Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[jeremy]

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Randy, you have some very nice birds.

 

[cukooformarans]

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It's likely you can tell. Post some pics!

 

[berkeleysprings]

thanks , i cant seem to get all of them together for a group photo except the 4 roosters !

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Randy, you have some very nice birds.

 

[berkeleysprings]

always nice to see chick picks so please post , also by 2 weeks you can tell the sex but for me and from what ive seen its hard befor that time ,,, it seems to me they all start out with dark feathers whan they first start to grow than by day 12 to 14 its easier to tell, ive noticed the hen chicks are more rounded wings and white
and yes weatens are my favorite and the only breed i ever worked with they look the coolest and lay large eggs and do go broody and raise there own wich is nice
please dont get me wrong i dont want to sound like a know it all many here know way more than me i am about on my 5th year and i only learn form what i see in my small flock or 14 hens and 7 roo


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[scoopy82]

Here they are

You can see the difference in the wing colour

 

[berkeleysprings]

yes the two up front are hens in last picture

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[scoopy82]

Just another question regarding Marans - well any chicken really - which side of the parents does the egg colour come from? Logic tells me that it would have to come from the mother being the egg layer but chickens can be tricky and thought it would be best to ask even if i do look silly. I'm just wondering because if i use a maran rooster as the male in a black sexlink breeding, over a plymouth rock hen, is there any chance the eggs of the resulting hens will come out dark? anyone know?

 

[sharron]

i don't know for sure but one of my bcm hens got over into the coro sussex's pen, i set some of her eggs and got half breeds, the hens were black with white feathers in the check, and when they started laying, laid dark eggs, not as dark as pure i was told (gave them to a friend for eggs) but really dark.
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[berkeleysprings]

i think its 50-50 i was always told "you can tell if a hen carries thedark egg gene" but the outher 50 percent of dark egg gene
that rooster carries .its impossable to know unless you see tje egg the rooster came from. and to increse egg color breed darkest egg laying daughters back to origonal rooster for several generations
this is only what i think and was told by outhers sp its not wrighten in stone

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[flgardengirl]

With the BCMs it seems to come from both parents so probably the same for all chickens. I've been keeping track of my roos that came from very dark eggs for awhile now and breeding them to my darkest laying hens. Most of the pullets from these crossings are laying dark. Seems to be working.


IF you cross a blue egged chicken with a brown egged chicken you usually get pullets who lay green eggs so the gene must come from usually come both parents. I don't think its 100% though because every once in a while I get a brown egg layer from those matings. I'm not sure if its because I've been using super dark brown egg gened roosters with the blue egg laying hens or not but a few of my hens will have pea combs and lay olive eggs so dark they look almost brown.