Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[happyfrenchman]

Today is day 21 hatch day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 36 eggs!!!!!! ready to hatch i will keep y'all posted. This morning I had 2 Blue Marans Hatched already and 1 peep. I have BCM in there along with Cuckoo Marans. Crossing my fingers on a good out come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good Luck.

 

[happyfrenchman]

What makes this breed difficult, is having to breed for egg color AND conformation. And we all find out sooner or later, that our beautiful show quality birds, can throw crap. I have 6 or so cockerels I'm growing out from the same rooster. Said rooster is just about perfect....but what a jumbled up bunch of cockerels I have in the pen...sigh. One of them is beautiful...but has a wry tail....where did that come from? who knows?

A couple of years ago, I went for egg color after breeding for type....mistake...I now have some pretty ugly pullets that I am in a quandry over as to what to do this year...I only keep birds that are marked as coming from very dark eggs...but I'm seeing it is at a cost for type.

Marans are not easy, and anyone who thinks they will jump on the band wagon and breed them to make money, should take a lesson from, whats his name in Florida...how many years did he sell Marans before he went out of business..? Maybe 3 or 4?

Now, Marans are only about 15% of my total chickens. I guess I'm breeding them for fun...

Marquisella,
I used to race pigeons... The idea is the same, except you select for fast racing.... and it was true that sometimes your best flyers would breed turkeys, and sometimes a bird that never did anything would breed eagles.... it makes it hard because you would ordinarily cull the birds that were slow, and never see what they would throw. But you knew this so you would keep them around... it took two years to give a fair shot to a pair, but then again, you could mate the cock to a different hen and it might be good... You were always wondering... With these chickens when looking for type, I guess you have to wait til the rooster gets a little older than you might like for eating? And even then, you don't know what he would sire.... I was thinking I would just breed for the dark egg and try to keep one or two roosters that are as near to the standard as I can find or raise. And only put the darkest eggs in the bator. But I see you saying that you did that and got some pretty ugly hens.... LOL...If I am following correctly, I have three hens Selecting only the darkest egg would be limiting my genetic potential... would you say it is better to breed and cull, than to try to selectively breed?

 

[Ray from PA]

Better lighting in this photo:





Some more of the crew:







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

Question ??? Would this pullet's earlobes be considered to be " white " ??? Is this an example of what the SOP considers a DQ ? I see this in a few of my BCM and Blue Copper pullets now that they are maturing , and it seems to vary from pullet to pullet and changes somewhat with their laying cycle, sometimes more pronounced than others.

I suspect the Roo i used this season has brought it to my flock, as I have only seen it on one hen I had before that I no longer have.

Thoughts ??? Guessing this will most likely breed forward.

Just wondering if i should put all of those girls in the "layer pen" ???

Would love to hear from Vicki, Wynette, Marquisella on what they see in the photos of the pullets here.

thanks in advance , Ray

 

[math ace]

Question ??? Would this pullet's earlobes be considered to be " white " ??? Is this an example of what the SOP considers a DQ ? I see this in a few of my BCM and Blue Copper pullets now that they are maturing , and it seems to vary from pullet to pullet and changes somewhat with their laying cycle, sometimes more pronounced than others.

thanks in advance , Ray

How old is this pullet?
Is she laying yet?

 

[Broad St Farm]

Question ??? Would this pullet's earlobes be considered to be " white " ??? Is this an example of what the SOP considers a DQ ? I see this in a few of my BCM and Blue Copper pullets now that they are maturing , and it seems to vary from pullet to pullet and changes somewhat with their laying cycle, sometimes more pronounced than others.

I suspect the Roo i used this season has brought it to my flock, as I have only seen it on one hen I had before that I no longer have.

Thoughts ??? Guessing this will most likely breed forward.

Just wondering if i should put all of those girls in the "layer pen" ???

Would love to hear from Vicki, Wynette, Marquisella on what they see in the photos of the pullets here.

thanks in advance , Ray

Look at the lobes op close (I assume thats what your asking about) and see if there is any pink coming in. My tend to redden in the lobes last. Enamel white tends to look like somebody painted them. If it doesnt redden up I wouldnt use her, and try and find the culprit. It is probably recessive so it may need 2 copies to express.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

How old is this pullet?
Is she laying yet?

