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

[pinkchick]

Hi Wynette! Thanks, how are you? I have been very busy working out of town, you know get home just in time to do chores with 15 minutes of daylight left, skip dinner because your too tired and you go straight to bed so that you can do it all over again a very short 6 hours later. The part I love the most is the 3.5 hours of drive time......not! Atleast my DHubby offered to drive home today so I could get my BYC fix on.

ok, off my soapbox now and back to Marans. Debbi~ Can you post another photo of the little chick that is in the top upper left of your photo....its the lightest colored one you have pictured.

 

[Debbi]

Wynette and Pink,

Man I sure hope they're BCMs! All of them have feathered shanks, the one in the front of the pic is very sparse, but the rest are pretty thick for 2 days old. Let me go see if I can get a better pick of the light one. I was thinking she was pretty lightly colored myself, but not knowing much about the breed, I don't have much to go by.

Debbi

 

[Debbi]

Here are a couple of pics of the light one. Let me know if there is something in particular you want to see. Every time I try to take a pic, she sits down! She has very feathered shanks for this age, and came from around a 6 colored egg. Do you think she could be another color, or worse yet, breed??

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Debbi~

I don't think that this little baby is pure Marans.

The coloring and the pattern of the coloring is nothing I have seen before. Are the legs that color all over without any dark on them like the others?

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Congratulations on your first egg! Yep they will get bigger give her about a month. You may be waiting a little longer on the Ameraucana egg, sometimes they can take their sweet time. Good luck with your hatch.

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
It was so hard to decide on the eggs and than to hatch them, I hope that these are hens.

We can only keep one rooster in Los Angeles. I live in a residential neighborhood. My next door neighbor just got chickens too including one male who was crowing non stop. He already got rid of him. Due to my daughter's daily urging, I'm going to try to keep one rooster. I'm just not sure how long to wait since they fight so much. Only one has all its feathers. My coop and run are full of black feathers and they keep charging each other and then bending low and giving each other the stink eye. I'm pretty sure one of my new Ameracauna chicks and one of the blue marans are males. The wait is painful.

I thought these were males since the 4th "female" bird has such a smaller and yellower comb but the "males" do look like your hens. Their feathers have a blue green sheen that the "female" doesn't and two have two tail feathers that are coming in green/blue....

How old is your Blue Marans that you are questioning?

 

[Debbi]

Pink,

No, her legs have a dark stripe going down them, and the shanks are feathered. For some reason this morning, she looks darker to me. I know this breeder has different colors of Marans; Blue, Blue Copper, Black, Blue Splash, and Wheatons. Could it be one of the eggs from another color got into the mix? Also, a question. Can you ever tell a cockeral from the pullets when they are this young? The really dark one has had a distinct comb since birth, while the others have a barely visable one. He is also a lot bigger, although they are all getting bigger already. He was having trouble walking for the first day and a half, due to his size. I checked his legs and toes, but all seemed normal. As of last night, he is up and running with the rest of them! They all seem to be thriving, running, eating, and drinking well, so that makes me happy. I guess we'll see what she turns out to be when they get a little older. Conformation wise, she looks like the rest of them as far as I can tell at this point.

Debbi

 

[pinkchick]

Debbi~

Maybe it is just me or my monitor so I will retract statement and hold off on judgement.....but something just doesn't look right to me.

I wouldn't expect a chick like this from any of those crosses. I know I am asking alot here but is it possible to get a photo of this baby under different light than the brooder light? Maybe I'm just not seeing her in the right light. Does her little under fluff appear blue to you?

Sometimes you can make a guess at this age by feather growth but it is just a guess. My females feather out faster than my males, I can usually tell by about 3-4 days just by looking at wing feathers and tail feathers.....but this is not an exact science it just helps me. I mark who I think the roos are and then watch them, by about 10-14 days I know for sure and am usually spot on. Only had about 6 little sneakers that called my bluff. Little stinkers!

 

[Debbi]

Pink,

It's just me here, and I don't feel confident enough to hold the chick and try to take a pic without it squirming out of my hand. I don't see anything about her that looks blue, she is a creamy-white and black. I just went and looked at the others, and the two that were born on the 30th are already starting to get wing feathers. The big dark one's still look like pins, but the large female? has distinct looking feathers, or at least look more developed as feathers. All of the eggs were large and one bordering on a jumbo, and then one looked like a "pullet bullet". Neither the bullet nor the jumbo hatched. This one came out of a rather large egg for the size she came out, and she popped out like she was shot out of it! LOL. I'd hate to even ask the breeder if these were mixes, as I don't want to offend, but if they don't start looking like Marans in the next week or so, I surely will! Supposedly, these came from, and I'm quoting his text, "Davis, Jeane, and some imported lines". Don't know how far back he's talking, especially about the "imported" stuff. Sure hope I didn't get stiffed on my very first purchase and hatch! Either way, I should at least have a pullet or two, or three and get some eggs. If they turn out not to be Marans, they sure won't be used for hatching eggs. May just go ahead and do another hatch...with eggs from somewhere else to see the difference!

Debbi

 

[pinkchick]

Debbi~

Don't give up hope....maybe it is just me. I'll try to describe what I see that makes me wonder........first notice how much more white or creamy color this chick has on its head and around the face compared to the others. Second, see how the black or darker color fades out higher up on the chick verses the others, those are the two things that make me wonder. Again don't give up hope as that was not my intention. Give them more time. They are adorable babies by the way!