Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[snowbird]

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Debbi, I have found that in most any breed of chicken it is harder to get a good male than it is female, just the opposite with people.

 

[Debbi]

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Debbi, I have found that in most any breed of chicken it is harder to get a good male than it is female, just the opposite with people.

You can't prove that theory out here! OMG!! Humor AND an emoticon???? Way to go Don!!

 

[EweSheep]

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Debbi, I have found that in most any breed of chicken it is harder to get a good male than it is female, just the opposite with people.

You can't prove that theory out here! OMG!! Humor AND an emoticon???? Way to go Don!!

 

[fowlman01]

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Yup! A good man is hard to find. The males have a lot more going on at the base of the tail than the females. Look at a male and female side by side and you will see why the males are more prone to these problems. On the other side of it, males are usually more consistent in color than females. I'm not sure there are any two wheaten females that are exactly the same color.......ever. Males can get pretty close, but they have the white in the wrong places problems.

I'm about ready to start packing for Shawnee...leaving for SFO at 1pm today, so I don't know how many posts I can do today. Back next Monday night.

Walt

 

[EweSheep]

Have fun and hurry back!

 

[berkeleysprings]

to me i am ok with white in wingg and white tail feathers being a complete disqulification but thats all a far cry from cotton ball fluff which i beleave shouldnot be a dq ,,,, just points off because feathers and fluff or under fluff are to different causes and effects i beleave are not related
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[berkeleysprings]

i dont see any eather and the birds look great except a darker one to the left ? , mabe thats the secret to it , darker hens will cover or hide it ,,,lol im kidding but i never notice it badly till a year old but i would love to see some more pick of your wheatens thanks for posting your flock
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I do not see any cotton tail on the males, do they have the cottontail at the base of tail and end of back ? Do they have any white in wing and tail ? Thanks, Don

 

[berkeleysprings]

wonderful to have you hope u have a great hatch
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[berkeleysprings]

thankyou so much for your answers and help and everything but i have a silly question because i have never shown,and i am so new i should be a fifty year old in that 4-H thing but when you say "" Fluff is a cut not a DQ"" what is a cut ?
a cut in points ?
thank you



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I can see white in some of the pics and I can see what appears to be white in some of the pics, but they are just not good enough to be so certain about what it really is. There is no question that the Wheatens have this fluff problem, I'm just saying that the pictures are not good enough to make an absolute determination. As a judge I have seen a lot of white at the base of colored birds tails and because of that I know that it is not always fluff.

My bottom line is: The pics are not good enough to determine anything for sure. I believe tail fluff is a problem, but so is white in the tail and that white in the tail is not always at the tip of the tail. Sometimes it is at the base. I have a graphics background at the university level and I know that pictures are not always accurate as there are photographic effects caused by sheen in feathers that make things appear white. I am only trying to let people know that what they see in a pic is not always what they think it is. The ONLY way to tell for sure is to have a close up pic or see the bird in person. Fluff is a cut not a DQ, but a bird with fluff will never win anything in a real show.

BTW: I personally hate to see fluff and will cull one of my birds if it shows fluff at the tail no matter how good it is in any other way.

Walt

 

[flgardengirl]

I got my wheatens from nivtup and the males all have the cotton ball fluff on the base of the tails. It isn't always noticable sometimes when they shake out thier feathers it is covered or I can brush the tail feathers to cover the fluff but it is still there on mine lol. They are beautiful birds and I am very happy with them. I tried to get some pics today and they all ran away from the big bad new camera with the lens that comes out grrrr. I mostly got pics of them running away lol. I will have to try again later. The female lays big jumbo size eggs probably about a 6.

I think the wheatens are meant to have a lighter undercoat. The females have it and I don't see how the males could have a totally different undercoat than the females. With BCMs, yes the males should have a dark undercoat but then so do the females...so maybe it is one of the differences with wheaten.