Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[dandydoodle]

Do French Wheaton Marans come in bantam?

 

[berkeleysprings]

no , but there mabe 1 or 2working on it .
Quote:

 

[Dearsrock]

Greetings!
Spent the last few days trying to read all the posts here and on the Marans thread ~ ok, I give up! I have a small flock of BCM about 3 months with one roo (WJ/greenfirefarm) and recently had the fortune to obtain some roos about 5 months old hatched out from eggs from Davis. Looks like two are BCM and two wheaten. I havent' made any decisions what I'm doing from here, just thought I'd pop in and say Hi! And also to network if anyone is in the San Diego area with wheatons, I'd love some eggs next time I get a broody hen.

Renee

 

[berkeleysprings]

nice to meet u , my name is randy ... are yours pure wheaten ? i mean from wheaten marans stock? they are my favorite even if i have a yellow leg popping up im trying to correct and i lnly have on unknown doing it but they lay alot of large eggs , nice color , all my roosters are sweet ,they free range well and winter well except the roosters combs

 

[Dearsrock]

Quote:
According to the lady that I got them from, she ordered eggs from Bev Davis, some wheaton, some BCM and these roosters came from that. I will try to get some pics. They are molting right now, so not pretty, but I "think" one is a blue wheaten. Never in my life would I have dreamed that I would bring home a rooster, let alone 4! This chicken addiction is out of control!

I read about your marans legs. And when I went to see what I could learn I ran across this

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/990/darwin-was-wrong-about-the-wild-origin-of-the-chicken

I'm a true novice here, but if this is correct and yellow legs come from jungle fowl, and jungle fowl was used behind the gamecocks originally used to develop the breed, I would think it would pop up. And for anyone reading this, I repeat, I'm a novice here! So don't take anything I say for gospel. Genetics is fun, huh!

Renee
S CA

 

[berkeleysprings]

yellow legs came from something much more recent than game fowl in marans make up and can hide for years i have around 40 wheaten marans 36 have normal pinkish white and 4 yellow leg birds but who knows how many have one copy of the gene just because they look normal isnt always the case its going to take me a year to fix things and im almost 4 years into it

 

[cukooformarans]

ok so here goes ...
I ordered 12 wheaten marans eggs from a very trustworthy seller. I ended up with 11 hearty chicks, and was amazed to discover that I have 1 rooster and 10 hens! Obviously, we have been very pleased from beginning to end with such a good hatch from one dozen shipped eggs. They will be 17 weeks old on Friday. Here is my concern-the one rooster in the bunch is almost completely red. I also have one hen with very dark specks. I am confident that these were bred from pure wheatens, but I'm almost positive the color on the rooster and one hen is way off. I think the other hens are fine.
My Rooster (the black one in the back is a FBCM)

The Dark Hen

A Few of the Other Hens

Here is my question:

Should I breed the rooster with the dark hen? Would that possibly improve the color of future roosters, or will it just jumble things up worse than they are? I don't know where I would find a Wheaten Marans rooster around here. I had to order these from another state. I really don't want to pay 60 + for another dozen eggs, especially since the 10 hens is more than enough for our small backyard flock. (Plus the other hens we have already of other breeds.) I don't have to have birds to standards as I don't show birds or sell many. However, I would like to be able to sell some extras as we go to help pay for feed and keep our numbers manageable. When they start laying, extra eggs will be sold or given away (ok so we always give most all of them away anyway) as EATING EGGS ONLY because I like for people to know what they are getting and don't want to sell "wheaten marans" eggs that may hatch and look nothing like a wheaten marans. At least if I sell feathered birds, people can see the "flaws" for themselves. I say "flaws" but these birds are still beautiful, but I would like to work toward being able to sell extra eggs for hatching. Plus, the wheaten marans roosters are just sooooo pretty. I would really like to have one that looked a little more wheaten.
Another question-we have a BCM rooster the same age that we were going to eat. Could I breed him to a wheaten hen to improve the wheaten rooster appearanc???

Newbie questions, I know. Thanks for your patience. All replies appreciated!

 

[berkeleysprings]

something very odd going on with your one roo and the hen thats way to dark
,all that said , most of your hens are featherinhg in well but i wouild keep them for eating eggs and meat but not breed the rooster , he looks like he has some mix of brown red or something but thats the hardest color to get right ... and consistant..... Try to find a wheaten rooster of good color and type to breed to your lighter hens but personaly i would stay clear of hens with to much mohogany or u will get more roosters that look like that

 

[Debbi]

Hi Randy!

Could that roo be a Black Tailed Buff? The hen almost looks like she may have been a sport from a BCM breeding, maybe??

 

[cukooformarans]

hmmmmmm... I'm confident that these birds came from a closed flock of pure wheatens. Would the black tailed buff or brown red be recessive genes that could hide in a flock like that? should those two just be culled?
Also ... I have no idea how to go about finding a quality wheaten marans in AL ... any suggestions?