Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[berkeleysprings]

Hi everyone. I hadn't posted in a while so I thought I'd bring up that the Wheatens I hatched back in December have hit the 20-week mark. If they were Australorps, I'd be asking them when I could expect those eggs to start coming Of the three pullets, there's probably only one I'll add to my breeder flock. The other two have some ruddy-tipped feathers in the breast instead of a nice, solid creamy color. It'll likely be off to the layer flock with them. I put all of my Wheaten hens and pullets together with a group of layers so they can catch a break from my males. Their feathers were looking a little ratty and I figured everyone would be benefit by being in a single-sex pen for a while. I'd like to hatch some more Wheatens towards early summer and this will give me plenty of time to make sure no one is harboring potential for accidental crosses to any of my other breeds. Hope y'all are doing well.

 

nice to herw from yo u . i normaly wait aroynd 3 weeks th clean the hens and also most od my hens take 7 ½ months to go frim egg to egg.
so far iv got 3 chicks from test breeding about 10 or 12 days old ( to young for mr to sex) and i noticed 3 OR 4 pips
from main flock batch. im goung to have to replace my 6 year old roo hes not doing the job . i could always blame fertility on the girl like a tipical guy but chances are ten hens are not the trouble lol lol...

 

[liz9910]

Hi, I have a couple of Wheaten Marans that I suspect are roos, these pictures are from when they were babies. Sorry the picture won't let me rotate it. Thank you.

 

[sharron]

hi, i'm not as good as most of the others on here but the two brown winged ones look like hens to me, are those the two you're talking about?

 

[cukooformarans]

Well I am no expert either, but I have to agree with Sharron. Those look like hens to me.

Sad news ... I had a cute little wheaten baby from Randy's eggs and a Momma hen raising it and a possum got to it.

I was sick to my stomach -very upset. We haven't had a problem with possums in years! And this one picked a terrible time to come in the yard!!

The bad thing is I was just seconds too late to save it. I interrupted the thing and it ran off, but not before it killed the babies. They had gone under the house instead of in it and I was just picking them up every night and putting them in the house and shutting the door...

 

[sharron]

so sorry, i know you're heart sick

Well I am no expert either, but I have to agree with Sharron. Those look like hens to me.

Sad news ... I had a cute little wheaten baby from Randy's eggs and a Momma hen raising it and a possum got to it.

I was sick to my stomach -very upset. We haven't had a problem with possums in years! And this one picked a terrible time to come in the yard!!

The bad thing is I was just seconds too late to save it. I interrupted the thing and it ran off, but not before it killed the babies. They had gone under the house instead of in it and I was just picking them up every night and putting them in the house and shutting the door...

 

[liz9910]

Yes the two chicks with brown wings, I will get a recent pic for better reference. Thank you.

 

[qball53]

I thought I understood the blue color genetics but maybe not. We had Blue Wheaten Ameracaunas and of course breeding those gave us blue/black/splash. That is we got wheaten, blue wheaten and splash wheaten ameracaunas. At different times we had a wheaten roo or a blue wheaten roo over the birds. I just heard in the wind we may have been doing that wrong. Sorry, but I don't understand how that is wrong. If we have blue wheaten chickens and breed them to a blue wheaten rooster we are going to get 50% blue wheaten birds, 25% splash wheaten birds and 25% wheaten birds. Is that not correct?

I ask because we are getting some Wheaten Marans eggs soon. It is really the Blue Wheaten Marans we are interested in but we were having trouble locating them. We just won an auction for a juvenial pair of Blue Wheaten Marans. At any rate someone said don't mix the two. I don't understand because if I breed BW to BW I am going to get 25% W. If there is some good reason to keep the BW out of the W please explain it to me. I believe the Wheaten derived from the Blue Wheaten X Blue Wheaten is the same as any other Wheaten. If someone has an explanation of how a Wheaten flock is any less Wheaten with the addition of a Blue Wheaten Rooster, please help me understand. Thanks Mike

 

[berkeleysprings]

I've made an observation. that after about 25 days wheaten chicks legs start to change color from yellow tro pinkish white

 

[Debbi]

I've made an observation. that after about 25 days wheaten chicks legs start to change color from yellow tro pinkish white

Hi ya, Randy!

Was that observation from both of your flocks, or the test flock? Give me to the middle of this month, and I would like to try again! Did you ever have any of your roos not develop cinnamon feathers in their wings until much later with age??

 

[berkeleysprings]

from my test birds . yes il send more just let me know i only got 5 out of 24 from main flock and old rooster so u plan to switch old roo
for the newer one i test hatched . leg color seems good. although he has a white feather in wing and dousnt show till he flaps his wings . bur one problem at a time. and my roos alys have wing triangle early. take care deb pllease tell me whan u want more eggs