Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[Runawaylobster]

Pullet or Cockerel? About 3 months old. Also- wheaten maran or mixed bag?

This girl looks like she has caramel leg feathering, this is interesting to me because i purchased a batch of 10 wheatens and 10 black tailed buffs that got mixed up at chickhood, and i had to use the leg feather coloring to separate them when they grew older... the caramel leg feathers were the black tailed buffs and the white leg feathers were the wheatens. The wheaten girls left over after the separation looked like Randy's, and the black tailed buffs were more uniform and much darker in color than the girl in the pic. There were some inbetweens that were eventually classified as black tailed buff sports and got sent off the the layer pen where they are laying some lovely eggs.

BTW the boys were easy to tell apart.. it was the girls that caused difficulty.


This girl looks like a light colored black tailed buff to me.. Gee i never realized how confusing this can get

maybe she is a palomino LOL!!! Either way she is very pretty!!!

 

[Bangarang64]

She's pretty, but I'm almost sure that's not a Wheaten Marans.

 

[ladyrsanti]

Just wanted to share my wheaten marans again now that they are a little older. I kept three. The roo and two girls. They aren't perfect, far from it, but it's the chocolate eggs I'm after - NOT BREEDING - But the one on the right with the better feathering has green feet and the one on the left with the darker feathering has the yellowish-pinkish feet. They are 12 weeks old now. If I do any breeding with the roo, it will be over my easter eggers or maybe just mutts for replacement layers for next year.

 

[knjinnm]

Just wanted to share my wheaten marans again now that they are a little older. I kept three. The roo and two girls. They aren't perfect, far from it, but it's the chocolate eggs I'm after - NOT BREEDING - But the one on the right with the better feathering has green feet and the one on the left with the darker feathering has the yellowish-pinkish feet. They are 12 weeks old now. If I do any breeding with the roo, it will be over my easter eggers or maybe just mutts for replacement layers for next year.

Hi, Based on earlier postings your hens, because of leg coloring, are carrying some non Marans blood. What color are the roo's legs and are his shanks feathered?
Joe

 

[ladyrsanti]

Yeah, the roo's probably the best one in terms of feathering and leg color.

 

[wlhtx]

Hi everybody,

I lurk on this thread from time to time, and I was wondering if you would assist me in confirming what I fear to be true...

I purchased five wheaten marans chicks (straight run) from a local breeder. So far, four of the five are undeniably roos. This one, however, I have been convinced from early on is a girl (thus the pink legband) - at least until I really re-looked at her yesterday. (Funny how you get a thought in your head, and then just don't rethink it until you are practically smacked in the face with the alternative...)

At two-three weeks old, he/she was very lightly feathered. He/she also feathered in much faster than the others - wing feathers, tail feathers, etc.



At one month old, compared to his/her exact same age best buddy. Again, his comb was already growing in and gaining color, while he/she remained much lighter in color (see her lighter brown - yes, with some speckles of black mixed in - compared to his much darker and more black coloring):



He/she has always had a larger comb than my blue marans pullets - but it's never been super red in color, and since this is my first foray into wheatens I thought maybe the girls just happened to have taller combs...?... Well, in looking at him/her yesterday (she JUST turned three months old), I realized that her neck feathers look suspiciously rooster-ish, and he/she has - what?! - saddle feathers... (BTW it was crazy hot here yesterday, so please forgive the panting expression.) Okay someone - confirm my fears - which is that I literally got a five out of five batch of lovely wheaten marans ROOSTERS...

 

[AZBootsie]

How old were they when you got them?? I can't remember exactly when.....but really young you can pick out the boys. Maybe 5 days?? They get dark feathers on the wings when still real tiny. If you search back through this thread there are pics somewhere. Any chance he sold you roos on purpose??

 

[AZBootsie]

OK, I looked through some old WM chick pictures and I was wrong.....can't tell at 5 days. Here is an old pic of some 2 week old chicks and you can tell by that age. Darker is the boy (little split wing fellow)....lighter is the pullet.

Sorry image is so big.....have been away for awhile and forgot how to do this stuff.

 

[wlhtx]

I bought them as one day olds. (They have their hatches scheduled for every weekend, and I picked them up on Easter Sunday.)

Mainly from reading this thread, I knew that wheatens are supposedly easily sexed at a couple weeks old depending on whether there is more or less black on the wing feathers (as well as quickness of feathering out, etc.). That's why I am stumped! As a baby, this one really fit all the descriptions of a little pullet... If I hadn't banded them so early, I would have thought that someone switched chickens on me. I guess it just goes to show that you really can't know for sure until they mature. Dang it.

I would be surprised if the breeder deliberately sold all roos. I'm leaning towards it just being a really BAD luck of the draw. But, then again, I'm an optimist.

The good news is that I now have five specimens to choose from to determine which one gets to be the patriarch of my new wheaten flock (once I track down some pullets, of course). I have the older two that are three months old, and three more that are younger at six weeks old. By what age can you typically know which rooster is worth keeping and which one isn't? My plan is to post pics on here at some point of each roo in order to get some advice from the sages on which one of my five is the keeper...

 

[kahlua]

He/she has always had a larger comb than my blue marans pullets - but it's never been super red in color, and since this is my first foray into wheatens I thought maybe the girls just happened to have taller combs...?... Well, in looking at him/her yesterday (she JUST turned three months old), I realized that her neck feathers look suspiciously rooster-ish, and he/she has - what?! - saddle feathers... (BTW it was crazy hot here yesterday, so please forgive the panting expression.) Okay someone - confirm my fears - which is that I literally got a five out of five batch of lovely wheaten marans ROOSTERS...

That's definitely a boy, but it doesn't look anything like my wheaten roos. They are mostly black with a little brown. Maybe he's not pure wheaten, or is some kind of throwback which has thrown his color off?
But that's just been my limited experience, with my own wheaten marans, maybe other lines mature differently...