The splash is a dilution pattern. While the allele mostly dilutes eumelanin (dark black/grey pigments), the double dose also dilutes the pheomelanin (red-orange pigments). This is why splash coppers generally look just splash. However, splash coppers often have yellow/straw parts, while splash...
Do you have pictures of the third BCM? I would avoid the over melanised one unless you have over-coloured hens.
The splash caught my eye but his tail is a bit long, and due to the pose he’s in I don’t know how high the tail is usually held. He has the best face (comb etc) though.
My safest...
This guy is B/b+ (single barred). He is most likely gold based from appearance, so breeding him to black copper hens will produced 50% black or blue coppers, 50% black or blue golden cuckoo.
I know he’s not the focus but I really like the type of this Blue GCM. If you were willing to risk a dilution to copper for improved type, I’d consider this guy.
I can’t see his face though.
Chanel, the momma, almost through the moult (some paler blue feathers remain on her underside) her new coat shows her lovely type. I’ve noticed the skin on her breastbone is saggy and hangs loose, I don’t know if this is because she has lost weight or just age related. She’s still laying big...
A couple of photos of the younger ones. The BCMs have good colour distribution, but not as deep orange copper as mine. But the egg colour they hatched from makes up for it, plus their colour is useful variation in the GCM project.
The dark cuckoos show how much darker they are than Mole. A tad...
Claudie. To me, everything I could have hoped for from Loki x Chanel. I’m glad they finally produced a top quality pullet, I’m hoping her egg reflects this too. Great type and perfect colouring. Unfortunately the pictures aren’t the best. Seems to be carrying on her dam’s size, with a tidier...
Joannie. A bit more compact than her siblings, the 4 week younger pullets have already caught her in size. Over coloured, but by no means unbreedable to the cuckoos.
The BCM boy. Certainly the most promising Marans cockerel I have hatched from my own line. Huge, long and flat body, much smaller comb than Napoleon had. A tad over coloured but that’s my only big issue. We’ll see how that tail grows in, so fingers crossed…
To stick with the theme of...
Mole and Duke of Wellington. I really think they are silver cuckoos now, Mole is clearly lighter than the dark cuckoos and their hackles are coming in silvery. Certainly not complaining, will make the GCM project much easier if they are birchen based. Also growing very big, going to be proper...
They should definitely be named ‘Back’, ‘In’ and ‘Black’ (whoever gets called In might draw the short straw).
Angus, Malcom and Brian might be more sensible (I would say Bonn but Back in Black was Brian’s first album).
I forgot to take pictures but I’m noticing that Mole is much paler than the other DCMs. This could just be because they’re different lines, but she also has a paler neck than body, and Wellington’s hackles are becoming shiny white in places. I’m wondering if they are silver cuckoos rather than...
Some random pictures from this week, not chicken related. These are from around Lake Windermere, some of the last Celtic/temperate rainforests in the world. I have a feeling we’ve talked about these forests here or the BCM thread before, so I thought I’d leave these here.
@wrathsfarm are you keeping any of the Solo/Kong males to breed back to coppers? This way you could get 50% s+/s+ copper males and 50% copper hens (the silvers will be culls).
I really like her. Can’t tell type too well, but she’s tidy and to me has a classic marans look to her face. I think yours mature faster than mine, mine are 16 weeks (the first lot with Joan etc) but nowhere near grown. Maybe they’ll catch up in the next few weeks.