Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[Zanna]

What do you do with your culls? Work on egg color or other things? Or sell them?

The roos go in my freezer or to the local auction to be sold for food, the pullets/hens get sold as "pet quality" dark egg layers. I have a flock of just egg layers so I do not keep any BCM that I don't think are quality enough to try test mating. They have a different purpose for me

 

[marquisella]

What's the difference between French Black and Coppers?

When the Marans were starting to become popular and the club was going for APA approval, there were people who did not want them to be approved, and they started to claim that "their birds" were more French, than others or that their line was more recently from France, so more French...

That is when people started adding the word French to the name trying to distinguish themselves from the rest of us. Since Marans originated from France, they are all "French Marans" so adding the word French is really redundant.

As to the clean legg thing, they originally called them "English Marans" to distinguish them from the feathered legged Marans.

At least that is how it was since I've been involved in 2007.

 

[Wynette]

Hey, Sue - did you post the show results for this past weekend's show? I heard your Blue Copper eggs won the egg show! CONGRATS!!!

 

[heirloomorps]

Doing some culling soon........ The majority of my girls are overmelanized so one of the goals for this year is to develop more copper on the offsprings necks. I think it was on this thread, maybe the Marans thread and I think it was Ernie talking about brown (copper) vs black ear tufts as a correlation with producing more copper on the girls. Most of my young roos have very dark ear tufts so I am thinking they are culls for what I am wanting to work on. My new young cockeral currently in the breeder pen with a hen and pullet has nice copper tufts. Thoughts, experiences???

That is one of our problems too - we have some promising looking chicks though which are already getting copper in their necks! We also have a roo which has too much copper, and we have put him with our darkest hens.

 

[marquisella]

Hey, Sue - did you post the show results for this past weekend's show? I heard your Blue Copper eggs won the egg show! CONGRATS!!!

I posted them a while ago, it took me some time to get back in gear from the weekend. It is quite a rush, but worth it.

No, mine didn't win overall, they did win best blue coppers. There were a lot of eggs & it was a good showing. I was impressed by your eggs, they are dark! I think if they were shiny, they might have won. Mine were scratched a lot, so although they were dark, not as nice looking as the others.

If you enter eggs like that at Newnan, you will give them all a run for their money! LOL You should use a photo of them in your avatar...

 

[Ray from PA]

I posted them a while ago, it took me some time to get back in gear from the weekend. It is quite a rush, but worth it.

No, mine didn't win overall, they did win best blue coppers. There were a lot of eggs & it was a good showing. I was impressed by your eggs, they are dark! I think if they were shiny, they might have won. Mine were scratched a lot, so although they were dark, not as nice looking as the others.

If you enter eggs like that at Newnan, you will give them all a run for their money! LOL You should use a photo of them in your avatar...

Congrats to both of you gals !

You have both obviously done a great job developing dark egg layers,,,, and I commend you for that,,, certainly gives us something to reach for, a few of my girls lay a nice egg, but I've seen some really impressive ones in the short time I've been around this thread and I commend you for your time and dedication to the many facets of the breed.

 

[maryhysong]

There is another thread with pics started to show sop. It doesn't seem complete but its a good start. I will have to find it later... running into bed time for the one year old. I will look again if someone else doesn't find it before me.

I found it: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/517113/marans-sop-discussion-thread I remember reading it when I first became interested in the BCMs. The standard is given on the first post; I have a couple questions, should I post on that thread or bring them here?

 

[ashandvine]

here. The other thread is almost always dead and these folks will know too.

I also saw the table with Marans eggs being judged. That was a first for me and fun.

BTW thank you Ms. Sue for your clarification regarding FCBM for just CBM. Question: on the show cards the S was left of Marans and I understand that this is a no no. Anyone want to chime in? I also have three different schools of pronunciation around me and its getting irritating. Can't all this just be settled when things are APA recognized, like a dictionary in the APA book:
Buff Orpington (Buf orPINGtun) or Campine (camPine) That would be nice.

Mer RUN
MARE in
Mah RAN

Its a French word so I vote first one and say keep the silent S.

 

[maryhysong]

OK I had posted on the SOP thread but no answers; I think everyone is over here any way. The nice thing about that thread tho is having the standard on the first page.

"BACK: Wide at the shoulders, long, flat, slightly tilted to the rear. Slightly more inclined than that of the female."

I am still learning so this might be dumb question, but just trying to get the right picture in my head. From this I'm thinking that in a relaxed stance the back is basically flat, but the shoulders are slightly lower than the area right in front of the tail, so the back runs up hill towards the tail. I see a lot of birds of different breeds where the back runs uphill towards the neck and shoulders and that would be wrong for the Marans.

Does anyone have some pictures that show this? Also how about pictures from above? I'm thinking as a dual purpose bird the Marans should be as wide at the tail end as it is at the shoulders? Even pictures of what they SHOULDN"T look like would be helpful

 

[Wynette]

here. The other thread is almost always dead and these folks will know too.

I also saw the table with Marans eggs being judged. That was a first for me and fun.

BTW thank you Ms. Sue for your clarification regarding FCBM for just CBM. Question: on the show cards the S was left of Marans and I understand that this is a no no. Anyone want to chime in? I also have three different schools of pronunciation around me and its getting irritating. Can't all this just be settled when things are APA recognized, like a dictionary in the APA book:
Buff Orpington (Buf orPINGtun) or Campine (camPine) That would be nice.

Mer RUN
MARE in
Mah RAN

Its a French word so I vote first one and say keep the silent S.

Most that I know say it like "Karen" but with an "m."