Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[justoldbobo2]

My 9 month old roo. What y'all think

 

[gander007]

I wish that was the case, but he has never had any feathers to pluck. He did not even have baby tail feathers. I have watched him closely and none of the other chickens are missing tail feathers. I guess I knew he was not right. Thank you for your help. I really needed a second opinion.

I really have to agree with desertmarcy as I have a 9 month old and he free ranges with my geese and for some reason the geese really enjoy the taste of his tail feathers and pull on them regularly so my BCM Rooster hasn't any tail feathers ....... Or you might want to get another Rooster for breeding .....

 

[taymar's flock]

Thanks for the extra input. Just to be sure, I am going to separate him for awhile to make sure he is not getting plucked. There is one hen who has always stuck by his side. I do not want to make a false assumption and lose a good rooster. I really like him.

 

[campheadgirl]

I bought 4 marans chicks about 6 or 7 months ago. 3 had the beautiful feathered legs and one was clean shanked. Unfortunately the clean shanked wound up being my only hen. I thought that's ok, English standard is clean. I only want a dark egg. She has very little copper on her neck. I'm beginning to feel maybe a got a cross. She started showing cooper a couple weeks ago but it is very little. How long does it take for the cooper color to come in completely? Still crossing my fingers.

 

[ladycat]

I bought 4 marans chicks about 6 or 7 months ago. 3 had the beautiful feathered legs and one was clean shanked. Unfortunately the clean shanked wound up being my only hen. I thought that's ok, English standard is clean. I only want a dark egg. She has very little copper on her neck. I'm beginning to feel maybe a got a cross. She started showing cooper a couple weeks ago but it is very little. How long does it take for the cooper color to come in completely? Still crossing my fingers.

Some have more copper than others. It's a hard trait to fix just right. Some of my hens come out with no copper at all, and some have too much.

 

[Zanna]

I bought 4 marans chicks about 6 or 7 months ago. 3 had the beautiful feathered legs and one was clean shanked. Unfortunately the clean shanked wound up being my only hen. I thought that's ok, English standard is clean. I only want a dark egg. She has very little copper on her neck. I'm beginning to feel maybe a got a cross. She started showing cooper a couple weeks ago but it is very little. How long does it take for the cooper color to come in completely? Still crossing my fingers.

Some never show copper but they are still Black Copper Marans if the parents were pure. Clean shanks does not indicate she is a cross, but lots of other things do. Can you post a picture?

 

[Chickens R Us]

My first eggs from my BCM the 2 bigger, lighter eggs are for comparison.

 

[bamadude]

Nice

 

[RangeChicks]

Hi,
I purchased these two Marans a couple of weeks ago. They are supposed to be out of a Salmon Marans Roo & a Golden Cuckoo Marans Hen. They were sold as Salmon Marans. As they are maturing, their coloring is changing & I'm not sure what I have. Would you please help me determine if these are good for breeding or not? There are 3 pix of the cockerel and 3 of the pullet (is she a pullet?). Pullet is a couple of weeks younger. Please educate me on their color, quality, etc. Thank you!

 

[3riverschick]

Well you got hosed. Welcome to the club. I tried 5 times to get started in Salmon Marans and failed. Now I am happy with my Sussex. That breeder knew better. My biggest problem as breeders whi didn't know what they were doing. There are 3 closed flocks of quality GSM I know of. Arla Meininger in Michigan; Marie Cantrell in Montana and Bev Davis in FL. Maybe you will have the success which eluded me in getting them to share.
Golden Salmon Marans are simple e+/e+ with the gold gene. Nothing else. Any other gene or modifier added to that formula corrupts Golden Salmon and GS vanishes. So how could a salmon crossed to a cuckoo possibly be a Golden Salmon? You should ask for you money back and an apology. Golden Salmon Marans chick down is absolutely definitive for the color. If it doesn't look exactly, exactly like that classic down, you have other genes at work and don't have Golden Salmon ( same as Black Breasted Red) Marans. ( see the chick down for Old English Game Bantams chicks on the Net for an example) These birds obviously have the cuckoo gene. I would be angry if I were you. They are worthless for breeding any kind of Salmon Marans.
And saying they were bred to a golden cuckoo doesn't help the breeders defense at all. Golden Cuckoo is rarely bred on the proper e+ allele in America. That majority of the time it is bred on the eWh ( Wheaten) allele. And saying the roo was Golden Salmon doesn't prove anything unless the roo has previously sired pure Salmon from a pure Salmon hen. ( which hens are as rare as hen's teeth).
I owned a stunning Golden Salmon-colored cock named Alvin. He was perfect Golden Salmon coloring but genetically, he was eb/e+ as seen by the eb brown helmet in his chick down pics. Here he is:
http://waterfordsussexandmarans.webs.com/apps/photos/ You can use the buttons to make the pics full screen for better viewing. To my knowledge this is the only close-up photo essay of a properly "Golden Salmon-colored" cock on the net. Also click on "genetic literature" for more lit on breeding this color.
Below: this is Alvin on the left. Note the eb brown helmet. A proper salmon chick will have an "arrow" marking coming up the back of their neck and across the top of the skull. The other chick ( from what I can discern on the Net) is a "white pearl" and came from the same salmon hatch as Alvin. ( which was a Golden Duckwing cock over a Golden Salmon hen) So much for salmon color purity!

Look at the URL below to see what Golden Salmon ( BBR) chicks are supposed to look like:
http://emsquaredfarms.weebly.com/bb-red-chickies.html
Also please note, Gold Duckwing and Golden Duckwing are not Golden Salmon Marans. The GSM name is a Gold Red Duckwing.
Or "The Black Breasted Red cock with the salmon breasted, stippled hen". Or "wildtype". Black Breasted Red isn't a mutation you can "find". It is not a color you can "balance" into creation. BBR is the "basic" color of chickens. You need to winnow out all the other genes and modifiers until BBR is all you have left. To do that, you need one parent who is pure BBR. Best if it is a hen because they do not hide corrupting colors. A cock will do, but, but... cocks hide different allele combination and off coloring genes in their dark color palette. You want to make your your BBR cock came from a pure hen at the very least. And even that is a dicey choice. Best if from a sire who came from a pure hen and pure cock.
Start studying chick down. Know it intimately. Don't buy eggs. Pay for chicks in down ( get pics first) . Once they start to get feathers, knowing what there gets dicey until they are more feathered. Or buy started birds which are fully feathered so you can see what you are getting. You also want pics of parents. Just don't buy eggs or chicks in intermediate stages of feathering.
beware of the grown GS hen with a "darker" salmon breast. That is a mark of autosomal red gene which will quickly pollute your GS and really mess up a breeding project.

Best Regards,
Karen
former Director of Archives Marans of America Club