Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[Searsmom]

Totally unrelated question, but I've four FBCM chicks, 3 roosters with pink combs - huge pink combs. And what looks to me like a pullet as her comb is very small, but it's also dark-colored - almost black. What's up with that? Is it normal? They're about 4 weeks old, from a blue copper marans roo over black copper marans hens. This one with the dark comb was also slightly bluish at a day old - where the black meets the white on the down.

 

[Zanna]

Totally unrelated question, but I've four FBCM chicks, 3 roosters with pink combs - huge pink combs. And what looks to me like a pullet as her comb is very small, but it's also dark-colored - almost black. What's up with that? Is it normal? They're about 4 weeks old, from a blue copper marans roo over black copper marans hens. This one with the dark comb was also slightly bluish at a day old - where the black meets the white on the down.

I have had some hatch with darker combs and most often go red at POL (point of lay) as they should. Have also hatched a few with the darker combs that turned out to be gypsy faced, purplish look to all what should be fairly bright red areas on the face. Here's a pic. of one that grew out to be gypsy faced:

 

[Searsmom]

Interesting...thanks! I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[GaryDean26]

I have seen BCM with black combs are 4 weeks old too. They seem to all turn out over melonized.

At Point of Lay the pullets should have a bright red face. The pullet posted by Zanna has a black faces. This is not what SOP BCM's pullets look like. The Pullets should also have copper (not to be confused with gold) lacing on the hackles extending all the way down the neck. Zanna's pullet also lacks this lacing. Over melonized pullets and cockerels also tend to have black specs in their eyes or completely dark eyes (as also show by Zanna's Pullet). SOP BCM have reddish orange (bay) colored eyes. Cockerels that are over melonized often have black saddle feathers rather than copper colored saddle feathers and may have black hackle feather to in really melonized birds.

 

[Zanna]

I have seen BCM with black combs are 4 weeks old too. They seem to all turn out over melonized.

At Point of Lay the pullets should have a bright red face. The pullet posted by Zanna has a black faces. This is not what SOP BCM's pullets look like. The Pullets should also have copper (not to be confused with gold) lacing on the hackles extending all the way down the neck. Zanna's pullet also lacks this lacing. Over melonized pullets and cockerels also tend to have black specs in their eyes or completely dark eyes (as also show by Zanna's Pullet). SOP BCM have reddish orange (bay) colored eyes. Cockerels that are over melonized often have black saddle feathers rather than copper colored saddle feathers and may have black hackle feather to in really melonized birds.

Here is a pic of what one should look more like at POL! Her colour looks a little washed out in this pic., it is brighter in person.

The gypsy faced girl was culled Thank you GaryDean26 for clarifying my post!

 

[GaryDean26]

Here is a pic of what one should look more like at POL! Her colour looks a little washed out in this pic., it is brighter in person.

The gypsy faced girl was culled GaryDean26 for clarifying my post!

Yes the 2nd hen is what you want. The first one is what a lot of the black combed chicks end up looking like.

Great photos!

 

[Chicken Tenders]

Not this year. Funny enough we are going to be keeping about every roo we can just so we can have our pick of an heir plus spare. Why not Que?

 

[Phoenixxx]

Hi, I recently acquired 3 fbcm hens and a roo. They've finally settled in and I got eggs from two of them so far. They're not a dark chocolate like they're supposed to be, but rather more of a milk chocolate. The lady I got them from says the eggs will get darker as the girls get older; is this true? Thanks!

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Hi, I recently acquired 3 fbcm hens and a roo. They've finally settled in and I got eggs from two of them so far. They're not a dark chocolate like they're supposed to be, but rather more of a milk chocolate. The lady I got them from says the eggs will get darker as the girls get older; is this true? Thanks!

Typically eggs get lighter, not darker. It is a common fault for marans to lay eggs that are too light, it takes a lot of work to breed without losing the dark egg genes. Mating the lighter laying daughters back to their dark egg gene father is one trick done to help, I don't know all the tricks but I know that is one of them. This is probably not an option for you, your quad are probably half siblings or cousins.

 

[Phoenixxx]

Typically eggs get lighter, not darker.  It is a common fault for marans to lay eggs that are too light, it takes a lot of work to breed without losing the dark egg genes.  Mating the lighter laying daughters back to their dark egg gene father is one trick done to help, I don't know all the tricks but I know that is one of them.  This is probably not an option for you, your quad are probably half siblings or cousins.

Okay, thanks! Yeah, the lady didn't know if they were related, they came from hatching eggs. The boy has lots of copper on him and the girls have none so it's possible they're not (related). Oh well, what can you do! My plan is actually to monitor their productivity. If it's not great, i'll breed my BA with the red fault to the girls to increase production without losing the copper genes, and then breed the offspring back to the fbcm roo to get the egg colour back. We'll see what happens! Adventures in chicken-keeping continues...