Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[Ihilani Coffee]

I have a little experience with breeding the heavy marked males to get a better colored female Hackle. Yes this will help with the female hackle but in my experience the Males from this will have too much Copper on the breast. Myself I would rather use a male that had just a few Copper feathers in the breast area.

We have Nine BC females from the experiment with buying eggs from ebay last year and they show no Copper at all. This egg experiment was a total disaster as for Color. These came from the supposed best breeders in the country. We culled all the males at an early age. I just do not believe in keeping anything if I do not have a purpose for it in the future. Don

I kind of doubt that the "best breeders in the country" would be selling on eBay! Or were the sellers claiming they came from those "lines," as people often do no matter how many generations removed from X Y or Z's "line?"

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
What you read is a fact and will not name names as that is not my job. When someone wins at one of the larger shows and put it in print you assume they think they have great Marans. Some of these people win at 10-12 shows a year.

 

[desertmarcy]

I have a little experience with breeding the heavy marked males to get a better colored female Hackle. Yes this will help with the female hackle but in my experience the Males from this will have too much Copper on the breast. Myself I would rather use a male that had just a few Copper feathers in the breast area.

We have Nine BC females from the experiment with buying eggs from ebay last year and they show no Copper at all. This egg experiment was a total disaster as for Color. These came from the supposed best breeders in the country. We culled all the males at an early age. I just do not believe in keeping anything if I do not have a purpose for it in the future. Don

Every year I use males that have no breast color, just solid black. And every year I continue to get a significant # of cockerels with excess breast color. When does it end? Now, I am willing to use an overcolored male next year to get some nicely colored females and just cull all cockerels as soon as I can tell their sex, assuming they will be no good. If I do this and get decent colored pullets, and then breed those to a male with correct black breast color, will I still see male offspring with too much breast color? I'm just trying to figure out how this whole color on the breast thing works.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:

 

[snowbird]

Quote: Marcia, I think you are right on mating up your BC Marans. You are at the point now where everything needs to be banded and kept until you see what they are producing. I would single mate a few to see what is producing the best young. I only have one male to breed this year so am yard breeding for the first time by necessity. I try and keep records on all matings I make. Don

 

[desertmarcy]

Marcia, I think you are right on mating up your BC Marans. You are at the point now where everything needs to be banded and kept until you see what they are producing. I would single mate a few to see what is producing the best young. I only have one male to breed this year so am yard breeding for the first time by necessity. I try and keep records on all matings I make. Don

I do keep records and wing band everything. But just don't have enough pens to single mate since I also have other breeds I'm working on. Also, when I move Marans around into another space, they quit laying. This year, I had two pens set up. One had one male and only 2-3 females. Started with 3, but culled one out so left with 2. The other pen, one male and only 4 hens. I test mated both males after the fact to see if they carry recessive yellow. Too late, found out the male over the 4 hens does. I hatched out about 60 young from him. So things get even more complicated for me now. My plan is to cull as usual but when it comes down to the better ones, I'll keep more than normal and test mate them all before choosing breeders. The other male tested negative for recessive yellow, but I know it is in that line, that's what got me testing them in the first place. I'm done hatching for keepers this year so now trying to do some test mating one of the hens that were under him. But she quit laying when I moved her into a smaller pen with a Barred Rock male. I take that back, she laid 2 eggs soon after moving her in with him and ate them both. They probably got broken since no nest box in there, but she hasn't laid any more since as far as I know. What a pain. Almost feel like giving up on this breed, they are costing me so much money.

 

[silversong]

Hi all! We have two chicks from 5 eggs we purchased from a local hobby breeder. Four fertile, one stopped partway, one didn't pip. Based on wing tips at a day, we have a pullet and a roo. aka Daisy and Luke (Bo the blond, is an Ameracauna who hatched at the same time) ;-) Looking forward to reading through this forum...looks like a lot to learn about fbcm!

 

[One Chick Two]

I'm so sorry. This just happened to our BCM flock as well. We lost our direct Bev Davis cock at just over a year. I had just picked him up the day before...he was in great weight, fertile, active. I did notice some swelling in his legs but no mites or other apparent parasites. I found him face down in the coop. He had five hens with him. It's just heartbreaking, and in this case devastating as we had not yet found a backup cock/erel. It took me a long time to find this guy. I'm wondering if some lines have heart conditions? With the slight swelling in his legs, I'm thinking a congestive heart condition like we see in humans and dogs BUT...I wouldn't expect him to be so healthy and active otherwise. He was a very substantial bird, not fat but LARGE. It's a mystery, and again I'm sorry for your loss.

So very sorry for the loss of your lovely boy. Hope you find a nice replacement for him soon.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

So very sorry for the loss of your lovely boy. Hope you find a nice replacement for him soon.

Thank you for your kind words. We have found a young cockerel from the same breeder's flock. It will be a while before we know what we have...he's at that awkward teen stage (18 weeks).

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Hi all! We have two chicks from 5 eggs we purchased from a local hobby breeder. Four fertile, one stopped partway, one didn't pip. Based on wing tips at a day, we have a pullet and a roo. aka Daisy and Luke (Bo the blond, is an Ameracauna who hatched at the same time) ;-) Looking forward to reading through this forum...looks like a lot to learn about fbcm!

Congratulations! Wing sexing generally doesn't work on Marans, but you have a 50% chance of a correct guess.