Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[DnDFarm]

Yes, for a breeder and something that will produce you some colored pullets to work with.

Do you still see blue in the blacks? I was told they were from a black only pen

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
SC, does this male still have all the colored feathers. If you can try and keep an eye on him to see what he looks like after the Juve molt. I know the white specks will most likely disappear.

 

[BertandMary]

this is our only Pullet. We have a dozen eggs from this pen in the bator. She is almost 2 weeks old. Is this what a FBCM should look like at that age?

she looks more black in person.

 

[snowbird]

this is our only Pullet. We have a dozen eggs from this pen in the bator. She is almost 2 weeks old. Is this what a FBCM should look like at that age?

No it is not colored like a BC Marans at all. Do you have a picture of mother and father you would post to help here.

 

[Red Banks]

I'd say you will get a good idea what you have based on Don's critique of mine. I think I have birds I can work with here, I'm just hoping Don feels decent about one of the cockerels. I think the eggs will be good, they are Davis line and Bev recommended Julie to me. Like you, I really want the dark eggs too, but I want to be able to sell SOP birds as well. My first group laid dark eggs, but were beyond repair as far as SOP

ETA: Did you notice how close the birds are to me? I had to shoo some out of the way to take pictures of others. Tamest birds I have ever had

My 11 week olds drive me crazy. I can hardly walk, they are always under my feet. Little Peddler had an interesting blurb on her website. The link reads "Key to Egg Color". She writes inbreeding is the key. It sounds like you can have one or the other. The darkest eggs or show birds but not both. I am going to work with these birds I have now, my third attempt. I can't believe that even the successful breeders culled ALL of their birds three or four times. I believe I read a post from GaryDean26 (Curtis) that read his first BCM birds were awful but he kept them and did it the hard way. I can do no worse than the breeders I have bought chicks from. I have learned a lot from this thread, I am not saying I know what I am doing but I want to learn and I want to be successful. I read Marans Clubs websites, I read the opinions and experience of the people here and I am very grateful for their guidance and patience. What I am sure of is there is no such thing as a perfect Black Copper Marans.... just some very nice ones. I read on the CL thread (again I think it was Curtis) build the house first and then paint it. My young birds have a lot of color but for right now I am going to look past that and work on the structure..

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
RB, I have to disagree with LP on inbreeding. What you want to do is linebreeding. I never inbreed any of the fowl I have ever owned. If you go by the old Cliche you will never improve your Marans to close to the SOP . While working on just one thing at a time you will have three faults show up. Work on as many faults at the same time that you can. I recommend to all new Poultry people to not be afraid to Single and Double mate your fowl. You can accomplish more in a shorter amount of time. You need a lot less brood fowl.

 

[DnDFarm]

My 11 week olds drive me crazy. I can hardly walk, they are always under my feet. Little Peddler had an interesting blurb on her website. The link reads "Key to Egg Color". She writes inbreeding is the key. It sounds like you can have one or the other. The darkest eggs or show birds but not both. I am going to work with these birds I have now, my third attempt. I can't believe that even the successful breeders culled ALL of their birds three or four times. I believe I read a post from GaryDean26 (Curtis) that read his first BCM birds were awful but he kept them and did it the hard way. I can do no worse than the breeders I have bought chicks from. I have learned a lot from this thread, I am not saying I know what I am doing but I want to learn and I want to be successful. I read Marans Clubs websites, I read the opinions and experience of the people here and I am very grateful for their guidance and patience. What I am sure of is there is no such thing as a perfect Black Copper Marans.... just some very nice ones. I read on the CL thread (again I think it was Curtis) build the house first and then paint it. My young birds have a lot of color but for right now I am going to look past that and work on the structure..

I agree with all you said, and even the big breeders talk about what a hard breed it is to work with. I've also heard the same about type vs. eggs. It's a hard balance to strike, but I think there has to be a common ground there. I don't think culling for #8 or 9 eggs will yield SOP birds, but surely you could maintain around a #6. I think that's what Don said he has. That's still much darker than hybrid eggs, and is what most people want when looking for BCM. I just want to remain as close to SOP as possible so that people wanting to breed to SOP are getting at least a decent foundation. My first group laid dark eggs, but the birds themselves were horrible, with multiple DQ faults. That wasn't something I wanted to take years to breed out, so I started over. As long as Don doesn't tell me to eat them all, then I feel like I am at a decent starting point. The rest is up to me. I'm very much looking forward to these eggs, because the breeder I got them from is known for trying to maintain the color, and her blue coppers supposedly lay darker than the blacks

 

[DnDFarm]

RB, I have to disagree with LP on inbreeding. What you want to do is linebreeding. I never inbreed any of the fowl I have ever owned. If you go by the old Cliche you will never improve your Marans to close to the SOP . While working on just one thing at a time you will have three faults show up. Work on as many faults at the same time that you can. I recommend to all new Poultry people to not be afraid to Single and Double mate your fowl. You can accomplish more in a shorter amount of time. You need a lot less brood fowl.

You are just talking about the difference between sibling matings and parent matings, right? My chicks weren't marked, so more than likely my first generation will be sibling matings, but after that I will go back to line beeding

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
SC, start off with the sibling matings and breed them single mated to get a few with marks and you can breed them several different ways. After that father to daughter, mother to son, there are a multitude of different ways to breed and not breed brother-sister.
Here where I live we do not breed Pullets until they have been through a Winter. We have to see if they can withstand the cold.

 

[snowbird]

If the weather warms up ever, we will be putting the oldest 150 young Marans out in the grow out pens. I like the type we have but the color will be dark on the females. We used the darker male from a necessity point.