Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

I think a lot of the Birchen problem is when people try to make up for the loss of egg color, and breed their birds back to the Black Coppers. Well, if you had Silver feathered birds to begin with, now you are going to have silver and gold genes in the offspring. That's where all that nasty yellowy looking feathering comes in, and even some red.

Ok Don, on with the black dots and stripes in the Wheatens!! I'm ready to learn more about this...and everything else.
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Debbi and All, Breeding the Wheaten Maran to the SOP if you use SOP show Quality fowl will be virtually impossible. This will go back to the old saying that you do not have to breed show Quality to get show Quality fowl.

In the past we have went over the White cottontail in the tail Coverts. I have done several single matings to try and eliminate this from the Maran.

First thing to cull for in the Wheaten Maran is white in Wing, White in Tail and the White in Tail coverts.

If you use Wheaten Maran with white undercolor in either male or female your chance of raising SOP Maran is very slim. The good breeder fowl must have some nice Slate undercolor to produce SOP type fowl.

Keep in mind that with any of these parti colored breeds you will get more junk than quality, when raising for show you are working for that top 10 % of the hatch, if you are lucky you should have about 40 % Good quality fowl that can be used for breeders or showing at some of the smaller shows.

Now is the time to ask the questions if you have any.
 
Good to know! I remember the past conversations about the undercoat and the coverts. As you say, SQ x SQ does not always equal SQ. So if I remember correctly, we should be using two different sets of birds to get a good 10% of each sex? Explain to us what to look for in a hen that would tend to produce the better males. I can see right now from working with the BCMs, that it is soooo much harder to produce a decent rooster! I would assume the same applies here as well?

Oh Don, were you out in the sun too long today?? You forgot the S on your Marans!
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Sorry, can't help myself sometimes...
 
Hi guys!

Every week or so, I've been giving a bit of an update on my Wheaten male (Caesar) and you guys have been so helpful with your information! Thank you so much.
I think I might have encountered a bit of a snag though and I need your opinion if it really is a problem or not.

Anyway, here he is with our older fem a few weeks ago:


and then I showed him off a little over a week ago:


and here he is today, June 29th:






He sure is a nice guy and today would make him just about 6 weeks old. I would hate it if there was a problem, but since we plan to have only one Rooster, we need him to be pretty much what the standard calls for.
So,
I think his head is coming in too red. Some might call it "burgundy" color? I not sure if the pictures show it or not but it is a bit more on the redder side than brown.
The reason I am asking is because I saw some pictures and descriptions for the Wheaten Marans standard and when a hen was shown with the burgundy head the caption under the picture suggested for that color to be culled and not bred.
My question is does this apply to the males too?
Any help would sure be appreciated.
 
It is waaaaay to early to worry about Caesars coloring. The mahogany in the pic you are referring to was on adult birds. These Roos go through a lot of growing and changing. I hear it's even different after moult.. So do not sweat Caesar. He looks like a cockerel with the potential to be very nice. Be patient and watch him grow. (I know, easier said than done) ;)
 
Hi guys!

Every week or so, I've been giving a bit of an update on my Wheaten male (Caesar) and you guys have been so helpful with your information! Thank you so much.
I think I might have encountered a bit of a snag though and I need your opinion if it really is a problem or not.

Anyway, here he is with our older fem a few weeks ago:


and then I showed him off a little over a week ago:


and here he is today, June 29th:






He sure is a nice guy and today would make him just about 6 weeks old. I would hate it if there was a problem, but since we plan to have only one Rooster, we need him to be pretty much what the standard calls for.
So,
I think his head is coming in too red. Some might call it "burgundy" color? I not sure if the pictures show it or not but it is a bit more on the redder side than brown.
The reason I am asking is because I saw some pictures and descriptions for the Wheaten Marans standard and when a hen was shown with the burgundy head the caption under the picture suggested for that color to be culled and not bred.
My question is does this apply to the males too?
Any help would sure be appreciated.
My best advice for you is do not believe everything that you read on the internet as a person can write anything they would like and there is no one that says it has to be truthful.

I see nothing at this age to suggest he has something wrong with him. just let him grow for another month and take some more pictures.
 
Frankly, I would not even call that mahogany! You want mahogany, I can show you that one! He has what looks to me in the pics, copper hackles. Here are my two brothers, Roy and Clyde. The pic actually makes their hackle feathers look lighter than they are. Look at their saddle feathers for a more accurate idea of mahogany coloring. These boys both had the dark coloring from the time they were about six weeks old. This pic is an older pic, by about a year or more, but Clyde is still as dark as ever.

 

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