That dark male looks from these photos to have way too level a back. Their back should be sloped down from head to tail. Type should come before color.
Well that is not normal for a Marans. Perhaps they are pulling each other's feathers out. That happens a lot. I have 3 Rhode Island Red cockerels right now with no tails because the Ameraucanas that are in the same pen have pulled all their feathers.
This bird does not look like a pure Black Copper Marans, he/she looks like a mixed breed, possibly mixed with Ameraucana. I can't tell for the photo very well, does it have a straight comb or a pea comb? Get a close up of the comb and post. If still looks "pullet-ish" but usually you don't see...
Would be nice if it was that easy. Unfortunately, to tell if breeder quality, you need to wait a minimum of 6 months, sometimes closer to a year. Now if they aren't breeder quality, the poor traits that tell you that may show sooner. It takes patience to wait for birds to mature.
Before the breed was admitted to the APA, people would refer to them as French Black Copper Marans to denote they had the feathered legs, as opposed to the British birds, which call for clean legs. Now that they are in the APA SOP and feathered legs has been adopted for our standard, they really...
I know it's hard to let go. That's why I have so many birds. That, and my freezers are getting full I got a Bev Davis Blue Copper cockerel this year that came from a really dark egg. He was mixed up in a group of Black Copper chicks that a friend bought. I hope to use him over some of my hens...
Now that there are real "Blue" Marans, it gets confusing when people say they have Blue Marans---because sometimes people just leave out the copper part, but they really meant to say "Blue Copper Marans". OK, that said, if you want to breed Blue or Blue Copper, you should keep them separate from...
If one or more of the black cockerels have good type--especially nice tail set--what you could do is hang on to a couple of them. Breed your super copper colored one to your hens, which should help with the color of their offspring. Using the overcolored male will likely produce sons with too...
No, that is too dark, it should be bay. But he looks young and their eye color will change as they mature. If it's still dark when he's 6-8 months old, then worry about it.
This is the only one I'm on https://www.facebook.com/groups/1449982951937845/ it is called Marans Fanciers. I see people posting photos for advice, some straight forward advice even if advice is 'cull'; it is not a selling group. There's at least one APA judge who is a member. Bev Davis is a...
That's not lacing, that's just excess coloration in the breast, and no, you don't want that. Ideally IMO, you want a solid black breast although the standard allows for "a few copper spots" but that is way more than a few and he will probably develop more breast coloration as he matures.
You want the tail low at this age. The tails tend to rise as they age. Too high a tail or squirrel tails are rampant in this breed, so if it is low now, that is a good thing