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

[geebs]

Okay Bravo This is one person's opinion.. take it as you will. I see a really nicely colored bird with good eye color. The copper is a little lighter than what I like but seems to be a good balance. I see good feathering on the leg, however if it is only to the outside toe that is best. His length of back is good.. To better him I would try to keep the next offspring from him that doesn't have such a long tail. The white in the feathers would only bother me if they didn't molt out... I am looking again and will probably amend or take away.... It is hard to say and type w/o seeing the pic while I type. Nice bird overall. I would use it.

See I knew I would amend it... Nothing wrong with tail at all. I really like the overall sillouette of the bird and am particularly anamoured with the legs... Good color and good eye color.. that says alot about what he can produce... Nice work!!! It will be great to see how he fills out.. You have an exceptional bird there...

Now you can get picky and count comb points... I think he has that nailed down too... I hope you kept the egg he hatched from... I would bet it was a nice dark one... He has the proper balance of color.

 

[Bravo]

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Thanks Geebs! I appreciate you taking the time.

He has one tail feather that has black and white on it--its the strangest thing and its all I can do to resist plucking it LOL. Luckily he isnt related to those other chicks I had that had white flecking all over if you remember from a few months ago. His breast is a very solid black.

He does have A LOT of leg feathering but I've noticed that as he got older its been gradually thinning, a few months ago his legs looked like feather dusters. I hope his legs keep turning toward the pink side. I dont think they will ever be completely pink so time will tell.

To be honest, I bought this guy off of eBay as test eggs. He hatched from a #8 egg but as I read more about the seller's less than desirable reputation I automatically wrote him off as a clunker. He only stayed around because he was a nice little guy who befriended the cat lol. Guess I'm happy for that friendship! ;-)

This was him at 6-7 weeks old

 

[geebs]

Hear that YA ALL??? Don't throw them out until they show some obvious culling faults... Right Bravo? This is a great example of the breed.. I will keep watching to see if he throws wheaton... The tendancy for the lighter coppering is said to throw that trait.. Keep us posted for a learning experience... Can you PM me the seller??? Sometimes you breed one cockerel for hens and one for roos and depending on what he was working on.... A person could get some really good roos and some really good hens.. Most ppl don't know enought to run 3 pens.... one for the female and one for the males and one for the offspring of the good choices..

You will likely need to choose hens on the very correct side of thing and not be able to use too light of hens or too dark of hens.. So keep that in mind... Not to say throw out the others as you may end up with a complimentary roo.

Like I said don't worry about the tail feather... that is the way they color out sometimes... from the shaft to the web. Likely he will molt it and have proper coloring in his next set of feathers... If you find he has too many white and you have a BETTER roo than you would make a choice. The leg color is likely to stay that way.. That is what you are after.. The lighter shank is "prized" by the french and the red riticulated scales are a good sign of a dark gene... This is what I understand to be true as told to me by the experts....So with that... breed away!!! Lets see the hens now.

 

[Bravo]

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Thanks again Geebs. I'm really excited to see what he will produce. One of his hatchmates just started laying so I am going to switch up pens and only keep him with the girls. I cant wait to do some test hatches in the next few months

And you know me geebs! I have his whole egg and put a piece of the shell on a 3x5 card with all of his info (thanks to your genius!)

To give the seller credit publicly it was Thom Dean.

I'll get some good photos of the girls in the next few days

 

[geebs]

Thom Dean...That is what I thought... He has some really aweful offspring here.... It happens when you are trying to produce good hens... The cockerels can turn out attrocious... I remember several ppl I know getting aweful looking males. I know how they are produced and they probably got pretty good females from the same hatch!!! Good show mate!!!

 

[Bravo]

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I know!! I saw some photos and was like OMG he's gonna be a clunker LOL

I was really lucky, the 3 that hatched (2 pullets and 1 cockerel) all turned out pretty nice. The truth will be told in their offspring ;-)

 

[geebs]

You can take some pretty ugly birds and make nice offspring out of them or you can take some nice birds and really bone it!!! It just depends on what you are shooting for.. If I was going to make a guess... I would say the Cockerel mess was him using a too red roo over too black of hens and the product of that is well.. what we seen... The hens however will come out beautiful. It is a try it and find out... It may be a slightly too red roo with slightly too red in the female too... A small degree can really wreak havoc on the flock that is why the french say... cull without the slightest hesitation... What a waste of 5 months if you were wanting a good roo!! ha ha..

P.S. You should see my cockerels from this year hen batch... ICK!!! But the hens... Off the hook!... I posted one a few pages back.. SWEEET offspring.. I am soooo proud... Now for the roosters.. he he.. that is going to be my winter project.. producing a proper mate for these lovely girls.... I have several suitors that should do the trick.. I hope.

 

[kathyinmo]

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You got a #8 egg? WOW ! What was the, "test eggs," meaning? Is he revamping his breeding?

 

[flgardengirl]

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I really like Gnarles coloring. He is beautiful. Okay, how did he get that name, he's so pretty, LOL!
Out of 5 blue copper roos, I have 2 that turned out to have pretty good coloring. One is that super dark blue/black colored roo, Achilles, that finally coppered up on his saddle feathers and the other one Zeus (aka Whistle) whose straw color toned way down and has pretty good coloring now. I have one named Aries with beautiful blue lacing on his blue feathers and copper neck but didn't get enough coppering on his back but... I might use him to get more lacing into the offspring at some point so I will keep him.
I have 7 blue copper babies that I hatched out. Some are Zeus' babies and some are from my best black copper roox blue copper mom. So hopefully they will have improved coloring.

 

[pinkchick]

flgarden~ Thanks! Gnarles Barkley is his full name, I love that song of his, not sure of the name of it but he sings about being crazy......well Gnarles...he makes me crazy! He is very inquisitive and underfoot...I find myself singing that song whenever I'm around him. lol. I have found that I must grow out several blue copper roos from each batch looking for one that may be close to what I'm looking for. I would love to see your boys, do you have photos to share?