Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[VillageChicken]

I know the French have confused the Wheaten and BC roos in the past too, but I would think they wouldn't use such mixed blood birds in the photographs on their club website.

Don - Thanks for sharing about your work. Are you saying that none of your birds have ever thrown a wheaten? If that's the case, then the light shank and straw hackle seem unlikely to come from wheaten blood since you've hatched hundreds of birds without hatching a single wheaten. If the wheaten genes produce pale shanks and straw hackle, then you'd get at least a few wheaten chicks when you hatch.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

just as my roo was starting to look really nice one of my dogs desided to try to tear him up some how he got awat from the dogs but now his comb is missing a cunk out of it and he lost a bunch of back and tail feathers we arent sure what one of the dogs we have did it to him so they are all under house arrest now we were letting them out side to run around the yard and they got treats all the time now they go out 1 at a time and hooked to a short run and they didnt get there treats last night they all know that im upset with them all and i told my wife no extra treats for the week im hopeing that the roo heals up so that we can at leat hatch out some eggs over the winter so we can have a replacement for him

 

[stoopid]

That sucks. Give the dog a smack on the butt, tell him it's from me!

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

Quote:
if i knew what dog did it id be putting it in the kennel crate and let him think about it while the rest of the dogs were getting treats but ive got to many dogs to know who it was so they all are takeing the punnishment for it

 

[stoopid]

Smack 'em all!

 

[pinkchick]

Quote:
Sue, three year ago I started culling all the white shank males from my line of BC and in the process eliminated most of the yellow and straw neck males. Also last year I went a stap farther and culled all males that had white in wing and tail after the Juve molt . Virtually eliminated these faults in my Marans, I am sure it was Wheaten related in my birds. I have never with all the chicks BC hatched a chick looking like a wheaten come out of my Marans BC. My Black copper marans Males have Medium to Dark slate legs.

Don I have to agree with you about culling. When I started I had roos with white feathers at the base of the tails, after 4 years of culling I can say that this past summer, I had 14 cockerels all together and as I looked down at them, there was not 1 white feather in the bunch!
I've also never gotten a Wheaten from a black copper, but my flock is mostly Davis and that is probably why.

Ditto that! Never got a Wheaten here and my birds are all Davis, except Bill and his offspring, but have never got a Wheatie out of Bill either, Birchen, yes. I must say that I am very pleased about the Birchen thing popping up too.

 

[Debbi]

Too bad the dogs have no idea why you are punishing them. Dogs won't recall mistakes from days ago or even hours ago, or even see it as a mistake. If you don't catch the dog in the "act", and punish immediately for their crime, your deeds have no meaning to them. Either your dogs need more training and supervised exposure to the chickens, or keep them totally seperate from the flock...period. Your dogs were just doing what dogs do, hunt their prey. Punishing them now, is like punishing a two year old child for something he did 6 months ago. Learn from your mistake, and let the dogs have their treats. The only one feeling guilty is you, not the dogs. JMHO

 

[stoopid]

Yeah Debbi, you're right.

 

[hudsonnascarfan]

Quote:
this was something they got in trouble for within mins of it happening we heard the noise and ran out right then the problem was all the dogs were in that area so its just that they know ive been calling them bad dogs and not loveing up to them like i normaly would they have been fine with the chickens up till yesterday im thinking it was my younger pup and one of the other dogs but they are all getting in trouble for it

 

[pinkchick]

Must have been the day for dogs to act crazy yesterday and want chicken for dinner. My Lillie, who hasn't eaten a chicken in almost 2 years went after one of my young cockerels last evening. I was sitting at the table doing some paperwork and I heard this blood curdling chicken scream outside. Got up and looked and here was my Lillie with a little Olive Egger cockerel in her mouth. I yelled at her and she dropped him along with a poof of feathers, he got up and ran directly back to his coop, I caught him and he had no injuries but is missing some tail feathers.
What's funny is that she won't mess with any chickens unless they get out of their respective areas. They can be in the pasture (that Lillie has full access to) and she won't touch them. They can be in the commons area where the majority of my breeders are and she won't touch them....but if they get into the regular yard, she thinks they are fair game. It took me over a year to get her to stop going after them and trying to knock me off my feet to get into the coops...but I can't keep her from testing the waters if they come into her yard.