diffrent reasons,and breeding them for certain traits or standards does not concern them in the least,let alone keeping bloodlines penned seperate and keeping accurate records.And several of the "named" lines original founders no longer mess with the Marans breed at all (Wade-Kelvin Jeane,Ron Presley) to my knowledge their flocks were sold out completely.And these lines needed improvements on many aspects of the standard.

 

[Resolution]

Ron Presley isn't rearing Marans any longer?- As for lines -crossing lines- hmm- if they are the same colour type - it is my understanding that this maintains a certain amount of goodness- hmm

 

[countrylife]

I got my 1st BCM egg today

, it was a little thin on top and another hen broke it

Hope she evens that color out.

 

[marquisella]

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When you want to introduce another "line", its important to try & find one whose birds are similar to what you have already, and maybe with something better you want to improve on. For example, you wouldn't want to get more birds with "mossiness"
if yours are already mossy. You would want to get solid color to work into your "line" towards getting rid of the mossiness.

When people talk about crossing lines and getting lighter eggs, what they usually mean is crossing varieties.

And a note about getting more eggs. One of the reasons Marans lay such dark eggs, it is thought, is due to the slow movement of the egg through the hen. The egg spends more time in the "paint" room. If they layed more eggs, the egg would move through the "paint" room faster and thus not get as much paint and the result would be a lighter color.

M

 

[millebantam]

Bingo! Then throw in the "wildcard" of selective breeding for egg color while throwing overall type out the window, and it's a wonder that they aren't in worse shape than they're in. $$ cha-ching! $$.
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