Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[snowbird]

My FCBM have just started laying in the last couple months One thing that I have noticed is that when I crack open the eggs there are always lots of spots in the white and close to the yolk. Is this normal for this breed? I haven't experienced this with any of the other breed that I have.

Yes, This appears in some lines of the BC Marans and is called blood spots and meat spots. Some will stop after a while.

 

[Alaskan]

My FCBM have just started laying in the last couple months One thing that I have noticed is that when I crack open the eggs there are always lots of spots in the white and close to the yolk. Is this normal for this breed? I haven't experienced this with any of the other breed that I have.

It is not a good thing, and I wouldn't hatch out those eggs to further the line.


Talking of what we shouldn't breed...

This last hatch of Marans I have (for the first time that I noticed anyway) two with fuzz on the middle toe.

One chick has only one tiny spot, the other chick has a bit more.

Obviously, I do not breed the chicks that have fuzz on their middle toes.... but what about their parents?

 

[desertmarcy]

My FCBM have just started laying in the last couple months One thing that I have noticed is that when I crack open the eggs there are always lots of spots in the white and close to the yolk. Is this normal for this breed? I haven't experienced this with any of the other breed that I have.

It is not a good thing, and I wouldn't hatch out those eggs to further the line.


Talking of what we shouldn't breed...

This last hatch of Marans I have (for the first time that I noticed anyway) two with fuzz on the middle toe.

One chick has only one tiny spot, the other chick has a bit more.

Obviously, I do not breed the chicks that have fuzz on their middle toes.... but what about their parents?

Well I don't think @marnette needs to worry about hatching out those eggs since they have been cracked open

As far as the middle toe fuzz/feathers, that is a fault but not a DQ for the breed. IMO, there are much more important things to work on with this breed. Type comes first. If you have one with poor type and no middle toe feathers, and one with better type but has middle toe feathers, I'd go with the better typed bird.

 

[johnderosa1]

My FCBM have just started laying in the last couple months One thing that I have noticed is that when I crack open the eggs there are always lots of spots in the white and close to the yolk. Is this normal for this breed? I haven't experienced this with any of the other breed that I have.

Yes meat spots are very common with BCMs. That is the main reason i went out and purchased my little peddler stock. Not sure if they will be better but felt it was worth trying them. To me it always comes down to egg quality in the end... I cant have a chicken, no matter how great a representation of the standards, if I wouldn't be proud to give a friend it 's eggs! I know that this is probably pretty foolish but I cant help it... Eggs are why I got interested in chickens in the first place! I do have a pullet from Wynette that produces an awesome egg... Almost round, solid 6-7 in color and NO meat spots!!!! All my others produced eggs with meat spots and passed this trait to their offspring... Interestingly , none of the olive eggers produced from these ever produced meat spots though .

 

[Ebove06]

Does anybody have any pictures of a 10 week old French black copper Maran?

 

[DMRippy]

Chicks with middle toe fuzz will often lose that fuzz and it will never show again. Don't cull that too early...... might be a big mistake. Like @desertmarcy said type is more important. Often you can use middle toe feathers to ADD it to birds that don't have feathered legs. My cuckoo cock has feathered middle toes but my girls are lightly feathered and the chicks seem to come out almost perfectly feathered. It is a balancing act with any birds.

 

[Alaskan]

@DMRippy thanks for that comment... it never dawned on me that the fuzz on the chick legs wouldn't be exactly what the adults would end up with.

it is just odd...

I have a smallish flock, and have been hatching all spring, and the chicks come out with EVERY level of leg feathering... from zero, to a little, to perfect, and now for the first time 2 chicks with fuzz on the middle toe.

I am just impressed that the genetic variation is so gigantic.


Unfortunately, there isn't much that I can tell about type from just the chicks......

I have been selling all of the ones that I have been hatching, I am going to keep chicks for myself in the next set of eggs that go in.

 

[sugar ridge]

My morans are eight weeks

 

[kkwinwy]

Can someone confirm one pullet, one roo here? (I think?)

 

[snowbird]

Can someone confirm one pullet, one roo here? (I think?)

I see a cockerel and a pullet. APA does not recognise roo as anything. Don