Black Copper Marans discussion thread

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I could possibly be getting some of these soon, anything I should be looking for other than the feathery feet? I'm new to BCM so please give me tips, Thanks!
 
Alex1010 said:
I could possibly be getting some of these soon, anything I should be looking for other than the feathery feet? I'm new to BCM so please give me tips, Thanks!
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The best advise I can give it to not get Marans from anyone that hasn't been breeding there current flock of Marans for a minimum of 3 years.

Reading the standard through a few times might be a good idea. Feathered shanks aren't the only thing that makes a true Marans and certainly not the most important thing but when you buy hatching eggs or chicks you never know what you are getting. Even if the parent stock looks good there is no guarantee that the offspring are going to be consistent if the line hasn't been breed for at least 2-3 generations. Getting breeding stock is a better bet, but again their offspring may not be consistent and may have to be breed for a few generation before you will see consistency.

If you can find someone that had a proven line and will mentor you as you work with their line that is the way to go. Selecting stock based on the presence of feathered shanks is not going to get you as far.
 
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Thank you GaryDean26 for your very much for your detailed reply! I greatly appreciate your efforts and knowledge! I guess I should have mentioned in my original post that none of the other birds in my flock show any of these flaws. They occur only once, in each of the respective cockerels as described. I would not be breeding like flaws together. So I guess I'm trying to determine which two birds to take a chance on. All of my pullets have really good hackle coloring and none of them have side sprigs, white feathers, or white earlobes. I've been impressed with my one pullet who, at 21 weeks old, started laying this week and has given me 4 eggs in the past 5 days, all getting progressively darker and larger.

Originally, I was thinking of keeping cockerels 2 and 3 (white feathers and white earlobes) and not even considering keeping the one with the side sprigs, as my inclination was that side sprigs where pretty much impossible to get rid of in a line? I was hoping the white feathers would possibly molt out eventually, as its only a tiny bit of white at the base of a few feathers where it comes out of the skin? I think because the white is less than 1/2 inch long, it would not be a disqualification according to the APA? My inexperienced guess on the white earlobes was that each generation, the white earlobe gene would get more and more diluted until the red lobes became more dominant? But I'm really not sure how the genetics of earlobe color works, so my guess could be totally wrong. However, it sounded like you can't "dilute" the side sprigs gene out of your flock, its either there or it isn't? I never knew chicken genetics where so sophisticated, but I'm up for the challenge! So now I'm really confused at which birds to take a gamble on and which to remove.

Snowbird (Don) or anyone else want to chime in on ranking which 2 or more cockerels I should keep to use (my original post #11777 with pictures)? Or perhaps any other evaluations of the birds you think I missed? Thanks so much to all of you for your help and happy holidays!
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