Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[Sweetpea3829]

Read the 800 pages, grasshopper!

J/K

- I'm learning too!

Well I'm starting....lol.

I don't have a whole ton of time for reading...I homeschool four kiddos. But I did read Oz's thread from start to finish by reading at night before falling asleep. Problem is...I had wireless internet back then and could read on the Kindle. Not so anymore, lol.

 

[ChickenManTN]

Hi everyone. My husband and I are brand new to the world of chickens and successfully hatched our first flock this past summer. We are still waiting for our ladies to begin laying, but they are due any time now. Our current flock was hatched from eggs given to us by our Mennonite neighbor. They are pretty much barnyard mutts, with the exception of our barred rock roo and our barred rock hen.

We would like to work with the Black Copper Marans and are looking for a high quality breeding trio in our area. We want to do this the right way, and breed for conformation both in the bird and the egg color.

As we are still pretty new to this, we obviously have a lot to learn and are reading and researching. But at 800 pages, this particular thread is quite long, lol.

Can anybody give me a concise run-down of what we need to know and how we can perhaps find a good quality trio out this way.

We are located in the Finger Lakes region of upstate NY. About an hour and fifteen minutes from Rochester and an hour and fifteen minutes from Syracuse.

I'm green myself, but here's what I have gathered so far: To truly breed for conformation you have to cull hundreds upon hundreds of offspring. That's pretty much the starting point. Establish a model for raising hundreds of birds and disposing of culls, be it through phasing them out into laying or meat production at home or selling them for others to use. If you find a trio for sale, I would bet my lunch money that they are someone else's culls. As I said, I'm still green, but if you want the best of the best I believe the thing to do is buy plenty of hatching eggs or chicks from a good breeder. If you buy adult birds, you can be fairly certain that they are not what the breeder considers to be breeding quality, or else they wouldn't be for sale. There are always exceptions, but they are rare, I believe.

 

[Maggiesdad]

I'm green myself, but here's what I have gathered so far: To truly breed for conformation you have to cull hundreds upon hundreds of offspring. That's pretty much the starting point. Establish a model for raising hundreds of birds and disposing of culls, be it through phasing them out into laying or meat production at home or selling them for others to use. If you find a trio for sale, I would bet my lunch money that they are someone else's culls. As I said, I'm still green, but if you want the best of the best I believe the thing to do is buy plenty of hatching eggs or chicks from a good breeder. If you buy adult birds, you can be fairly certain that they are not what the breeder considers to be breeding quality, or else they wouldn't be for sale. There are always exceptions, but they are rare, I believe.

I would say there are plenty of breeders (not propagators) that would be more than willing to set you up with breeding birds of high quality, if you had demonstrated doggedness, determination and ability in working with chickens, and a dedication to the breed chosen.

Breeders working together, with the same bloodline, on different details is not uncommon. The catch is that you have to become a breeder, not a propagator, and that requires having a mentor. What better mentor to have than the person whose bloodlines you are starting with? That where reading the 800 pages comes in - it takes a lot of home work, and preparation.
Starting with eggs and chicks is really just a roll of the dice, and will take you 3-4 years to get them ironed out and dependable.
Started birds and a mentor gets you a hand to hold onto, and two years less floundering and feed bills... you assign the pricetag you're willing to put on that one.

Oh - and BCMs ain't easy!

ps - but with homeschooling 4, you have the perfect set up, a small army of helpers, and a small army to feed those culls to, of which there will be a plenty!

 

[casey7272]

I am looking to start a good quality flock of bcm and i need to get hooked up with an awesome breeder. Any ideas would be great.

 

[Wynette]

I would say there are plenty of breeders (not propagators) that would be more than willing to set you up with breeding birds of high quality, if you had demonstrated doggedness, determination and ability in working with chickens, and a dedication to the breed chosen.

Breeders working together, with the same bloodline, on different details is not uncommon. The catch is that you have to become a breeder, not a propagator, and that requires having a mentor. What better mentor to have than the person whose bloodlines you are starting with? That where reading the 800 pages comes in - it takes a lot of home work, and preparation.
Starting with eggs and chicks is really just a roll of the dice, and will take you 3-4 years to get them ironed out and dependable.
Started birds and a mentor gets you a hand to hold onto, and two years less floundering and feed bills... you assign the pricetag you're willing to put on that one.

Oh - and BCMs ain't easy!

ps - but with homeschooling 4, you have the perfect set up, a small army of helpers, and a small army to feed those culls to, of which there will be a plenty!

I completely agree with this, well said! I have a breeding partner several states away; we have a duplicate flock, and work very closely together. It has - so far - worked really well. The key is finding JUST the right person, which can be difficult!

I am looking to start a good quality flock of bcm and i need to get hooked up with an awesome breeder. Any ideas would be great.

Casey, there are lots of folks "doing the good work" as far as breeding - read through this thread, and you'll find someone that you feel would be a good choice to work with, I'm sure. Send them some PM questions, and get a relationship going.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Well, I'm going to read...and read and read and read, lol. Ideally, I would like to start in the spring, after we breed some chicks from the Barred Rock pair. I understand that the BR tends to have a bit of a meatier breast than the Ameracuana mutts. Our flock is comprised of three Ameracuana mutt hens, one BR hen and the one BR roo. I'm adding a pair of silkie hens from the neighbor as soon as they are large enough to hold their own. Hopefully. He says he's not sure if the other birds in my flock will pick on them too much. But I'd like a broody bird for help with raising chicks, lol

We only have a small set up right now, just the one run and coop. But we have room to expand (if I can convince my husband of the chicken math). I see this as a project that the kids and I can do for a lot of different homeschool lessons. Plus, as was mentioned, we can eat the culls!!! And the eggs!

Right now, we know pretty much nothing. But we have managed to keep our flock alive since we hatched them in June!!! And they're healthy and happy, and we're willing to learn.

So far, I've gathered that there are some breeding issues within the Marans breed and a lot of discrepancy and disagreement about what is what? They've only recently been recognized by the APA? It seems as though a lot of people breeding Marans are not actually breeding true to standard, if I understand what I've read thus far.

I have a lot of questions and will have more as I read, lol. Please be patient with me! I don't want to become just another backyard breeder propagating an incorrect bird.

Is there anybody local to us who is breeding high quality birds who might be willing to be a mentor?

 

[Ripster]

Where are you located?

 

[Sweetpea3829]

We are in upstate NY. Over an hour southeast of Rochester and over an hour southeast of Syracuse.

I did find somebody in Canandaigua, NY that was selling some BC hens. But the more I read, the more I realize she is probably not selling birds that conform to standard.

It would be my preference to find somebody as close as possible, to avoid having to ship eggs and chicks. But if I have to have birds shipped, so be it.

 

[Ripster]

Well I would be happy to help but I live in Florida, probably a bit further away than you would like.

 

[Sweetpea3829]

Well I would be happy to help but I live in Florida, probably a bit further away than you would like.

Thanks for the offer...perhaps we could do a distance mentoring, lol. I'm open to good info and good help. Just would prefer to get my birds as local as I can, if I can, to avoid shipping issues. But again, if I have to have birds shipped, I'm ok with that.