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

[berkeleysprings]

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this wheaten guy is 11 months , my hens just started laying
and i have 4 eggs so far in the incubator and more going in sunday.... im a happy camper
no more buying shiped eggs for now !

 

[gvntofly05]

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I agree. At this early stage of breed development in the U.S., I think good dark egg lines should be improved and created first. After that has be accomplished and stablized, it's easier to breed to feather coloration.


I'm going to be new to the BCM breed but not to genetics (study for fun, hubby thinks I'm weird). I honestly believe it will be easier to get egg color right and then work on perfect birds than to try for perfect birds and then egg color. If you strive for the perfect standard first letting egg color slip, then you run the risk of messing up the birds standard all over again trying to improve the egg color.

I plan to work on egg color at first and use my darkest egg layers with best coloring for breeding, culling when necessary for bad body and egg color. So I guess I'll actually be working on both at the same time. I plan on it taking a good 10+ years before I will have anything close to the perfection I want. It will be fun and I will feel great knowing I am helping to bring perfection to a beautiful breed of chicken. Plus my children will have the benefit of learning from me and by the time they are old enough, starting with a, hopefully, well established flock!

 

[drom]

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I agree. At this early stage of breed development in the U.S., I think good dark egg lines should be improved and created first. After that has be accomplished and stablized, it's easier to breed to feather coloration.


I really agree with your point on showing birds. If you are going to attempt to show any animal in a breed show you absolutely have to totally understand the breed standard at a basic minimum. If you do understand the breed standard then you probably won't end up showing any animal that doesn't come close to meeting the standard or has disqualifying faults. Why would anyone do that? Who likes to lose or be disqualified?

With a well established, approved breed, when people who don't have a clear understanding of the breed standard bring stock to a show that misses the standard by a wide mark, they really don't do any harm to anyone. But with a newly approved breed or in the case of the Marans, a breed not approved yet, this does do damage to the breed. Everybody makes a big deal out of it and comes down really hard on the breeders and breed clubs.

But it does seem very clear to me that a lot of Marans in France are bred primarily for their egg laying capability and not being bred primarily to meet standard of perfection (for the appearance of the bird). The French understand the difference and they make a distinction between the two types of stock. They state on their site in more than one place that their best egg layers are not the ones they are showing in the hall. And several people over here who have been to France to see the birds there have said they observed the same thing. I am not saying I think they don't breed to the standard in France, I am just saying I get impression that they don't throw out their best egg laying birds because they aren't show quality stock. And, unlike here, they don't stop calling those egg-layers Marans, just because they aren't show quality stock.

Now, maybe the MCC believes we should should take a different route here; that we can do better than that. I don't know. I think to make a determination like that you need to understand the genetics of the breed well enough to understand why the best egg laying stock in France is not in the show halls. In others words, perhaps it has less to do with genetics than commerce/egg production. But I don't think the breed is a mess (as some people are saying) at all. I think it is a new breed here and still evolving some, but it's not a mess.

I think that people who want to show the birds just need to understand what type of birds they should to bring to the show and which ones need to stay at home.

 

[lildinkem]

In genetics, I heard the size comes from the girls and the egg color & feather color comes from the boys. Which means it will be near two years before I know which boy throws the darkest egg color gene. And till then I equally use the five cockerels I have. I noticed the darker egg layers are coming from my least feathered male. Seems to be another double edged sword. Darker egg color sometimes associates with less leg feathering. I guess patience is the rule. And hatch and cull heavily.

 

[gvntofly05]

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I completely agree! My husband showed Rhinelander rabbits for a long time and is finally going to get back into it in the spring! It never ceased to amaze me at the amount of people who just seemed to just pull any rabbit out of their pen for a show. Because of my husband I learned the Rhinelander breed in and out. Since I was breeding and attending shows with him I found it only natural to be able to look at my rabbits and know which one was truest to standard. There were always people with this breed that had spots where there shouldn't have been or broken lines on their backs. Basically rabbits that shouldn't have even been there.

To me chickens are no different. If you are going to show you need to know everything there is to know about that breed.

 

[gvntofly05]

My eggs just came in, looks like I will be setting 14 eggs tomorrow! Here are some pics, what do you guys think of the color for this time of year? Ugg I wish the camera didn't wash so much color out, they are at least a level darker than what the pics show.

ETA: Okay I was able to some better color pics

 

[drom]

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Ah, that looks better. That's about right.

 

[Mahonri]

My first French Black Cooper Marans, popped the top off about 35 minutes ago. "Pierre" he's got white wing tips.

 

[geebs]

Great... I think it is a novel idea... You and yours can breed for type... Me and mine can breed for color and at the end we can swap a couple birds and improve them all... I like it. I think the finish line will be on our graves though... Hopefully we will each leave behind something worthwhile for the next BYC addicts.

 

[drom]

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Exciting. White wing tips are very common in BCM chicks and usually go away.