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

Odelia · Mar 27, 2015

Lisee27 said:
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?

I think you have that right. Sorry.

shanji · Mar 27, 2015

How do you know gender from those pics? I obviously have so much more to learn!

gapey · Mar 31, 2015

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)

Yup they both started laying on the exact same day at 25 weeks. Both of their eggs are the same darkness probably a 4 or 5 on the marans scale. Here's some pics of the eggs. The smaller dark ones are theirs and the others are from my older hens of different breeds as a comparison.

shanji · Mar 31, 2015

That's awesome! Thank you Gapey!!

JulesChicks · Apr 16, 2015

Hi @gapey any chance Molly is a Marans/Welsummer cross? I just bought 5 chicks that will be 5 weeks old this weekend and 2 of them are crosses. The lady has mostly Marans but has one Welsummer and set her eggs too thinking they were Marans. I went for the Black Copper/Blue Copper Marans chicks but was so impressed with the sweetness of the crosses that I took two of them home. I bought 4 pullets (we thought) and 1 splash cockerel. 2 of the pullets are the crosses (no feathered legs) and 2 she thought were BCM pullets. The BCM have the mossiness described above and now after reading this thread I'm concerned. The lady I got them from said it was a desirable trait and that they should lay a dark egg and the coppery tones on their backs would grow out to be black. Time will tell I guess. I am also suspecting that one of the BCM pullets may be a cockerel as he/she has all of a sudden developed little wattles and a slightly bigger comb. I guess this is why they like to sell Marans straight run! I'm hoping my splash cockerel turns out to be a nice roo without any major flaws as I'd like to hatch out some Blue Copper Marans next year.

gapey · Apr 21, 2015

JulesChicks said:
Hi @gapey any chance Molly is a Marans/Welsummer cross? I just bought 5 chicks that will be 5 weeks old this weekend and 2 of them are crosses. The lady has mostly Marans but has one Welsummer and set her eggs too thinking they were Marans. I went for the Black Copper/Blue Copper Marans chicks but was so impressed with the sweetness of the crosses that I took two of them home. I bought 4 pullets (we thought) and 1 splash cockerel. 2 of the pullets are the crosses (no feathered legs) and 2 she thought were BCM pullets. The BCM have the mossiness described above and now after reading this thread I'm concerned. The lady I got them from said it was a desirable trait and that they should lay a dark egg and the coppery tones on their backs would grow out to be black. Time will tell I guess. I am also suspecting that one of the BCM pullets may be a cockerel as he/she has all of a sudden developed little wattles and a slightly bigger comb. I guess this is why they like to sell Marans straight run! I'm hoping my splash cockerel turns out to be a nice roo without any major flaws as I'd like to hatch out some Blue Copper Marans next year.

Rowsdower · Apr 23, 2015

redfancy78 said:
Great thread! We were told by the feedstore these chicks were black copper marans...but? Also thinking they are both boys, any thoughts?

They look like blue copper and blue splash marans and the darker one is a cockerel.

Rowsdower · Apr 23, 2015

Bah, double post. And how did I miss that this was an old thread?

CockFarmer · May 11, 2015

Hey guys new too the site. I was wondering if yall would take a guess at what sex these week old chicks are? Roo or pullet? They're a cross between a LP Roo/cuckoo maran hen.

My guess,pullet.