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Looking good so far. One of 13 is mossy, but all others look nice. I need to get some updated pictures. They are almost fully feathered, and just starting to show a few copper feathers in the hackles

Yellow shanks was what made me finally decide to cull the entire flock. Only two of my 8 hens had them, but 75% of the offspring did. That is just a very bad sign that they are mixed with something totally different, and not something I wanted to continue with

I'm not a guru, but I definitely have had bad BCM. Here are some red flags Too much color/straw color, mossiness Mossy chick So much wrong with this rooster. Comb way too large, bad halo in the hackles, legs too close together, etc.. The chicks were too dark. Some people...

There's no doubt that I learned my lesson buying based on egg color, but at the same time that's what my customers want. I'd like to be able to maintain a dark color while at the same time have birds that are reasonably bred to SOP

You bring up an interesting point, Don. I have seen eggs from people that breed purely to the standard, yourself included, and those eggs weren't as dark. I know that Bev was known for trying to maintain egg color along with SOP. Is it an either/or with no middle ground, or is there a compromise...

X2 I still have the original hatchery flock of cuckoo marans that I bought thinking they laid "chocolate" eggs. I love those birds, they lay a ton of huge eggs, and the rooster is the best rooster on the farm, but their eggs look just like the eggs my hybrids lay

Don't be offended. It's much worse on the other marans thread when they tell you to eat your chickens

Wow, nice! :thumbsup

If you got them from a feed store, and they are hatchery pullets, their heads will look like this

What time of year? Mine is just returning to normal after laying an almost white egg in early February. Usually after molt I expect my darkest eggs, but this year was the first time I have seen this happen. The girls are 3 years old now, too, so I wonder if their age has anything to do with it

What kind of marans? I've never seen it in a BCM, but I do have a cuckoo that has gone through that

Chances are your feed store chicks are pullets. They usually order from hatcheries that sex them, and order mostly pullets. I would think they would have told you that, though. It's possible they could be straight run. Marans are fairly easy to sex by eye at about 4 weeks old, so if you post...

My cuckoos laid straight through the first winter, but year two they all but stopped. They are just now starting to pick up again

I agree with the posters above. I have read many people that say you need a higher humidity, and that may work for some people, but lower works better for me. All of my breeds except the marans hatch well at 38-40% humidity. I tried the marans first at that, and had a lot of fully developed, but...

Two years ago I would have said you were crazy. After getting a novice start into breeding, and a rude awakening when posting pictures of my first birds on the BCM thread, I agree. That foundation flock is so important, and in the long run is the cheapest part of keeping chickens

If you don't get an answer here, try the Black Copper Marans Discussion thread. There's a few good breeders on there

My first BCM flock was a total bust. I sold them all and started over. I think I have a much better start this time

I'm growing out my first breeder quality flock of BCM from Julie Akers right now

Yep, that's the next set. I'm hatching out some AMs this weekend, then in they go :thumbsup

Just took a picture for another thread, but it's a good representation of the color of hatchery cuckoo Marans egg color. The others are Ameraucana