Black Copper Marans - Time progression of sexing - UPDATED with WEEKs #1-3 PICTURES

My baby girls are 20 weeks old this week! How time flies. I'm still waiting for that first egg but I think Mary will be laying soon. Molly appears to be a mix of BCM and something else. The place I got them from thinks she might be an olive egger. So ready for some eggs from these girls.

These hatched on 2/5, making them 3 wks old. I'm thinking it's 3 boys and a girl, but hoping I'm wrong... thoughts?

3 boys and a girl is my guess too.

gapey said:

My baby girls are 20 weeks old this week! How time flies. I'm still waiting for that first egg but I think Mary will be laying soon. Molly appears to be a mix of BCM and something else. The place I got them from thinks she might be an olive egger. So ready for some eggs from these girls.

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Are't they pretty?

Like how chunky Molly is. Mary may really plump out when she goes into lay. She's over melanized, but paired with a very well-colored male when she starts laying, it would likely not be an issue to get correctly colored chicks. We had very good luck with that pairing.

You can test how close they are to laying by placing fingers between the pelvic bones at the vent area. The width apart of course is for an egg to come through, but it determines how close they are to laying. One finger, it will be awhile... two fingers may be laying small pullet eggs, or, will be laying anytime. To three fingers width onward, the pullet is laying... and laying a good sized egg.

When Molly is finally laying her eggs, crack open an egg, look at the shell inside. Olive eggers have a greenish or bluish cast to the egg that isn't the spray-on brown coating Marans breed provides. It is from a (Wheaten base) Americauna or Easter Egger that the BCM rooster was crossed with.

If the inside of the egg is white, she would not be an Olive Egger... but crossed with some Wheaten based chicken- which can be a Wheaten variety Marans OR, but, not necessarily a Marans at all- which can be nearly anything else (even RIR) ect.

Hens who are mixed with a Wheaten based breed do not always express yellow shanks themselves, but carry yellow shank genes forward to future generations. Not saying this is the case with Molly, but it can happen. We had two sold to us looking correct, but carrying Wheaten/ yellow shank genes. We Wheaten test all of our birds to make sure we breed pure strains of BCM.

To determine an eWh (Wheaten gene) split in a BCM (Birchen base) you have to test every bird. If you are serious about ever breeding Mary to another BCM, and curious to know for sure- What about Molly? I can let you know how to do it, but it involves a Wheaten based rooster.

If all breeders tested their stock first before breeding birds, Marans wouldn't have so many issues at this time.


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3 cockerels and a pullet. If you are going to keep a rooster, keep all the males until they color in to make sure you get the best male. BCM are extremely difficult to get good males. Lots of flaws and genetic dq's to work through.

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Oh boy. Going to get two 2 day old bcm and two 2-3 week old splash marans on Saturday. Crossing my fingers I pick hens!

Looking for any confirmation that Oreo is a pullet and not a cockerel. She is almost 7 weeks old and a real sweetie that lets me pick her up, hold and pet her.

I'm guessing oreo could be a girl. So the comb doesn't seem to be quite as big as it could be and it's not quite as close to the nose. So this is my guess, which I think has a 50/ 50 chance of being correct!

I would guess hen.

SusanPC said:

Looking for any confirmation that Oreo is a pullet and not a cockerel. She is almost 7 weeks old and a real sweetie that lets me pick her up, hold and pet her.

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gapey said:

My baby girls are 20 weeks old this week! How time flies. I'm still waiting for that first egg but I think Mary will be laying soon. Molly appears to be a mix of BCM and something else. The place I got them from thinks she might be an olive egger. So ready for some eggs from these girls.

Click to expand...

Gapey - Have they started laying yet? Curious to see egg color!! I have two that are supposed to be BCMs that have the copper coloring on their backs like Molly did. Here are the three of mine - 3.5 weeks old:

#1




#2 (not sure what the white feathering is about?)



#3 (no feathers on this one's feet)

shanji said:

Gapey - Have they started laying yet? Curious to see egg color!! I have two that are supposed to be BCMs that have the copper coloring on their backs like Molly did. Here are the three of mine - 3.5 weeks old:

#1




#2 (not sure what the white feathering is about?)



#3 (no feathers on this one's feet)

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shanji,

Cute chicks! Consider these barnyard layers Marans.

All these chicks are all BCM/ Wheaten cross mixes, and the chicks with barring are crossed with Cuckoo marans or some other Cuckoo variety from another breed. Crosses can be fun, but please consider not breeding to sell as Marans should be bred pure to better the breed.