Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[Blarneyeggs]

This may have already been discussed on here, but with over 7800 post I haven't them all.
Here's the question; Are all Marans poor foragers or just mine? I have 8 blues and 4 black and they are the worst foragers I've ever seen. Open all the coops in the morning and my buff orpingtons, barred rocks and Red sex link take off like a billet to get to the pasture. The Marans just wonder around for an hour or so then go back in the coop and hang around the feed bucket... What gives?

My Marans forage just fine. Are your Marans low on the totem pole? I find my younger birds flock to feeders when the bigger more dominant birds leave the run to forage....just a guess here.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Would anyone be interested in how to breed the Mahogany colored Marans into the BC and what color of female to use with them ? Will post if there is some interest.

Yes please. I've been looking for a way to breed the straw color from the hackles of my cockerels, would breeding in a Mahogany Marans help?

 

[Wynette]

Blarney, I find the same with with mine as foragers; the higher ones on the pecking order get out first & tend to be good foragers, but I HAVE seen them run the junveniles back to the run.

Snowbird, I am most curious about your opinion on breeding the mahogany. I have not had good results, personally, and have dismissed this from my breeding program (I had selected a male with extremely good type, and had crossed him to a few differently colored hens...). I hope you have had better results than I have. With this breed, to be sure, not everyone's experience will be the same.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Feed question: Has anyone had trouble feeding Layena and then their birds get respiratory trouble? I have always used an organic layer feed but there was a sale on Layena so I got some for my POL pullet/cockerel pens to transition from OG pullet developer until they started to lay. Now the birds in those two pens have clear (not sticky) fluid around their nostrils (no bubbly eyes) and rattle when they breathe. Appear to be fine otherwise, foraging/eating/drinking/breeding (some have started to lay). The only thing different with these birds that I can think of is the feed. The young pullets in another pen are just fine with the last of the pullet developer feed, and the main layer flock with the OG layer are just fine also.

I have obviously STOPPED feeding the Layena, but wondered if others have had this experience?

 

[snowbird]

Will try and clear up a few things on breeding the Mahogany color into the BC Marans, No disrespect is intended to anyone.

What helps with breeding the BC Marans is if we have a line that we have culled heavy in the past. Keep in mind that it is basically normal to get BC, Mahogany, and straw color from the same hatch. We can alter this by the way we breed the colors forward. I like the borderline Mahogany BC males for breeding as if we just breed to the BC males we will get more off colored Hackles than we normally would. Do not breed the Dark Copper females to the Mahogany males. Go ahead and do a single mating if you would like. My breeder females were most of the time overmelanized as I always cull real heavy.

My preference for a female is a female with some Copper in the hackle , does not have to be real heavy Copper. I have also singled mated the straw neck female with the Mahogany Male.

After we have bred a certain line of Marans for a few year you will understand more of what to expect when you make up a breeding pair. Keep records on all matings and mark all chicks so you will know what male a female they are from.

Keep in mind that the Male has more to do with the offspring color than the female. If you use a Mahogany male over good females you will get more color.

If anyone has experience that differs sure would like to hear about.

 

[Zanna]

Blarney, I find the same with with mine as foragers; the higher ones on the pecking order get out first & tend to be good foragers, but I HAVE seen them run the junveniles back to the run.

Snowbird, I am most curious about your opinion on breeding the mahogany. I have not had good results, personally, and have dismissed this from my breeding program (I had selected a male with extremely good type, and had crossed him to a few differently colored hens...). I hope you have had better results than I have. With this breed, to be sure, not everyone's experience will be the same.

I had good results this year using a Mahogany male and his Son who is decently coloured. The son was produced from the Mahogany Dad and an Overmelanized Mom (no copper anywhere). Here are pics of Son and Dad from last Fall. I do not own the Mom but saw her at the show where I bought these guys from. Single mated both these boys to my original Mom (got her as a chick from Marquisella) and her best 3 Daughters from last year who have no copper on them. More than 1/2 of the pullet offspring have copper and they are the ones I will breed back. Getting ready to cage/line up offspring of matings to pick my choices to breed back to Dad's. If I come up with anything more informative I will post Please post what you have found Don!

 

[Zanna]

Should mention that I got no straw coloured females from any of these crosses. Made another cross using a different male (son from Original Mom) over Mom and two other females. 2 of the 18 chicks have some straw colour. Can post pics of the Dad/Mom that produced this once I look at toe punches.

 

[Wynette]

Will try and clear up a few things on breeding the Mahogany color into the BC Marans, No disrespect is intended to anyone.

What helps with breeding the BC Marans is if we have a line that we have culled heavy in the past. Keep in mind that it is basically normal to get BC, Mahogany, and straw color from the same hatch. We can alter this by the way we breed the colors forward. I like the borderline Mahogany BC males for breeding as if we just breed to the BC males we will get more off colored Hackles than we normally would. Do not breed the Dark Copper females to the Mahogany males. Go ahead and do a single mating if you would like. My breeder females were most of the time overmelanized as I always cull real heavy.

My preference for a female is a female with some Copper in the hackle , does not have to be real heavy Copper. I have also singled mated the straw neck female with the Mahogany Male.

After we have bred a certain line of Marans for a few year you will understand more of what to expect when you make up a breeding pair. Keep records on all matings and mark all chicks so you will know what male a female they are from.

Keep in mind that the Male has more to do with the offspring color than the female. If you use a Mahogany male over good females you will get more color.

If anyone has experience that differs sure would like to hear about.

Don, my preference for the femals is as yours is; some copper, but they do not have to heavily coppered. I choose more for type, but will not use a solid black female. I have been breeding Black Coppers for almost 8 years now. This year was the first time I used a mahogany male; I used him with a mossy female - ALL offspring was mossy. I also used him with a "regularly colored" female; those offspring were mossy, as well (by this I mean mossy feamles, and males with too much color in the breast). These were the only two I used, so I can't speak to using this male I had further. I'm glad you had (apparently) better results than I did!

I will try to get pictures of the offspring this weekend.

 

[Wynette]

Should mention that I got no straw coloured females from any of these crosses. Made another cross using a different male (son from Original Mom) over Mom and two other females. 2 of the 18 chicks have some straw colour. Can post pics of the Dad/Mom that produced this once I look at toe punches.

I have never seen straw hackled offspring in my breeding pen, male or female. Zanna, I quite like that son you picture above - good job!! VERY interesting on his sire!

 

[Zanna]

I have never seen straw hackled offspring in my breeding pen, male or female. Zanna, I quite like that son you picture above - good job!! VERY interesting on his sire!

Thanks but all I can take credit for is finding out who the owner/breeder was at the show, asking her if she would sell him to me, coughing up the money and buying him, his Dad and a full sister (who I did not really want!). It was one of the best things I could have done though to make progress, I was getting no where and the Dad (Mahogany) has been a great asset as well.