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

[geebs]

If you get rid of the husband...

You can keep both... and everyone knows that chickens eat less, complain less.... are happy to see you and make you breakfast in the morning... They never forget to wake you either... You really need to travel with a spare but I guess you will find that out later... If I had to choose one... hmmmm... I WOULD STILL NEED TO SEE PICTURES OF THE GIRLS.

 

[geebs]

Man... Kathinmo... you musta thought my roos was a walking fault!!! He is very copper P.S. nothing has hatched... yet... today is supposed to be the day but who knows.. they arrived in rather rough shape.

 

[kathyinmo]

Heck, what do I know!

I just love that dark dark copper!

I have to take some baby pictures from my Marans hatch, when I get home from work. I never thought I would do this, but here I go, starting all over again!

 

[geebs]

The dark red (magenta, mahogany, red or whatever)... Is to be in the shoulder color... You do want to have the Copper be Copper as the name states... Black Copper... The mahogany is pretty but it carries too much melanizer (black) and covers the copper up... This is shown in too dark eyes and dark leg color... The balance is why the French are so specific... Because the color balance is all related.... Get pretty red and black birds but for the "proper" balance... Copper has to be part of the scenario if you are attempting to match a standard.

 

[geebs]

Quite honesty if they were my birds.... I would keep both... You can make some real nice females with the dark bird and some nice males with the other... and I would breed my female back to the copper ones that I hatched from the too black ones.

 

[crazy4eggsJulie]

Quote:
The thing is, there are more things to consider. So you have a picture of them standing upright? What is the tail set angle? How about the eye color? Even the comb ... how is that? How is the coloring on the breast? Ya know what I mean?

I agree, it is hard to make choices like this. I like what geebs says, it is always good to have a spare (just in case!)...

Eyes and breast are almost identical. The tail of the really dark copper color hasn't come in. It's on its way though! He has been the slowest to develop on everything. If I understand the comb thing correctly, he is one point too short.

I DO wish I could keep them both!

 

[littledel]

Quote:
If I can ever figure out how to do pics on here, I will send some. Just need to figure it out.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I have a quick question: What color are the eyes supposed to be on a BCM?? Some of mine have black eyes, and some have like an amber/golden colored eye. Not sure which are 'right'. Thanks

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
Cock : Black-breasted red, with parsimonious red spotting on the breast. Having a black wing triangle. The red markings are not to be yellow or mahogany. Copper colored lancets in the neck hackle & the back. Deep red shoulders.

Hen : Black with red hackle markings but without the typical Birchen breast lacing. Very slight red breast marking is acceptable. Green sheen is not required.

General Appearance:
Cock:
Body : strong, fairly long and wide especially near the shoulders which are held high.

Neck : long, fairly strong, tending to curve in on top towards the skull; the hackles are made of many long and abundant feathers covering the shoulders well

Back : long, flat, slightly concave towards the rear

Saddle : large, slightly raised but not rounded, covered with many lancets

Breast : strong and large

Abdomen : well developed

Wings : short , kept close to the body

Tail : strong at its base, quite short, fairly up without going over 45 °

Head : average size, slightly flat and long

Comb : simple, of an average size, with a fairly rough texture. Sharp edges. The lobe not touching the nape

Wattles : average size, red with a fine texture

Ear-lobes : average size, red and long

Face : red colored with or without down

Eyes : bright, with a orangey-red iris

Beak : Quite strong, slightly hooked and horn-colored

Shanks :big, without vulture hocks

Tarsi : average size, with some feathers white or lightly pink colored for all the varieties except for the BLACK, BROWN-RED and BIRCHEN Marans were gray or dark gray is permitted, although not preferred, for both sexes. Four long and well separated toes with the outer one sparsely feathered. The claws are white or horn- colored.

Hen:
Smaller than the cock, with a large, strong and more rounded body, a straighter back line, a well developed abdomen , and a fine comb, straight or inclined only in the rear part.

Serious defaults on the Black Copper/ Brown Red Marans Variety:

Cock : brown wing bay; any other color than black on the flights; straw- colored hackles.
Hen : brown spots on the body.

 

[drom]

Quote:
I totally agree. The lighter bird is more correct than the darker one. But, if the dark one is still young, his shoulders and saddle feathers may come in more colorful. Right now, he is less correct than the other one.

He may be nice to have around to maintain a certain balance of color. And if his eyes aren't black, I would keep a bird like that in my flock.

But, I mentioned recently when I look at the standard, it seems to me it calls for the roosters to have 3 colors. The saddles feathers are copper colored, not black, and the shoulders should be as solid red as possible without too many black spots mixed in. (when they reach maturity)

I have read on one of the forums that the French definition of "copper" color is darker than we might think of it; a little more red perhaps, but it is not a dark mahogany color.