Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[jennifersmith326]

Is there anyway to feather sex BCM at about a week. I have some that have solid black feathers coming in and come that have black with a little brown on the them.

 

[aghiowa]

Hi folks! I posted over on the What Breed or Gender is This board, but I thought I'd get the opinions of people intimately familiar with marans. I hatched out one black copper marans on Feb 19th. What gender do you think it is? It is currently just about 2 months old. I am hoping pullet, as we are not allowed roosters here in town. Also, my daughter is just starting in 4H and will be showing chickens at the fair this year. IF this one turns out to be a pullet, what can we look for to see if she's a nice-looking one?

Thanks for indulging my ignorance.

Now:

At 5 weeks old:

Earlier still:

Angela

 

[VillageChicken]

I would say roo. None of my pullets have had that much comb or wattle at 8-9 weeks.

Hey Geebs and Math - whatever happened to that chick study y'all were doing. Did you ever find a correlation between white chickdown and copper/melanization?

 

[Zanna]

Advise needed when starting a breeding program for BCM. Is it better to get chicks from several different sources/lines or better to stick with one, two lines or does it really matter? No breeding will be taking place until I have breedworthy hens/roos. At this point I have two promising roos (culled down from 9) but no hens yet.

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
SOME marans chicks can be feather sexed at about 2-3 days. After that it is difficult. Not all chicks can be feather sexed, it depends on the genes of the parents.
The brown usually goes away.

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
I would go with a breeder known for good hens. Ask around here, I think folks will be honest.

 

[Zanna]

Quote:
I would go with a breeder known for good hens. Ask around here, I think folks will be honest.

Thank you! I do have chicks on order from three reputable breeders (all with different lines of breeds) and considering ordering from a fourth, just wondering if I needed to re-think my madness and narrow down to one or two breeders with the same lines. My feeling is a good bird is a good bird and all of the lines I know about can produce good birds but also bad as this is a breed in progress. Once I get going, my flock will basically be a closed flock. Good plan???

 

[VillageChicken]

I think many folks on this thread would say they lose egg color when they cross lines. Unless you plan to keep each of your lines separate, this may happen.
There are something like 13 different genes that influence egg shell appearance. Different combinations produce different shades and intensities, matte vs. glossy etc. Some of these are dominant, some are recessive. Not many have been studied, identified or understood well enough to know what combination creates the dark Marans egg. Some lines may have a different combination of genes that produce the dark eggs compared to another line. Crossing these lines jumbles the "combination" and you lose it for a generation or two.

 

[geebs]

I noted that the more white on em... the more red you get in the males... Across the board... I found my better males had less yellow/white chick down... I haven't really paid attention to white vs yellow but that probably means something also... I will have hear back from the early picture takers... I know mine was a darker individual and it ended up looking great.... some others with much more white ended up with too much red...

 

[Zanna]

Quote:
I can separate when it comes time to breed so I will just see what happens when the time comes........

I think this has been talked about before but is there a line(s) that has shown consistency in producing dark eggs and show quality birds? The only lines I have really heard of are Wade Jean, Presley, Bev Davis and the stock that Bethel Plantation (Monique) has that are supposed to be a French Line and the flock kept preserved and closed? I have heard of lines producing darker eggs and lines producing better birds but not both. I am really new to this so please advise/correct.