Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[GaryDean26]

People kept telling me "longer back" for 3 years. I seemed if I kept a longer back than the previous cockerel the comment was still that to improve my cockerel I need to have a longer back. I really didn't know what an acceptable back length was (only that longer was better) until some one told me to look how wide the neck was and that if the back was that long or longer then it was at an acceptable length. In this profile the back and the neck as drawn at almost the same distance.

Take the image above of the profile and print it. Then take a straight edge and draw a horizontal line from the bottom of the neck over to the breast. Then draw a line that follows the back from the bottom of the neck to the root of the tail. Get out a scale and see how they compare in length. I think that you will find that the hen has a back that is longer than the width of the neck and the length of the cockerels back is almost the same as the width of the neck. This is a visual check from the profile view only. I am not talking about the neck of a plucked chicken but rather one that is well conditioned and has the well feathered hackle required by the SOP.

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: I don't like to breed siblings but if you are breeding to set a trait like dark eggs pullet to sire and cockerel to dam is just fine.

 

[DMRippy]

People kept telling me "longer back" for 3 years. I seemed if I kept a longer back than the previous cockerel the comment was still that to improve my cockerel I need to a longer back. I really didn't know what an acceptable back length was (only that longer was better) until some one told me to look how wide the neck was and that if the back was that long then it was at an acceptable length. In this profile the back and the neck as drawn at almost the same distance.

Take the image above of the make profile and print it. Then take a straight edge and draw a horizontal line from the bottom of the neck over to the breast. Then draw a line that follows the back from the bottom of the neck to the root of the tail. Get out a scale and see how they compare in length. I think that you will find that the hen has a back that is longer than the width of the neck and the length of the cockerels back is almost the same as the width of the neck. This is a visual check from the profile view only. I am not talking about the neck of a plucked chicken but rather one that is well conditioned and has the well feather hackle required buy the SOP.

I am sorry I read that and read that and I don't get it..... can you make that drawing and show us what you mean? The as wide as the neck part is killing us I think... we don't get that. The Shoulders? the length of the neck? the terminology is throwing us.

 

[DoubleMM]

Red and blue line may not be in the exact spot

 

[DMRippy]

Red and blue line may not be in the exact spot

That helps thanks.

 

[SIMZ]

Hello!

Today's questions is about eye color.

What is the proper eye color for a Black Copper Marans? I'm seeing that black or pearl eyes are a DQ. Then I saw that the eyes shouldn't darken to brown. What is pearl, anyway? A picture would be great if anyone has one of the proper color.

Thanks so much!

 

[MarshallPrime]

So I was talking to some people at the Elkhart County Fair in Indiana and they said their son got graded lower because his black copper maran rooster HAD feathered legs.

Everything I have read says that is what you want because that makes them FRENCH.

The judge said the APA says the american interest is to have a clean legged BCMaran. I agree with the father that the feather legged is more desirable based off everything I have read. I was actually a little surprised they were able to show them in a county fair.

I just wanted to try to get to the bottom of this.

Anyway, I bought one of his Black Copper Maran Hens for $15 and she has nice copper hackles (not straw colored) but they are not real prevalent but clearly they are there.


I hope to breed her with "Big Guy" pictured below. He has feathered legs (i know you cant see in Pic) plus a little more brown on his wings than I THINK I would like but none the less, a beautiful bird I think.

thanks for the info.

-Matt

 

[JekkaLynn]

This is the rooster I bought as a day old chick this spring. Is he ok looking?

 

[JekkaLynn]

I know it isn't the best pictures but I was uploading other pictures and figured I would post Aaron pictures of him too. He is just starting to breed with my layer hens.

 

[GaryDean26]

Matt,

The Black Copper Marans has been approved for two years now, but is not in the APA standards book yet. The next edition will likely be out in 2015, so many of the judges don't have a copy of the Marans breed standard and haven't judged very many of them. The judges will have a learning curve to learn the breed just like everyone else. It is the breeders responsibility to let the judges know what the breed should be.

I had a similar thing happen when a Crested Cream Legbar Pullet was disqualified for being crested. The judge told me afterwords that single combed breeds can't have a crest.




Just keep showing and let the judge know what the standard is. When judges know about mistakes they have made they will make sure it doesn't happen again.