BCM Roo...will he ever get any copper?

[pinkchick]

This is "Bill" my Black Copper Marans Roo
Hatch date: I was told April 1 09 (he is HUGE) I think that he is one month older than the breeder stated.
He is crowing and definately thinks that he is the king of the coop.
He is starting to get some coppery feathers in his saddle area but just a feather or two. His brother Mr. French has nice coppering already. What's going on with Bill?

Here's Bill in comparison with his flock and these gals are 3.5 months old.

and here is Bill

[IMG]https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/11170_imgp4122.jpg

 

[Katy]

If he's a Marans, he's not a Black Copper. They get their copper coloring with their first feathers. What color are the bottoms of his feet?

 

[pinkchick]

The bottom of his feet are pink and he came from Black Copper parents. If he is not BC then why would he have copper coming in?
Would he be considered a Black Marans?

If he continues to just get flecks of copper...I will just have to see if I can start a new color called Black Copper Splash.

He looks as though someone poured liquid silver from the back of his comb down his back and it ran down his sides but he is not silver he is just black with couple of copper feathers here and there and some beetle sheen and the beetle sheen feathers are the ones that are turning copper.

 

[alpinefarm]

My BCM roo, Henri, from Wade Jeane and Bev Davis lines, was 4 months old before he showed even one copper feather. He has *lots* of copper now and is quite stunning. A pullet from the same eggs was totally black until 5 months, then began to "copper up."

Don't worry...it will come!

 

[EweSheep]

Maybe it would like the speckled birds, they may not have much as youngsters but when the matured, went thru their first molt and second molt, you should have a good idea there will be more color to it.

I would say give it more time at least a year or two for him to really flourish his copper colors to show thru.

 

[Katy]

The only BC roo I've ever had, had copper from the very beginning.

 

[pinkchick]

I will give him as much time as he needs.......he is the sweetest and most inquisitive bird that I have. I hope he stays that way, time will tell. He is very interested and active in what ever takes place in his coop. He is very helpful when I am tossing in new shavings. Lets just say that I can no longer take the wheelbarrow in the coop, he thinks I take it in there just for his amusement and forget about trying to keep him out of the coop when you are shoveling it out...he can scratch every shovel full back out of the wheelbarrow as fast as I can put it in. I think he needs therapy!

Putting the copper color question aside for the moment......how does he look in general?

As for size he is just a tad smaller than my 8 mos old Davis line splash roos. He is just huge!

 

[pbjmaker]

Here is my BCM roo earlier this spring - very little to no copper and about the same age as yours is now.

Here he is like two months later ( I think this was in May) He would have been like 5 months old)

I think some just get the copper color later. He is now almost 8 months old and starting to molt again. It will be interesting to see if he gets more "coppery" ( I hope not)

 

[Cuban Longtails]

I've noticed the ones feathering out with a lot of copper when they are young, usually have too much copper when they're older. I'm still looking for a correctly colored male. I think they're rare beasts.

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
I think that's the key here -- you've only had one. You can't judge the whole breed from one bird.

Different lines will show their coppering at different ages. IMHO, you shouldn't start panicking about a lack of copper until the bird is at least 4 or 5 months or so. Let him grow up a little!

Also -- some black coppers will NEVER show the coppering, because of excess melanizing genes. This is also more common in some lines than in others. So even if he does stay black forever, he is probably still genetically black copper rather than genetically black (with the E gene).