Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[jaybobrenn]

Here's another picture of him with no light on him. He's still pretty young so im wondering if he will get more color as he gets older. He has shank feathering but very light.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Got my first pullet egg from my Fitz Farm birds- YEAH!

Nice and dark, will try to get a pic uploaded tomorrow. She is a gorgeous pullet, now I just have to find a suitable male... I need to call Dave Fitzgerald back and see if he has any roos left, he sold me two but one a neighbor's dog got and the other got sick and died two weeks ago. Still have my backup roo of unknown lines but as he passed the one year mark he started growing some brown patches in his wings near the wing bay so I won't breed from him. I assume that carries over from a wheaten influence?

 

[lonnyandrinda]

OK pictures as promised!



This is the pullet that I am sure laid the egg. She doesn't have as much copper as I'd hoped but she has other good features that I like.


Better lighting in this photo:


This is Big Stuff, the "backup boy." You can only see the brown in his wing when I spread his wing out, and it is only one the leading edge of about 5 feathers. And his his comb got frozen last winter, and it's molting time so his tail is a mess. So as I said looking for a better boy for next year.



Some more of the crew:







I can't wait for the rest of these beauties to start laying now!

 

[SIMZ]

Hi everyone! I'm picking a trio to keep over the winter of all that I've hatched this year.

I have a "yeah, but" question.

I've read to not use mossy hens for breeding. I have a girl that has a bit of mossiness on the bottoms of her wings. She's still young - just about 6 months. She lays the darkest eggs of all my girls. Significantly darker. My male will not be mossy and is unrelated. Is this a way I can improve my egg color or will all of the offspring be guaranteed mossy because of her?

Thank you!

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Yes! My BCM cockerel is finally sprouting some copper in his hackle feathers!! Yippee!! Also, I'm pretty sure I have a pair. The *suspected* pullet has a different feather pattern (more rounded) and the cockerel has pointier/glossier feathers. The funny thing though, is that the *pullet* is larger than the cockerel....

 

[Wynette]

Hi everyone! I'm picking a trio to keep over the winter of all that I've hatched this year.

I have a "yeah, but" question.

I've read to not use mossy hens for breeding. I have a girl that has a bit of mossiness on the bottoms of her wings. She's still young - just about 6 months. She lays the darkest eggs of all my girls. Significantly darker. My male will not be mossy and is unrelated. Is this a way I can improve my egg color or will all of the offspring be guaranteed mossy because of her?

Thank you!

The mossy females do tend to lay very dark eggs; but, that mossiness...seriously, you do NOT want it in your flock. I have one that lays a gorgeous egg; I crossed her this year to two different males, both mahogany colored (too dark) to see if the melanizers that made the males too dark would "cover" the mossiness in the offspring, and neither male worked. That's just my experience...for me, it was enough to confirm my belief that she shouldn't be used in my breeding pen; but, you might have a different experience.

ETA - are you the one with Fitzgerald birds? If so, Beth & Dave breed lovely stock, but they do tend to be mossy. That's where the female I mention above comes from, and I purchased hatching eggs from them this spring - the offspring was all over the map, either way too dark or mossy. I had zero keepers, though I would happily try again with eggs from them, as they are nice & dark. I keep hoping that there is a keeper for me...and it only takes one really nice bird to build a flock!

 

[hosspak]

The mossy females do tend to lay very dark eggs; but, that mossiness...seriously, you do NOT want it in your flock. I have one that lays a gorgeous egg; I crossed her this year to two different males, both mahogany colored (too dark) to see if the melanizers that made the males too dark would "cover" the mossiness in the offspring, and neither male worked. That's just my experience...for me, it was enough to confirm my belief that she shouldn't be used in my breeding pen; but, you might have a different experience.

ETA - are you the one with Fitzgerald birds? If so, Beth & Dave breed lovely stock, but they do tend to be mossy. That's where the female I mention above comes from, and I purchased hatching eggs from them this spring - the offspring was all over the map, either way too dark or mossy. I had zero keepers, though I would happily try again with eggs from them, as they are nice & dark. I keep hoping that there is a keeper for me...and it only takes one really nice bird to build a flock!

For us chicken illiterates LOL, what is mossiness?

 

[Wynette]

For us chicken illiterates LOL, what is mossiness?

hoss, don't say that! My boss always says, "You don't know what you don't know." So, no problem asking! It's when there is too much copper color on the hen where it does belong. Ssee this hen? She is blinking, so disregard her eye, but do you see the extra copper color in her breast? It's often more lightly "stippled" on the black feathers, sort of like just sprinkled on. Sometimes, you have to look VERY closely at them to find it.



Here is how they often will look as chicks. The chick on the left and the one in the background both ended up VERY mossy as adults - they are from someone else's line, the chick in the front is my line, and how they should look as youngsters - black, not brown:

 

[hosspak]

Here is how they often will look as chicks. The chick on the left and the one in the background both ended up VERY mossy as adults - they are from someone else's line, the chick in the front is my line, and how they should look as youngsters - black, not brown:

That explains everything pretty well. My pair of BCM have too much copper in the chest as well as my Roo has a oversized comb (scarey big) and my hen has a floppy comb with two little fleshy ( looks like warts) on each side. But she's a good layer.

 

[SilkiesForEver]

Quote:
Where did you purchase your birds?