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

[berkeleysprings]

something about the leg color on parrent stock roo but im not sure but it could be the picture or my moniter or my age lol .... any way ,,,, they are all around nice looking birds

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[berkeleysprings]

i have noticed that in the 2 lines i have of wheaten marans the same thing , funny blood spots and things in the eggs . what it is . sometimes small pices of the track (the lineing the egg fallows )can scrape off , bleed and stuff and a egg shell forms around ... or thats what someone told me and i hacve noticed it in only my marans not the plymouth rocks i have or the EE ,or silkie ... i think its partly stress and new layers

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[haTHOR]

yes, i see the dark gray legs on one roo that i also see on one of my chicks. the other roo (who was the alpha) does seem to have light legs so there is hope. i need to look at the guidelines for colors but that gray doesn't seem ideal. dark brown eggs are my primary goal, but i may not hatch any of that bird's eggs (if a pullet) unless they are exceptionally dark.

to answer the previous ?, i only have the babies...i took the pics of the parent stock just to get y'alls thoughts to helm inform my decisions as i go on from here.

i thank you greatly for the feedback!

 

[geebs]

The lighter leg with the pink is preferred (the word they used is prized) by the french as it tells about the overall color balance.. Also they look at the eyes, something that seems to be overlooked here and the ear coverts... The combination of these factors can give BIG clues as to what the chicken is capable of... so experts say. When we are looking to maintain egg color it important to understand what the outside of the bird tells about it's ability to reproduce itself. This is my understanding from talking with experts.. Please correct me if I am wrong here... There is a model for breeding you chickens also.. I would watch for the nice woman to sell her older stock next season and pick up a rooster from her to breed to your hens that you will have. This is a good example of a proper breeding practice for maintaining dark egg... I would also work the matriarchal line as well. There are models to be found about what the "best practice" is.

 

[haTHOR]

this is great information..thank you! i will see about buying that better roo when she is ready to part with him. i have a feeling she and i will become buddies (if me being a repeat customer makes us buddies).

 

[geebs]

Okay... I am still lost... do you have the roos from her and babies?????

 

[cpartist]

I'm finding it interesting that there is so much focus on light legs (not just in the last few pages,
but it seems to crop up often in regards to desired traits) as I thought I'd heard that grey was
permissible, some sources say desired (shows the lack of Wheaten gene?) so I looked up the
proposed standard.

http://maransofamericaclub.com/Black-Copper.php

On the right side of this page they have the APA Submitted Standard in red, the SCAF -French Standard
in blue.

According to this, the APA standard is:
Leg or Tarsi: Dark slate , bottom of feet pinkish white.

and the French Standard is:
Light pinkish light gray exceeding down to pinkish white feet and under pads. Dark gray permitted but not preferred.

So it seems to me that the darker legs are either preferred or at least acceptable, depending on which standard you are breeding to.

I'm curious as to the comments on leg color, when no one has mentioned the chick's (with the green, but probably grey legs) feathering on the middle toes. I can't remember if this
is a DQ, defect, or something undesirable to work to breed out, but I would think more undesirable than darker legs.

The French Standard speaks only of sparse feathering on the outer leg and toe.

haTHOR, since you asked for comments on parent stock, here are mine:
(and take these with a huge grain of salt as I'm relatively new to Marans. My only real qualifications to comment are that I have studied the standards and
looked at many photos in attempt to build my own flock. I'm also an artist who notices a lot of detail).

Overall, I think these will give you a good, better than average, start. The coloring of the roo's, especially the hackles is very nice. They have that desired
true copper color with no brassiness or straw coloring that is so frequent. Tails may need some work, it's always hard to judge tails from photos as the stance or wind can
affect them. You should be looking for, according to standard:

Strong at its base, Tail angle 60 degrees before any points to be taken off. Fairly up without going over the 45 degree angle. Disqualification at 60 degrees.

The parents of yours appear have a tight base, but you'll want to select roo's with the least upright tails.

Look for nice combs. The standard re: combs is:
Comb : simple, of an average size, with a fairly rough texture. Sharp edges. The lobe not touching the nape

One of the roos pictured looks to have a comb that runs down, rather than out, you'll want to watch for this.

Some of the hens seem to lack coppering, but one looks to have very good coloring. My advice to you would be to choose your best roo and one or two
of the best colored, feathered hens together, save their eggs for 2 weeks (I've done this and had 100% hatch) and save the best of the hatch to breed
back to the parents.

All this, and breed for egg color as well

.

It's the challenge and journey that is exciting for me. Of all the chicks I hatched from a two breeders with beautiful stock, I'm breeding just 2 hens to 1 roo.
But out of those 2 hens, I can and have hatched over a dozen chicks at a time, from which I can be even more selective towards breeding a flock of BCM's
that conform to standards and lay a really dark egg

.

 

[geebs]

The light leg color with the pink in the scales as resolution pointed out 1/2 this thread ago is the optimum choice. It is what the French call for...I don't know why everyone is liking the dark blue and grey legs as they tell about the black/red balance in the bird...One has to pay attention to the whole specimen in front of them to get a feel for the balance of color the bird is showing....The eyes cannot be overlooked in this either. The French are very clear on this... Conformation is less of a "BIG DEAL" because you have to get the color right because it is said to drive the dark egg gene... This is just my understanding. They accept 25 percent red in the chest because it may be needed to get the optimal color balance.... Orange/bay eyes, light tarsels, and very specific about copper versus mahogany... Any straw colored hackles but be culled...(I wonder if that speaks of the wheaton?)

Since color balance drives the egg color.... then it has to be stated that the most important thing is to get the colors right....Conformation and such can be corrected by the females... Get the rooster as close to the model as you can and work from there. Count comb points at a later date

About the green... probably the monitor...

 

[cpartist]

Geebs, you have such good insight into the finer points of Marans breeding.
This link I believe directly translated from the French also speaks to achieving color balance
in the male and female:

http://www.heavensentranch.com/maransclubdefrancestanda.htm

In regard to leg color, if someone is raising these to show, and are judged by the proposed APA standard:

Leg or Tarsi: Dark slate , bottom of feet pinkish white.

should one's breeding program be adjusted for this?

I've raised some cockerels with light legs and some with more grey, the greyed legs still had the red scales
Resolution spoke about (I checked them out after reading that post)

.

It is not my intent to ever show, but many on this board may.

I'm doubting many judges will be versed in the complexities regarding color balance.

It seems confusing that we are breeding to the French Standard, but we aren't quite.

 

[pinkchick]

See and I breed for the slate legs because I don't care for the lighter or white/pink legs. I get the white/pink legged babies and it's only the splash babies that pop up with them and not very often. I either get dark slate, light slate or on the occas. white/pink, but I do watch the reticulate scales as Resolution discussed. Out of a batch of Marans that I hatched out in Dec. I kept only the birds with the darkest reticulate scales with out giving any concern to color balance in the feather and by that I mean that I kept some pullets that are not showing any signs of copper and are now 5.5 months old and should be laying any day. I also kept one Black Copper roo from that hatch with the darkest reticulates. I am intrigued by the reticulate scales comment by Resolution and thought that it would be fun to do my own little experiement to see if infact this holds true. Maybe.....maybe not!