I believe Ray is referring to my pullet that he reposted the photos of. She is about 6 months old. She laid the egg in photo 1 and has laid a total of 6 eggs so far and is the pullet central in photos 2, 3, 5 and 6. Her earlobe doesn't look as white in person as it is in photos, although it could certainly use more red. This is my fourth go at getting BCM stock, the first 3 sets all turned out to be junk as hard as I tried to make them work. I'm going to work with these lines (Fitzgerald) for the next year and see how it goes. Egg #4 is a solid 7, so I am more than willing to work with her faults. I am open to any and all critiques and suggestions. As I stated my hopeful cockerel and the backup have both passed (one to illness one to a neighbor's dog), and my "backup backup" is junk so I am on the hunt for a rooster to go with her. Need to call Dave Fitzgerald and see if he has any available... he's about an hour's drive away.

I also have a few pullets growing out from Ernie Haire in TX and two from Hardin Poultry in Tennessee. I did not keep any cockerels from their lines.

 

[Ray from PA]

I believe Ray is referring to my pullet that he reposted the photos of. She is about 6 months old. She laid the egg in photo 1 and has laid a total of 6 eggs so far and is the pullet central in photos 2, 3, 5 and 6. Her earlobe doesn't look as white in person as it is in photos, although it could certainly use more red. This is my fourth go at getting BCM stock, the first 3 sets all turned out to be junk as hard as I tried to make them work. I'm going to work with these lines (Fitzgerald) for the next year and see how it goes. Egg #4 is a solid 7, so I am more than willing to work with her faults. I am open to any and all critiques and suggestions. As I stated my hopeful cockerel and the backup have both passed (one to illness one to a neighbor's dog), and my "backup backup" is junk so I am on the hunt for a rooster to go with her. Need to call Dave Fitzgerald and see if he has any available... he's about an hour's drive away.

I also have a few pullets growing out from Ernie Haire in TX and two from Hardin Poultry in Tennessee. I did not keep any cockerels from their lines.

Yes, I was referring to the pullet in the photo,,,,, I have the same thing going on here and just wanted to be sure if the SOP was referring to the chalkiness in the earlobe or if they were stating no white tuffs.
I see it even more on some of the blue pullets, although sometimes they seem to "hide" it, especially when they are laying or excited and redden up their faces. Sure seems we fight the same demons when choosing our breeders. The blues are so nice in many other aspects I guess I'm hoping it's something I could overcome, especially since they too have such nice egg color overall.
My pullets are of the same age range, perhaps just a bit older since they started laying about 4 weeks ago.

Thanks for the discussion, and for posting your photos,,,, the timing was a great help to touch on what I'm seeing here.

 

[marquisella]

Quote:
If a hen still has white ear lobes after she starts laying, I would not keep her. The thought is, white in the earlobes indicates at one time, Penedesencas were introduced to that line.

 

[DMRippy]

I have seen white ear lobes in Plymouth rocks and wyandottes so they are a common DQ in chickens.

 

[math ace]

I believe Ray is referring to my pullet that he reposted the photos of. She is about 6 months old. She laid the egg in photo 1 and has laid a total of 6 eggs so far and is the pullet central in photos 2, 3, 5 and 6. Her earlobe doesn't look as white in person as it is in photos, although it could certainly use more red. This is my fourth go at getting BCM stock, the first 3 sets all turned out to be junk as hard as I tried to make them work. I'm going to work with these lines (Fitzgerald) for the next year and see how it goes. Egg #4 is a solid 7, so I am more than willing to work with her faults. I am open to any and all critiques and suggestions. As I stated my hopeful cockerel and the backup have both passed (one to illness one to a neighbor's dog), and my "backup backup" is junk so I am on the hunt for a rooster to go with her. Need to call Dave Fitzgerald and see if he has any available... he's about an hour's drive away.

I also have a few pullets growing out from Ernie Haire in TX and two from Hardin Poultry in Tennessee. I did not keep any cockerels from their lines.

I asked how old she was and if she had started laying because everything in her face looks pale, pinkish instead of red.
Usually the girls are pinkish in the face until right before they start laying. Then the comb, wattles, and ear lobes will turn red.
Considering everything with this girl is pale, I would go ahead and hang onto her for breeding purposes if there were no other serious issues.
Selective breed her to the rooster of your choosing. Then track the offspring.

White ear lobes are going to be very white.
I can't get the pictures to enlarge so that I can look at the earlobes carefully.
To me, she just seems to be light on color in the face.
Just like there are different shades of slate legs, the face can be different shades of red.
You will want to move your flock / offspring towards the normal shade of red.
As long as you are not using a rooster with a pale face, you should be able to produce some offspring with a darker face.

OBTW, I have been doing some reading lately that suggested the amount of color in a bird's face / comb are indicators of health issues.
For instance a pale comb can indicate sickness and a comb with blue can indicate heart / blood flow issues.