Question about Marans genetics. Serious issue with pics.

[blackdotte]

If you are not a knowledgeable or experienced breeder I can understand your concern.
However white juvenile feathers are normal in all black E & ER based breeds, in 99.999% of the time they will not be a problem. Marans are a slow developing breed, except for obvious structural defects I would not even consider culling until they are at least 8-10 months old.
Blackdotte

 

[organicfoltzfamilyfarm]

I went and looked them over last night and the Cock has a lot of copper feathering on the wings. Should this go away?? I can take better pictures if I can find better lighting. I have to go to my daughters "B-day" visit at the hospital so I'll be there ALLLLL DAYY. So It might be later this evening.

Thank you guys for being so patient and understanding with me.

As I said before you have to start somewhere.

 

[organicfoltzfamilyfarm]

Quote:
HEHEH I agree. But If that's what I need to do then that's just what's going to happen.

 

[TurkeyMountainChickens]

Hmmm.... I've had white on the first few flight feathers, but never as much as in the pics by the OP. There seems to be white growing in on the second feathers, too. I'm surprised to hear that you all find this common. I suppose each line is a bit different!

I've seen people say that the copper on wing feathers goes away - but in my personal experience (which is much more limited than someone like drom who hatches WAY more birds than I do), it leads to mossy birds.

I hope that these birds to outgrow the white, and turn out to be nice birds. You'll want to pick up another set of eggs anyhow, though, given that you have only three!

 

[organicfoltzfamilyfarm]

I'll be looking for a reputable breeder in the Spring. So if anyone is interested in selling me some hatching eggs send me a PM.

I will pay a bit o cash if you have A LOT of pictures of your birds, chicks, and eggs.

Also some references would be nice.

 

[Ryu]

We got BC Marans from 4 different sources, and all hatches had at least some chicks with white--and Wheaton popped up as well. We've have one roo develop white at the base of his tail and on his leg feathers at about 2 years old. With a 'new' breed like this you're going to have to hatch some good numbers and cull hard.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Both my girls had white wing tips. They are now 6 months old and there's not a shred of white on either of them. I had a cockeral with white wing tips too, but I gave him to a new home at 7 weeks.

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
Birds carry around a gene called recessive white, when two birds that carry the recessive white gene ( are not white) cross there is a one in four chance of the offspring being white.

Tim

 

[drom]

Quote:
Hi Turkeymountain,
I haven't really hatched large numbers of birds. I am in my 3rd generation of BCMs. My experience with red spotting on the breast of the cockerels is that some of mine have grown up and the red spotting is much less than what it was when they were immature. The brown on the wings is a different story.

I started with out with stock that came from a very good reliable dark egg laying line and in the first gen I had roosters with nice confirmation but some feather color faults. My pullets were more correct. I bred those birds and hatched only their darkest eggs.

I just hatched out my 3rd generation this spring and I got some birds that aren't correct but I also got some very nice birds. I got 3 beautiful Roosters who have very correct markings and are looking like they'll probably end up with good confirmation and tail set as well-but the confirmation is slower to develop. I think I might have two show quality pullets.

So, organicfoltzfamilyfarm, you can start out with imperfect birds and work on producing something better and learn a lot in the process. I read about the breed variety and made some decisions about what I thought I could work with. For me feather color faults were something I could work with because the genetics of feather color in poultry are very well known/documented and there are a plethora of resources for inexperienced people to reference, but Confirmation? Not as much. Egg color? Almost zero.

But there are people who would rather work with very correct looking birds who lay lighter eggs and work on improving egg color in each generation. So, everyone has their own opinions about what they can tolerate, no one, however, has perfect birds.

I agree with Turkeymountain, you need to hatch a few more so you have some choices to work with!

 

[drom]

Quote:
Birds carry around a gene called recessive white, when two birds that carry the recessive white gene ( are not white) cross there is a one in four chance of the offspring being white.

Tim

Hello Tim,
So because the Marans white variety is recessive white, would that little guy produce white Marans if he were bred to another white Marans? Would he breed true?