Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[mamapoppybee]

thank you for your share and topic choice and i am the proud mum of one week old wheatons and no nothing about the breed. my daughter and i are raising these together. we also have a set of blue wheatons that we were given. She is fassinated by all the different kinds of chickens out there. How ever really excited by the egg color of the maran breed.

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

Does anyone know where to get a Marans egg color chart? Now that my girls have been laying for about 5 months, I want to see how they measure up. I had some drama with a neighbor's dog the other night and lost all of my 2012 hatch cockerels so I'm going to set more eggs later this month. I'd like to get an egg chart as a point of reference so I can set the best eggs and record how they score. If anyone can help me out, I'd greatly appreciate it!

 

[Bigfamily4me]

Marans.org

Marans Chicken Club... Email them and they will tell you how to pay for an egg card. It's very inexpensive.

 

[berkeleysprings]

I've been told by a few people at the color of the hens do not affect the rooster so the white in the tail coverts and white in the wings. my hens coloring are pretty much the same. so breeding hens with a particular color won't change your rooster..
i dont beleave that hole story but have no proof... I did create 1 rooster a few years ago that was perfect no white in wing or tail coverts but carries a recessive gene for yellow shanks. so I wonder if that had something to do with getting a perfect rooster. I think it's a roll of the genetic dice. also I keep roosters for about 8 to 10 months befor culling... anyway I just thought I'd jump in and give my 2 cents.

 

[berkeleysprings]

anyway I've got about 5 new roosters and 10 months to wait . I'm going to retire my davis rooster today hes almost 6 years old and not doing his job I have a rooste to replace him but he's not perfect

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

Yesterday, for the first time ever, all 5 of my Marans hens laid an egg! I took a couple of pictures: The darkest two next to a buff orpington egg and then all 5 of them with the same orpington egg and an Ameraucana egg for comparison. They started laying between Thanksgiving and New Year's, so I think the color still looks pretty good. 2 of my hens I will probably not use because their plumage is totally wrong (they look like a cross between golden salmon and wheaten). I still like their eggs, though!

 

[VillageChicken]

Thanks, since this makes the most sense to me this is the advice I will follow unless convinced by someone of something else, LOL. Our intent is to breed Wheaten and Blue Wheaten in the same flock. We will use one rooster at a time either blue wheaten or wheaten. This is how we managed wheaten ameracaunas and it seemed to work well. We will cull hens to the yard laying flock when they do not meet our expectations. My significant other was apparently jumped on by someone on another forum about breeding wheatens this way, thus all my questions.
Thanks, Mike

I think the rationale for keeping them separate is if you are trying to breed for correct color in both blue wheaten and standard wheaten. The best way to get a bunch of blue wheatens is to use a standard wheaten x splash wheaten to get all blue wheaten offspring. The problem with this is there is no way to cull for proper feather color in the splash wheaten adult, whether it is a hen or a rooster. I do think that you can look for the correct amount of black in the wings and tail of a standard wheaten hen to help correct white in wing feathers for roosters. The genes that melanize will affect the genders differently, but they will have an affect nonetheless. A hen with more black in her wingtips and tail will be much less likely to throw roos with white in wing and tail.

So if you are using splash wheaten birds, it can potentially mess you up if you have proper standard wheatens with no white. Crossing splash w. with wheaten, you could potentially create very nice blue wheaten hens with good conformation and then use them in your standard wheaten breeding program, not knowing that they are carrying genes that will put white feathers on your next generation of standard and blue wheatens.

But if you're just going for good blues, then I don't see why you can't cross blue wheaten with standard. But I think this is where the "keep them separate" mentality comes from. The fact that the blue hens could bring something into your standard flock and mess up your standards wheatens.

Hey Randy, got any pics of your 5 roosters? I've got two that are maturing, I'm pretty sure I know which one is better, I'll try to post pics soon. Haven't seen many good wheaten roo pics up lately. Both of mine have darker saddle than I'd like, but they have less tan in the chest and bum than their father. Both have better combs and tailset than their father. The in-laws are visiting. Dad's helping rebuild the barn that burnt down in November. Yea! No more survival camp for the chickens. I have had a mink or weasel or something take 10 chickens in the last week. Actually didn't take most of them, just killed them. Every night I have to make sure everyone is in the tiny coop and locked up and now I let my Vizsla roam around the chicken yard at night. Should have the roof on the new barn by next week. Of course a bit bigger and better than the old barn!

 

[berkeleysprings]

...

I think the rationale for keeping them separate is if you are trying to breed for correct color in both blue wheaten and standard wheaten.  The best way to get a bunch of blue wheatens is to use a standard wheaten x splash wheaten to get all blue wheaten offspring.  The problem with this is there is no way to cull for proper feather color in the splash wheaten adult, whether it is a hen or a rooster.  I do think that you can look for the correct amount of black in the wings and tail of a standard wheaten hen to help correct white in wing feathers for roosters.  The genes that melanize will affect the genders differently, but they will have an affect nonetheless.  A hen with more black in her wingtips and tail will be much less likely to throw roos with white in wing and tail.

So if you are using splash wheaten birds, it can potentially mess you up if you have proper standard wheatens with no white.  Crossing splash w. with wheaten, you could potentially create very nice blue wheaten hens with good conformation and then use them in your standard wheaten breeding program, not knowing that they are carrying genes that will put white feathers on your next generation of standard and blue wheatens.

But if you're just going for good blues, then I don't see why you can't cross blue wheaten with standard.  But I think this is where the "keep them separate" mentality comes from.  The fact that the blue hens could bring something into your standard flock and mess up your standards wheatens.

Hey Randy, got any pics of your 5 roosters?  I've got two that are maturing, I'm pretty sure I know which one is better, I'll try to post pics soon.  Haven't seen many good wheaten roo pics up lately.  Both of mine have darker saddle than I'd like, but they have less tan in the chest and bum than their father.  Both have better combs and tailset than their father.  The in-laws are visiting.  Dad's helping rebuild the barn that burnt down in November.  Yea!  No more survival camp for the chickens.  I have had a mink or weasel or something take 10 chickens in the last week.  Actually didn't take most of them, just killed them.  Every night I have to make sure everyone is in the tiny coop and locked up and now I let my Vizsla roam around the chicken yard at night.  Should have the roof on the new barn by next week.  Of course a bit bigger and better than the old barn! 
[/quo they are a product of the test breeding I did the past year and a half to get rid of the yellow shots how the coloring turns out I haven't a clue
but I'll have 5 or so to choose from
no I don't have any pictures of them yet they're very young 2 of them are only about 5 weeks old 6 weeksor so and 3 others are only about 2 weeks old
I like the looks of the roosters with the darkest backs also. it takes such a long time to raise the roosters in feed them just to find out if you're not what you want chickens are like growinf trees it takes for ever I've been having such a hard time getting on the b y c lately I don't know what is done

 

[cukooformarans]

Hey Randy, hatch day is coming up!!! I don't think I have ever hoped so hard for a rooster ... lol!

 

[Debbi]

Hey Randy, hatch day is coming up!!! I don't think I have ever hoped so hard for a rooster ... lol!

Be careful what you ask for!

Good luck with your hatch, of course, we'll need pics!