Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[Zanna]

In my experiences with BC Marans with too much color on the breast it is from not knowing how to set up the breeding pens. Everything to do with the Copper color on the BC is to do with averages. If you try and breed SOP male and females together you will be disappointed in the off spring. We can go over the selection of the BC if anyone is interested. Don

I would love the review as well!

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Maybe I shouldn't be upset that I didn't get any cockerels, then! However excessive breast copper seems to be a problem with this breed in general. How old are your LP pullets now? Are they getting any nice copper hackles? Of my Bev Davis chicks, I have 7 cockerels to choose from, only 3 pullets. From Brian's line, I ended up with 3 cockerels and 6 pullets. Unless there are some late bloomers, but I doubt it. Marans are easy to sex early and these are 6 weeks old now. I plan to grow them all out a little longer, not cull as early as I would if I hatched them myself. I have plenty of chicks from my own lines to work with this year as well.

They are about 5 months now, pretty good copper on hackles but not extending up onto the head as I'd like to see ideally. I agree that in certain lines the excessive copper on the breast is an issue, but not sure about the breed in general since there aren't that many around here. The chicks from crossing Brian's LP with my Davis cockerel (in the photo below) with clear black breast have not shown me the excessive copper on the cockerel's breasts either, but I've seen a little white toe fuzz on a few of them. It's always something!

 

[snowbird]

Will try and help with some of the ideas I have worked with over the years. For five year I hatched and grew out over 600 BC Marans each year, while doing this I did a lot of single matings.

First thing with the BC is if you breed to birds with white in Wings and Tail and undercolor you will never get rid of the White.

If you are looking for females with good Copper Hackle use a Male with extra Copper in the breast. I am not referring to the Brown Breasted Males as these have a Wheaten influence and should not be used in an SOP breeding program. It is much better to breed one pair of real good birds than use 8-10 marans of poor quality.

Look at your Marans an see if they have the Brown Colored lower body feathers, if they do this is from Wheaten Influence showing up. Cull these out of your breeding program. In my profile there are a couple of half wheaten and half BC marans notice the copper spots on these birds.

Will be back in a bit with more on the BC, Will try and eventually post all I can about breeding the BC. I do not have a problem with differing opinions.

 

[scflock]

Will try and help with some of the ideas I have worked with over the years. For five year I hatched and grew out over 600 BC Marans each year, while doing this I did a lot of single matings.

First thing with the BC is if you breed to birds with white in Wings and Tail and undercolor you will never get rid of the White.

If you are looking for females with good Copper Hackle use a Male with extra Copper in the breast. I am not referring to the Brown Breasted Males as these have a Wheaten influence and should not be used in an SOP breeding program. It is much better to breed one pair of real good birds than use 8-10 marans of poor quality.

Look at your Marans an see if they have the Brown Colored lower body feathers, if they do this is from Wheaten Influence showing up. Cull these out of your breeding program. In my profile there are a couple of half wheaten and half BC marans notice the copper spots on these birds.

Will be back in a bit with more on the BC, Will try and eventually post all I can about breeding the BC. I do not have a problem with differing opinions.

What is the difference between copper and brown? I know the difference between them in a crayon box, but I'm not sure when looking at hackles. I've seen some that I would think are copper, but when I hear brown or mahogany, it makes me question what I see

 

[snowbird]

Where I was referring to Brown is on the breast and the soft feathering on bottom part of the Body. Now the Yellow Halo effect like on my Avatar Male is from the wheaten influence. The Hackle Flame also has something with the copper coloring , But we will go into this later .

With breeding for BC males I like to use a BC male with a few copper spots on the breast. Just remember that Poultry are showed by the Comparison method in the USA and do not have to be perfect to the APA and the SOP. If we single mate we can raise less chick and better quality off spring . Everything should be Toe Punched and there is a chart on my profile page.

My idea is for the BC eggs to be at least a #6 on the Marans egg chart. I breed more to Marans Type instead of egg color. I believe in my mind it is hard to get both in the same hen.

 

[snowbird]

One thing to remember on the BC fowl is the Ear Tufts should always be copper colored. The BC fowl will produce three different color of Marans, Black Copper, Mahogany , and straw colored hackle and saddle feathers. The fowl with Straw colored Hackle should be culled soon as they get their adult feathers. I use some of the Mahogany colored Males in my breeding pens and will explain if there is interest. Don

 

[scflock]

One thing to remember on the BC fowl is the Ear Tufts should always be copper colored. The BC fowl will produce three different color of Marans, Black Copper, Mahogany , and straw colored hackle and saddle feathers. The fowl with Straw colored Hackle should be culled soon as they get their adult feathers. I use some of the Mahogany colored Males in my breeding pens and will explain if there is interest. Don

I'm just using the four in my original flock as examples. I am not going to breed them forward, but I want to understand the color differences for the future.

This hackle would be straw colored, correct?


This one still has some straw, but mostly copper? Brown?



This is the same one from the picture above. Is that copper, or is that more mahogany?


Thanks for your input. I want a correct flock badly, and don't want to get burned again. I know there will be heavy culls in any flock, but I will probably be starting with eggs, so I want to know what to look for as they mature

 

[snowbird]

Yes, The first one is Straw colored and from the picture I believe the second is Copper and it might take a little more time to mature a bit.

 

[scflock]

Yes, The first one is Straw colored and from the picture I believe the second is Copper and it might take a little more time to mature a bit.

those pictures were taken about a month ago. The second one is the best looking of the bunch, and his colors are still pretty much the same but more of them. The only difference is he has started showing that copper/brown on his chest. I don't know if you saw my post when I first started on this thread, but two of the chicks from that batch had yellow feet. I'm going to have to scrap them all, and start over again. I just want to have a better idea what I am looking for this time

 

[RFR of CA]

These are two roosters I have had. I like the tail set on the first one. The second has a terrible squirrel tail. Both seemed nice in copper coloration, but first developed white, second had way too much copper now and tail is too wrong. Starting over with LPs and french imports by GFF. Not sure if they will be any better, but I am going to give it a shot.