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

[4kidZ]

Quote:
gvntofly05-that is a blue...just a darker shade. And, even though the legs look clean, now, you still may get some feathering on the legs as it matures. I had one like that. It was weird...no feathers for the first 6 weeks or so, then they started popping up sparsely. It never did get heavy "booted" feathering, but that's OK. It's still considered French.

~4kidZ
Fluffy Butts Farm

 

[dovecanyon]

I'm sorry to bother all you Marans experts, but I have a "new to Marans" question. I have 4 FBCM in the hatcher now and they are starting to pip. Do males and females all hatch the same color, or are you able to tell sex by color/markings when they hatch? Thanks!

 

[Knight Hawk Ranch]

Quote:
The chicks in my photo are blue copper chicks. The copper comes in later.

 

[flgardengirl]

I didn't know that about the leg feathering. Some of my newborn fbcm's are booted and some aren't. So maybe they will still get feathered legs...cool ! All my blues and blacks are feathered legged.

Thanks Night Hawk Ranch

 

[gvntofly05]

Thanks Everyone!

So do you think an egg from a Blue got mixed in with my eggs or can Black Coppers produce a Blue from a recessive gene?

 

[drom]

"Ear Coverts are densely feathered in special microplumes designed to cover the ear while accentuating rather than muffling sound.
Ear coverts serve to block out background noise, wind or forest floor substrate crackling under foot; the whistling of raptor wings,
the hidden location of a chick in distress etc... "

Resolution, that's interesting, I didn't know that.


"Once again, we have breeders working diligently (a little too diligently in my opinion) to perfect phenotypic traits, characteristics that help us
map where and to what degree respective stocks have lost their conformity. As egg colour is of the most significance with regards to this cultural heritage breed,
this is where selective breeding must be focused. Phenotypic expression is something that is refined only after the egg colour is to the level appreciated
as being uniquely Marans.
In my opinion, there is a tendency to overproduce stock, that is, to hatch too many eggs and subsequently surplus too much haphazardly selected stock.
The disciplined poultier limits her or his selective breeding to only a tiny handful of pairs and only hatches a half dozen eggs from each.
Hens that do not produce the best possible expression of egg colour are not surplussed into the market, but rather put into the henhouse that produces
eggs for the table and market. These eggs should be pre-refrigerated to discourage embryo development if unscrupulous individuals decide to try and hatch
chicks from your unrefined stocks.
Phenotype for exhibition has greatly compromised the stewardship of the Barnesvelder and to the detriment of egg colour.
A rooster with yellow hackles or discernible ear coverts; a female with "mossy" plumage simply expresses more of the integral Marandaise genetics at the root of
the very best lineages of Marans. Throw the chicks out with the incubator and you end up working against the collective effort to refine the breed from the inside out.
That said, obviously there are serious stewards here and a bunch of dedicated poultiers that know the brass tacks of selective breeding. It sounds as if they are already content with their egg colour and are now selecting for superficial characters. My missive is intended for the new poultry enthusiast that wants to begin at squares one through eight."


Resolution, you are correct and thank you for pointing it out; we really aren't concentrating enough on learning about egg color here. For a couple reasons I think:

1) The push to get the APA acceptance of the breed
2) Genetics of feather color is just frankly easier for everyone I think. It's easily definable and there's lots more reference information on genetics of feather color. Egg color on the other hand is more mysterious and difficult for us to understand.

For example, I can visit the MCC breed club web site and pull up the complete color genome for the Black Copper:

ER/ER co+/co+ db+/db+ pg+/pg+ Ml/Ml Cha+/Cha+ Mh/Mh di+/di+ Ig+/Ig+ cb+/cb+ s+/s+ b+/b+ Choc+/Choc+ i+/i+ bl+/bl+ Mo+/Mo+ C+/C+ Lav+/Lav+

I can go to the Kip calculator and calculate exactly what I would get by crossing a Black Copper with a Wheaten. It would give me the different genotypes/phenotypes of the chicks that breeding would produce and the theoretical percentage of each type.
http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm#kipcalculator

But none of these resources can give us specific genetic information on the birds who lay extremely dark eggs and which genes are involved.

I believe those are the two main reasons that we focus so much on the feather color of the birds. I don't think it is that anyone is totally satisfied with their egg color.

And I do think it is very important to remind everyone that while all the breed clubs strongly encourage new breeders to breed to the standard for feather color and confirmation, they also ALL agree that the #1 priority of the breed is the egg color.

So, we should discuss it more. We just don't have enough definable, quantifiable, easy information to reference.

 

[drom]

Quote:
Dovecanyon, they will be identical.
In the first week, sometimes the pullet's feet will already start to look a little darker than the cockerels and the cockerels combs will be more prominent and will have a pinker color.

 

[drom]

Quote:
Correct me if I am wrong everyone, but I believe it is actually a dominant gene which dilutes black. And it probably means that the breeder has the Blue and Black Copper birds in the same pen.
I actually don't know doodley about blue so I should probably stay

 

[cpartist]

Quote:
Yes, but only by a week, he just turned 16 weeks. I know that they are a bit young to judge, especially color-wise and I've heard it's best to wait until they are a year old to see their full measure, but some things such as comb, feathering, eye color, tail set, etc. are evident early on...so it seems reasonable to do an early cull based on these things, before you pour too much feed into them, (or get too attached) just keeping the more promising candidates. What I like about pullets, (besides the fact that they are so much sweeter and more civil than the roos

)
is that you can toss them in the laying pen if they don't have the right stuff. Too many roo's=too much drama, unrest, and a big food bill.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

What percentage or general number of Roos that hatch from dark eggs, create offspring hens that lay dark eggs? Is it a given that he will or just a possiblilty?