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I was being a little flip when I said "for some reason I can't stew him". Actually, there are lots of reasons. One is that another male altogether might be a better option, but he might not be, either.
1. Marans are about egg color first. Since I got a roo with a side sprig out of my original hatch, I can already assume side sprigs are in my birds, and I will be dealing with them for a long time. However, I took the eggs from the hens I hatched out, and entered them in two egg shows. And got Grand Champion in each one I entered! I was totally amazed and thrilled. So the egg color is there. If I have to work on type (secondary to egg color) for a looooong time, I'm o.k. with that.
2. I have read that it is easy for a new breeder to lose egg color over time. For this reason I want to keep each and every one of the original 2 roos and 4 hens I hatched out until they keel over from old age, so I can retrace my steps if needed. But there are no guarantees that one roo won't die, so Mr. Side Sprig is a back up.
3. I'm starting with what I have. I feel privileged to have birds from this breeder. I don't want to cross lines. Therefore, each bird is valuable to me.
4. I didn't start out in Marans because of the Marans craze. I wanted a dual purpose bird that would make a good roaster as well as lay nice big dark eggs that would attract egg customers. I actually got interested in them because of the utility aspects. I can enjoy the utility aspects while working on the sprigs..
That all makes perfect sense to me. I would have a very tough time getting rid of that rooster; he's lovely. It's a hard decision. And, people do seem to rush to assumptions about what other people's goals are with regard to breeding Marans.
I think perhaps the important thing is proper disclosure if you sell stock specifically for breeding to other people. And proper communication to understand what their goals are. This is always an issue with breeding and raising any animals. Breeders really have to walk a fine line between disclosure and protecting themselves. You have the naive, inexperienced people who buy stock from you that have unrealistic expectations and believe breeding and raising animals is easy.
Then you have the insincere breeder-peers who pretend that problems only exist in other people's lines and breeding programs-not theirs of course.
I've bred and raised animals of different species for almost 20 years, spent a fair amount of time in the show ring and at breed inspections, in breed clubs and working with judges and I don't sell any of my stock to anyone. And my hat is off to the conscientious and experienced breeders who do. They have to put up with such a ridiculous ration of crap from inexperienced and insincere people.
