Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[Phage]

Sigh, Thank you. They were meant to be blue wheaten. I think the hen does have some blue-ish feathers which I have not seen on a regular wheaten. What would a blue wheaten roo look like?

And you are spot on with age, betwen 6 and 7 weeks

 

[Budda's Birds]

Hi phage if you want to see a Blue Wheaten Marans rooster go to the 1st page of this thread and look at Ilia's 2nd post. I have to agree with Star your rooster is a regular Wheaten. As for the pullet grab her and open her wings if she is blue she'll have blue on half of the feather so when the fold up they are hidden by the wheaten color. Also like Star said the tail feathers will be blue if she is a blue

 

[WoofMeowCluck]

I know this may be the wrong place to post this, but I'm having a heck of a time. I hold the World Record for being able to hatch out, or buy--- Blue or Black Copper Marans that are roosters. Seriously, only roosters.

Could someone PLEASE point me in the direction of someone who has HEALTHY (NPIP) Blue, or Black Copper Marans PULLETS. In order to better intergrate them into my flock I need for them to be no less than 4 months of age, or up to 6 months of age. I don't care if they are clean legged or have color faults. I just want HEALTHY Marans that will lay nice dark eggs. In the past I purchased hatching eggs that were so light they might as well have come from Buff Orp's, I mean really light, it was an expensive disappointment.

I had two WM's but between the two of them only layed a total of 3 eggs a month! They went on to be pets of a friend of mine as she just wanted friendy chickens for yard decoration. SO coming from stock that lays well is important.

I have no roosters, will never breed them, just want those beautiful dark eggs from healthy Marans. I'm in Ohio but will happily pay for over night express shipping.

Any suggestions? Or is this an impossible wish? Please feel free to PM me. THANK YOU so much!!!!!!

 

[berkeleysprings]

i only get 4 eggs a week form each hen
Quote:

 

[berkeleysprings]

Some thoughts from you nice people on this yellow leg gene thing and and if this might sound like a better idea
this is what my sister recommended … let me start out again now I went over my paperwork and I have a pure Davis roo , a eBay wheaten hen supposed to be a few generations removed Davis line and 2 pure buddy Henry /cottage hill wheaten hens i started with 3 years ago . my sister recommended that I use my e-bay hen and the eBay hens daughter of 100 percent certainty and breed the two with my loaner ,visible yellow leg rooster and all the chicks hatched should have yellow from that mating and come to the same logical conclusion faster , and simultaneously mating the Davis roo and 2 buddy hens and and build back up again . im glad I used leg tags and took notes on the few started with , I made a spreed sheet for keeping track a long time ago what do ya all think , I can te3st breed later down the road once I get a few eggs in the incubator to re build numbers , I must have 20 hens and 15 roo to sell / cull for egg layers , for eating eggs

 

[nivtup]

Quote:
Randy,

Do the ebay hen and daughter both have yellow legs?

 

[berkeleysprings]

no nice pinkish white no yellow but i suspect a hidden gene
Quote:
Randy,

Do the ebay hen and daughter both have yellow legs?

 

[berkeleysprings]

i should of never waited2 years
to do sibling mating

 

[star2525]

Randy,

You need to test mate all those hens and hatch out 12 chicks from each hen, in the process of doing that you'll be creating an eating egg flock and birds that you can cull from out of your test mated group of birds, you need to band each hen and breed her with the yellow legged rooster, after mating stick her in a cage, then collect her eggs when she lays them, if you have one hen banded red, mark her eggs with 1 on the point of the egg, breed your next hen and band her blue, put her in a cage after being mated and when she lays eggs mark her eggs with 2 on the point of the egg, next hen green mark 3 on her eggs, next hen yellow mark 4 on her eggs, you can incubate the eggs all at the same time, the last few days of hatching put all of #1 eggs in a potato sack or tupperware dish covered by a potato sack, do the same with all the eggs from each number, then after they've hatched remove the chicks and band them the same color as the hen they came from is wearing, so all from eggs with 1 would be banded red, 2 would be banded blue, 3 would be banded green, 4 would be banded yellow, then watch them grow, this will help you find which hens don't carry the recessive yellow legs, then those hens you can breed to your rooster and select out cockrels that are good quality and breed them to a yellow legged hen and do the same with the hens eggs for hatching and banding chicks and watch them grow, the ones that don't have the yellow leg are clean of it, then you will have selected another Rooster that is clean of it to use for your flock and also ridded yourself of the recessive yellow legs. I am sure your Rooster is very nice you've been working on Wheatens for several years, he's not going to live forever and you are going to want cockrels from him to use thru the years you have your birds, so the best tribute you can make to him is to breed him to raise better birds from him that are clean of the recessive yellow legged gene.

There's no need to test mate your Rooster, he carrys the recessive gene too, in order for it to express itself in the offspring both the hen and rooster both have to carry the recessive yellow legged gene. Use him with your hens that test clean of it, and when the cockrels grow out to breeding age get Yellow legged hens to test mate them with, that is the fastest way. The chicks have to be over several months old before you can conclusively determine which hens are clean, so 4 months, the leg color can change up to 4 months, not from newly hatched day old chicks. Save the daughter of the Ebay hen for last to test mate, if the mother tests clean, then test the daughter hen to find out if she's clean of it because it can pass at 50 percent even though you don't see it visually and that way you will know if you can use her as a Clean breeder bird.

I have the same issue with my Bantam Marans split gened group and I only bred one Rooster to one Hen to create those birds, so I know its in both the hen and the Rooster, the split gened group is my F1s those birds bred together are supposed to give me Silver Cuckoo, Gold Cuckoo, Birchen and Black Coppers in my F2's, so far I've got Silver Cuckoo, Birchen, black chicks with mossy brown over their black feathering and Wheaten colored chicks from this mating, and I was not supposed to get yellow chicks, so I have an even bigger problem than you do, I'm not messing with test mating my F1s, the colors I create from them I will test mate and breed to be clean of the recessive yellow legs in the other feather colors I get created. You have a line of Wheatens correctly feather colored, so you need to test mate those hens and get yourself some cockrels from your Rooster and the hens that test clean so that you can test mate those cockrels in about 7 to 8 months with yellow legged hens to decide which cockrels are clean of it to use with your clean birds for a breeding flock of outstanding Wheatens.

Victoria

 

[berkeleysprings]

hi thanks for all the great info but i do like village chickens said
quote
You would have to hatch fewer eggs if you put your hens under a yellow shanked roo. Borrow someone's Leghorn, RIR or Plymouth Rock Roo, and if your hen's a carrier then 50% of the offspring will be yellow shanked. The offspring will just be hybrid layer/meat birds, but you probably wouldn't have any problem getting rid of them. Putting your carrier 2nd gen Davis roo with a carrier hen will only hatch one in four with yellow. I'd sleep better with the 50% odds.