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

[drom]

Quote:
Ok, so there are a couple ways to sex them very early. One is the combs, by the end of the first week some of the cockerels will have more prominent colorful combs while pullets will have very grey, colorless tiny combs. This baby roo was about 2 weeks in the picture, but you could tell at one week what he was:

Also, Black Copper hens have darker feet and legs than roosters and they start getting darker very early:

Pullets 1 week:

Cockerels 1 week:

Now, here is a picture at 5 weeks and you can see the difference between the pullet on the left of the water dish at the end and the little guy to her left. Huge difference between the combs.

 

[Illia]

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Those are 5 week olds? Wow are mine underdeveloped?

My Marans are 4 and a half weeks old, and my bigger "mossy" boy is the only one starting to get copper on him, but otherwise the rest are still gawky looking, and still have their breast feathers just finishing on filling out. . .


Cottagegarden: Thanks for the info.

I guess we'll keep him then. He's probably my favorite of this small batch, but that mossy look was worrying me about what I should with him. So essentially he won't create dark layers, yes?

 

[TurkeyMountainChickens]

Hi! I've recently gotten some black copper marans chicks.

The cockerel and one pullet are both solid black so far, which seems to be the norm at 4ish weeks. However... pullet # 2 is a bit different.

When I got her, she was 2 weeks and showing some copper in her feathers. The breeder told me that she might be a solid copper bird, which would disqualify her for showing. But... I liked her anyway.

So, now she's feathering out, and she seems to be barred! Is this a bit of copper cuckoo? Has anyone seen this before?

Thanks!

 

[Illia]

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I just posted a similar topic on my own cockerel. Yours looks mossy as well, although on a far more drastic degree. Look back a couple posts and you'll find some feedback.

 

[kathyinmo]

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Show us a picture .... many here are good at sexing.

 

[drom]

Quote:
Those are 5 week olds? Wow are mine underdeveloped?

My Marans are 4 and a half weeks old, and my bigger "mossy" boy is the only one starting to get copper on him, but otherwise the rest are still gawky looking, and still have their breast feathers just finishing on filling out. . .

Several people did comment on those birds last year

and how quickly they did grow. They were very fast growing, healthy birds. The mature roosters are fairly large now with nice confirmation. Those birds came from Donna Gerhke. Her birds have very nice confirmation and size. They aren't too large for the standard but they are a good size

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Those are 5 week olds? Wow are mine underdeveloped?

My Marans are 4 and a half weeks old, and my bigger "mossy" boy is the only one starting to get copper on him, but otherwise the rest are still gawky looking, and still have their breast feathers just finishing on filling out. . .

Several people did comment on those birds last year

and how quickly they did grow. They were very fast growing, healthy birds. The mature roosters are fairly large now with nice confirmation. Those birds came from Donna Gerhke. Her birds have very nice confirmation and size. They aren't too large for the standard but they are a good size

So its not just my birds? WHEW. I was worried, because my hatchery birds are so tiny and grew so abnormally slow and weird, and since I got these. . I've been SO impressed by the size of their parents and their own growth, but yours are just amazing.

For the eggs I'm hatching, I hear the Bev Davis ones grow really fast and big. . . I hope that is true.

Not abnormally fast, but a healthy fast.

 

[geebs]

Countrywife.... It is a pretty good clue that when they lay an egg they are females and when they crow they will usually be males!!

 

[geebs]

Really now... I have had Wade lines that were 6 months old before they grew hackle feathers... The Davis lines were quick and easy... Bev has done a spectacular job of bringing that line along.... So it depends... there that is the answer... ha ha .. feel better???

 

[Byrdj]

Quote:
Those are 5 week olds? Wow are mine underdeveloped?

My Marans are 4 and a half weeks old, and my bigger "mossy" boy is the only one starting to get copper on him, but otherwise the rest are still gawky looking, and still have their breast feathers just finishing on filling out. . .


Cottagegarden: Thanks for the info.

I guess we'll keep him then. He's probably my favorite of this small batch, but that mossy look was worrying me about what I should with him. So essentially he won't create dark layers, yes?

He may pass on dark egg genes but as Cottagegarden suggested, he would probably be best used to breed with a blue egg laying hen to produce some olive eggers. No need to perpetuate the mossiness problem in black coppers. I suppose if you never intended to sell any hatching eggs or chicks propagated by him, and didn't mind him having serious color flaws, you could keep him as a breeder. There's no guarantee that just because he's mossy, that he carries very dark egg genes though. Mossiness hasn't been proven to be always correlated to have dark egg genes, even though many people have seen it occur. With him being a male, there's no way to know for sure. (Well you could do side by side test matings but it would take generations to get your answer.)