Black
Tail Buff Marans -
Black Tail Buff Marans lay a glossy medium-dark to dark brown egg.
Prolific layers!! Properly colored BTB hens look a bit similar to the
more common Wheaten Marans and do indeed share some genetics including
the wheaten gene, but BTB are golden-red (not a creamy wheaten body
color) and have less contrasting tone with some light black stippling
in the hackles. Once you've seen a pure black tail buff the difference
becomes easy to spot. Black Tail Buff Marans are excellent layers and
have very pleasant temperaments. Out of all the breeds I raise they are
the most friendly.
Because
there are SOP issues with this color variety, the following
is something to look for if interested in breeding Black Tail
Buff Marans:
Wheaten
and Black Tail Buff Marans can be confused and incorrectly bred
together and in fact, it's very commonly done. This, however, creates
an endless cycle of sport colored offspring. The problem can only be
corrected by removing all Wheaten and Wheaten / Black Tail Buff cross
birds from the program. Note that it is tempting to use these mixed
hens as their egg color can be darker, but in the long run it does
nothing to help this color variety and, in my opinion, it's misleading
to offer such birds as Black Tail Buffs. This rare and challenging
variety is a work in progress which takes dedication and extensive
record keeping.
In
addition to test mating, there are some visual clues to detect
incorrect stock. Wheaten and Black Tail Buff / Wheaten cross hens can
have a head much darker than their bodies and a more beige, straw
colored, to sooty cream or sooty red body color. Incorrect males
commonly have black where the color should be buff. Grayish underfluff
can also be present to one degree or another. There are also birds with
the incorrect e allele out there out of Golden Salmon Marans stock.
This can be seen in the chick down (e+/e+ will be wild type striped
instead of the desired golden yellow) but this issue will be hidden in
mature birds although the females will exhibit some grey mossyness.
Quality Black Tail Buff males and females can be described as looking
similar to a New Hampshire except for the buff feathered white-pink
shanks.
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