Black Copper Maran [Sport?] Chick - Pictures:

Mappy Mama, the Copper Blacks are known for the darkest eggs. My wheatens hatched from like a 5 on the egg scale. Not the darkest, but well within what the proposed standard calls for. The wheaten roos look almost identical to black coppers.

I don't dare borrow a picture from someone's site. Do a search of them and you can see what they look like. I don't have a pic of my guy to put up.

They are a very beautiful bird. I love mine.
 
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If these are baby chicks and you just mean that the down is light, then those chicks are probably wheaten. It is relatively common for black copper flocks to be carrying the recessive wheaten gene around.
 
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If these are baby chicks and you just mean that the down is light, then those chicks are probably wheaten. It is relatively common for black copper flocks to be carrying the recessive wheaten gene around.

so will these (weatons) throw copper blacks? if they hatch chicks?
 
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No. Wheaten is recessive to black copper. IOW, when the black copper gene is present it hides the wheaten gene. So black copper birds may be carrying the wheaten gene, but birds that look wheaten can never be carrying the black copper gene.
 
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No. Wheaten is recessive to black copper. IOW, when the black copper gene is present it hides the wheaten gene. So black copper birds may be carrying the wheaten gene, but birds that look wheaten can never be carrying the black copper gene.

Ok so is the BC without the WH gene a real wheaton or just a BC w/ that looks like a Wheaton? I want to know for breeding and improving my flock
 
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I don't know what you mean here. A "real" wheaten looks like a wheaten. A black copper may be carrying the wheaten gene, but it is still a black copper bird. A black copper that does not carry the wheaten gene is also a black copper.
 
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I don't know what you mean here. A "real" wheaten looks like a wheaten. A black copper may be carrying the wheaten gene, but it is still a black copper bird. A black copper that does not carry the wheaten gene is also a black copper.

so would u keep a A black copper that does carry the wheaten gene in your breeding flock or move it to the back yard flock. In other words should I keep these white BC chicks in my breeding program?
 
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First, and once again -- those "white" chicks are NOT black coppers. The "white" chicks are wheatens. They CAME from black coppers, but they are not black coppers themselves.

I would certainly NOT breed the wheatens to your black coppers. That'll just spread the wheaten gene further into your black copper birds, which gets really annoying for people who want to breed black coppers using your birds in the future.

OTOH -- if you want to breed WHEATEN Marans, there's nothing wrong with keeping them and breeding them to each other. You may have some trouble with other modifying genes, but that gets a bit complicated for this discussion.

Now, as for the black coppers that are carrying the wheaten gene -- if you own the rooster and he produced these chicks, then I'd probably get rid of him or at least make a note that he carries wheaten. After all, many people to whom you may sell eggs will get upset if the "black copper" eggs they purchase don't all hatch out black copper. Unfortunately, though, in most cases you won't know which hen produced the egg that hatched the wheaten chick -- so you won't know which hen to get rid of!
 
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First, and once again -- those "white" chicks are NOT black coppers. The "white" chicks are wheatens. They CAME from black coppers, but they are not black coppers themselves.

I would certainly NOT breed the wheatens to your black coppers. That'll just spread the wheaten gene further into your black copper birds, which gets really annoying for people who want to breed black coppers using your birds in the future.

OTOH -- if you want to breed WHEATEN Marans, there's nothing wrong with keeping them and breeding them to each other. You may have some trouble with other modifying genes, but that gets a bit complicated for this discussion.

Now, as for the black coppers that are carrying the wheaten gene -- if you own the rooster and he produced these chicks, then I'd probably get rid of him or at least make a note that he carries wheaten. After all, many people to whom you may sell eggs will get upset if the "black copper" eggs they purchase don't all hatch out black copper. Unfortunately, though, in most cases you won't know which hen produced the egg that hatched the wheaten chick -- so you won't know which hen to get rid of!

I love reading your posts...thank you for your input on these things!
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