International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[kfelton0002]

Thank you for your posts! I can't help with naming your new roo. It drives me nuts trying to think of names. I know you battled the parasitic white for so long so happy to see a cockerel without it!

I'm going to have a closer look at the new girls. They haven't grown up yet but there are some white feathers I'd like to see molt out.

Thank you! I was thinking Jasper for him, if I keep up the Twilight theme. Bella is my favorite blue copper. Edward is my best black copper cockerel. LOL

I still get quite a few cockerels with white under their hackles so the battle is not over. I will be culling for that for many years to come I imagine. But it is nice to finally have a couple without it to work with next year. He used to be a big jerk and tried to flog me when I was out in the yard. That nearly earned him a trip to freezer camp. He and I have buried the hatchet it seems and he is a good boy now.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I got a chance to look at Blue and green this morning. Both boys have the white under fluff under their hackles but no white on their wings and also no split wing. I couldn't catch black boy but standing back and looking at him, he very obviously has white wing tips and a white tail feather so I won't be using him. The only bad thing is, both blue and green are well colored with a little extra color on their chests. All of my girls are well colored so I may be dealing with some mossy and over colored birds next spring.

 

[Magnolia Hill]

Thank you! I was thinking Jasper for him, if I keep up the Twilight theme. Bella is my favorite blue copper. Edward is my best black copper cockerel. LOL

I still get quite a few cockerels with white under their hackles so the battle is not over. I will be culling for that for many years to come I imagine. But it is nice to finally have a couple without it to work with next year. He used to be a big jerk and tried to flog me when I was out in the yard. That nearly earned him a trip to freezer camp. He and I have buried the hatchet it seems and he is a good boy now.

That's funny, Twilight. Ive heard it all now. Lol

 

[Magnolia Hill]

I got a chance to look at Blue and green this morning. Both boys have the white under fluff under their hackles but no white on their wings and also no split wing. I couldn't catch black boy but standing back and looking at him, he very obviously has white wing tips and a white tail feather so I won't be using him. The only bad thing is, both blue and green are well colored with a little extra color on their chests. All of my girls are well colored so I may be dealing with some mossy and over colored birds next spring.

You'd be surprised, i use roosters with color on thier chest with decently color hens and got good results. But if your hens gave chest leakage you might get some that over colored.

 

[kfelton0002]

That's funny, Twilight. Ive heard it all now. Lol

I'm a dork, what can I say? LOL

 

[OneMountainAcres]

I'm a dork, what can I say? LOL

I have a Rugrats thing going on with the turkeys. So far, I have a Tommy, Phil and Lil (twins), Angelica and Susie lol.

 

[Magnolia Hill]

I'm a dork, what can I say? LOL

Me too. You got a bunch to choose from from that movie. Jocob, esme, Carlisle, alice, rosalie,Emmett, Victoria and dont forget sheriff Charlie.

 

[kfelton0002]

I got a chance to look at Blue and green this morning. Both boys have the white under fluff under their hackles but no white on their wings and also no split wing. I couldn't catch black boy but standing back and looking at him, he very obviously has white wing tips and a white tail feather so I won't be using him. The only bad thing is, both blue and green are well colored with a little extra color on their chests. All of my girls are well colored so I may be dealing with some mossy and over colored birds next spring.

I think blue and green will serve you well as breeders. You can just cull any way overcolored offspring as you encounter them. I will use a male with minimal chest leakage but not excessively so. You will spot the difference in excessive vs minimal chest leakage. A friend of mine defines minimal chest leakage as 10 individual spots of color on the chest so that is a good rule of thumb. Most of my males that have chest leakage have shafting also, but I'll deal with that later. I have bigger things to worry about. lol

My general preference as a breeder is to avoid breeding mossy or excessively overcolored birds. Like Redbanks has said before, birds can be mossy as youngsters and then feather out completely normal. My choice as a breeder is to avoid using birds that were mossy as chicks, as that is what many of the older and more experienced breeders tend to do. I document in my records if they were mossy as youngsters so I can avoid using them for breeding when they mature. I'm not saying I would never breed from a bird that was mossy, but it wouldn't be my first choice if I had other choices.

 

[kfelton0002]

Me too. You got a bunch to choose from from that movie. Jocob, esme, Carlisle, alice, rosalie,Emmett, Victoria and dont forget sheriff Charlie.

Yes! That is my plan this year. To name all of this years best birds after Twilight characters.

I really haven't raised a lot of Marans from the main pairs I wanted to raise from. That's the way it goes. The main grow outs I have lost have been from Queen and Lucille, the two I had wanted to raise from the most. I have 4 pullets and 1 cockerel from Queen I'm keeping penned as a precaution. They are nice so far, with no white primaries even as youngsters. And I have 4 blue copper pullets from Lucille, only 2 of those I will likely be breeding. I culled the 2 blue copper cockerels as I really didn't need them. I plan on continuing to breed black males over blue females. I had been setting more of Queen's eggs even though I had said I was done for the year as a hail Mary to hopefully raise a few more from her. She has recently started dropping feathers and has stopped laying. Breeding season is coming to an end, and the molt is upon us. Which I'm not sad about because I've had my fill of baby chickens for the year. LOL

 

[Magnolia Hill]

Well it sounds like you got a plan, I'm still waiting to see how theses little grow outs mature before i come up with my masterplan, but i do got a couple ideas floating around im my head. Out of 60 chicks i ended up with 27 cockerels and 33, after weeding through those i ended up with 19 pullets and 11 cockerels that get to stay and mature. Which i was really surprised i ended up with that many.