Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[maryhysong]

How old are these girls? To me it looks like the first girl is mossy; that is with copper showing through the black on her body. Hard to say on the body, The second girl looks fairly wide through the tail, but hard to tell from the pics and no comparable pic of the other one to judge width of back. I would watch the white feathers; seems to be a hard thing to breed out....

Here are some more pics of my two pullets, they hate me, so it's really hard to get a good pic. lol
This one I am really excited about, she does have one or two white feathers, but so did my rooster, and they molted out. Her tail is a 25* to 35* degree angle, which will go fine with my rooster's. she has beautiful copper color, and her shanks are feathered nicely, any critique?


This one, I'm not sure what to think about, here shanks aren't as nice, but they're still coming in, and her copper is a little bit darker, I believe she also has one or two white feathers.

 

[salt and pepper]

They are 10-12 weeks old.

 

[maryhysong]

They are 10-12 weeks old.

There there is a good probability that the white feather will molt out on the second one. When you are looking at them together which one is wider through the tail? Is it that second girl? Because overall I like her better, but can't really articulate exactly why....she just seems wider and seems to have more 'presence' if that makes any sense? But I'm still learning and I have soooo much to learn yet! Hopefully Wynette or one of the others will chime in here!

 

[salt and pepper]

Heres some more pics, thanks for the help!

here's a pic of them together, The second one is the one on the left.

 

[maryhysong]

lol. In this pic it looks like the other one is wider!

Heres some more pics, thanks for the help!

here's a pic of them together, The second one is the one on the left.

 

[salt and pepper]

They hate me with a passion, so the only way I can get a clear pic is to pin them down, I hate doing it, but they will freak, and hurt them selves if I don't. It does seem that the heavily feathered one has a wider tail.

 

[snowbird]

Will stck my nose in here on the Dark shank Marans . I realize that the SOP states light to medium slate. We have discussed this with all the genetic experts and the end result was that if you use the light leg Males you will end up with a lot of Marans with the wheaten influence. I cull all the light leg males from my marans flock. I prefer the medium to dark leg Males for breeding. When picking breeder Marans what the SOP says means very little. It all boils down to averages and I do not mean white leg averages.

 

[sarahkatie]

Well... I've been lurking a bunch, I've decided that I really want to have black coppers.... And if possible, breed to the sop. So far I have 2 sets of chicks. The first set is almost 7 weeks, and the second set is 3-1week chicks and 2-3day chicks. The two sets aren't related...

The decision to try to breed to sop has been a difficult one to make, mostly because I had to be sure I had the space and resources to actually run a breeding program with any chance of success. I don't have a incubator yet... As all I have are babies, I figured that could wait a year...

Right now I am just growing out my babies with hope that I can put together a rooster and 3-5 hens that don't have any dq's and work from there. The first group I am pretty sure I have 6-7 pullets, I'm hoping for a boy from the second..... But we'll see, it may take me awhile to actually get a decent roo. The one cockerel I'm sure of from the first group has what I think would be called 'side-sprigs' .... At the top of his comb, there are three points next to each other, rather than in a line....

Def please let me know if I am correct in my understanding/input is welcomed....

The other item of note is that one of the 1week old chicks seems to have a brown color on the ends of its primaries....

same wing with flash...

Who knows, it may be that none of these guys turn out worth breeding, if my goal is to breed to sop... But I tend to be a long term planner, and at the very least, they will be a great learning experience... Practice training my eye...

 

[elmtree]

3.5 week FBCM. Roo?

Sorry it's a bit blurry. I have noticed small, peach colored wattles as well. Anyone know of any typical roo signs on this breed? All four feathered at the same rate as well.

 

[maryhysong]

Will stck my nose in here on the Dark shank Marans . I realize that the SOP states light to medium slate. We have discussed this with all the genetic experts and the end result was that if you use the light leg Males you will end up with a lot of Marans with the wheaten influence. I cull all the light leg males from my marans flock. I prefer the medium to dark leg Males for breeding. When picking breeder Marans what the SOP says means very little. It all boils down to averages and I do not mean white leg averages.

Hi Don I was hoping you would turn up and comment on the boys I've been posting! (starting several pages back). I realize that photos over the internet may not give an accurate representation of color, but do you have some leg shots that might give an ideal? I have gotten rid of all the really light legged boys; in the bunch I had it went right along with flaming orange chests. Personally I don't think my last 5 boys have legs that are that bad; they are certainly not nearly black like my Blue Ameraucauna and still are lighter on the bottom of the feet and inside of the leg.