Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[desertmarcy]

The only way you can fix the white feathers in your breeding program is cull all birds with white feathers and white undercolor. It will take about 3 year with heavy culling. Also notice that this male has white legs . This is telling you that he has a heavy wheaten influence going on. Don

His legs don't look white on my computer screen, they look light slate.

 

[Ebove06]

Does anybody know if the Bev Davis line for black copper marans is a good line?

 

[sugar ridge]

I don't know for sure but that seems to be a line I hear about constantly. They may just be marketed well

 

[scflock]

His legs don't look white on my computer screen, they look light slate.

What I'm seeing isn't quite white, but much lighter than the first ones I bought, and pink on the sole. Mine are a good bit darker with darker soles. I'm so disappointed about the yellow feet, because I have one rooster that I really like that has a great personality. It's the last one I posted the pic of. He has the best color of the 4, but I'm sure he's a carrier

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
Marcia, Regardless if his legs are white or light slate you will never improve your BC moving forward using him. You want the medium to dark legs if you are breeding to the future with BC. Don

 

[snowbird]

I keep reading about the Wheaten influence. Is that a trait that is carried over from years ago that is a chance with any breeder, or is it someone recently that has introduced something else into a line?

I keep reading about the Wheaten influence. Is that a trait that is carried over from years ago that is a chance with any breeder, or is it someone recently that has introduced something else into a line?

The Wheaten fowl were bred into the BC a long time ago even before they came to USA. There are people even today that are still crossing the Wheaten and BC. Will not comment on other breeders that have the BC with the wheaten influence. I have never had a Wheaten chick come from my BC with all the thousands that I have hatched and grown out to maturity. The start of the Wheaten came from a sport hatched from the BC years ago. Don

 

[One Chick Two]

What I'm seeing isn't quite white, but much lighter than the first ones I bought, and pink on the sole. Mine are a good bit darker with darker soles. I'm so disappointed about the yellow feet, because I have one rooster that I really like that has a great personality. It's the last one I posted the pic of. He has the best color of the 4, but I'm sure he's a carrier

scflock, I feel your pain!

There are times these birds can be very frustrating- but the rewards can be great as well when you finally have good birds. Sorry, but, no matter how much you like your original birds, if one bird expresses yellow shanks, the rest are carriers unfortunately.

We tried 7 additional lines outside of our original line... 5 of 6 were split for Wheaten, and one line expressed yellow shanks with shortened or double toes, and all but one line of the hatched eggs chicks expressed sprigs or coronation comb. We asked all the right questions before purchasing eggs. We now test mate every single bird here for Wheaten. If a seller ever says they do not test their flock for Wheaten- find another seller who does test.

This pullet had the sibling who expressed the yellow shanks.


By sight she seems just fine. Type's good, shanks perfect, etc. She lays an XL 7 egg. (Above, she'd laid her 2nd egg.) This is a bummer actually since her eggs are nice. But, no matter what... she can't ever be trusted for breeding. Very likely a carrier as well... Layers only flock for her.

 

[desertmarcy]

Does anybody know if the Bev Davis line for black copper marans is a good line?

I guess it depends on how you define "good" and what you are looking for. I have not had any of her stock until now, so I can't really say from personal experience and mine are still chicks. However I got them from a guy who is selling her line for her and he has been very upfront with me on pluses and minuses of his various lines. I got some of his line that he's been working on for years, some Bev Davis chicks, and some Little Peddler chicks. What he said was the Davis birds lay huge eggs and very, very dark. Bev has put a lot of emphasis on maintaining that dark egg color. But he said they aren't as much up to SOP. I think every line of Black Coppers out there is going to have some issues. Some have more than others, for sure. Regardless of who you get them from, the Black Copper Marans still needs a lot of work to get consistency in the offspring. There are a lot of culls. Hatch many, keep few.

 

[One Chick Two]

I guess it depends on how you define "good" and what you are looking for. I have not had any of her stock until now, so I can't really say from personal experience and mine are still chicks. However I got them from a guy who is selling her line for her and he has been very upfront with me on pluses and minuses of his various lines. I got some of his line that he's been working on for years, some Bev Davis chicks, and some Little Peddler chicks. What he said was the Davis birds lay huge eggs and very, very dark. Bev has put a lot of emphasis on maintaining that dark egg color. But he said they aren't as much up to SOP. I think every line of Black Coppers out there is going to have some issues. Some have more than others, for sure. Regardless of who you get them from, the Black Copper Marans still needs a lot of work to get consistency in the offspring. There are a lot of culls. Hatch many, keep few.

If the Bev Davis line stock you are looking to purchase is directly from the hands of Ms. Davis- or one of the terrific breeders directly entrusted with her line, then you are very likely to get genetically correct stock that likely will not be split for Wheaten, recessives, etc. However, most lines may need fine SOP refinements. Once eggs or birds have left the original (or those who are main distributors of them) who knows what may, or, not have been bred into a line from a new breeder.

Like desertmarcy recommends ...get many feet on the ground, because no matter who you get your birds from- there are most likely to be a fair amount of culls.

 

[scflock]

I love this conversation, and I'm sure it's been done on this thread before, but I got 100 pages in and kind of went into overload. I had read that Bev kept a strong eye to egg color, and that's why I was leaning toward her line. I want dark eggs and my customers want dark eggs. I have people call about my cuckoo Marans all the time thinking they will get chocolate eggs. I'm very upfront, and won't sell to them if that's what they are looking for. I will never show, and most of my customers will never show. I wouldn't sacrifice egg color to breed to a strict SOP. I could live with minor faults if I knew that my chickens were genetically correct otherwise. More than likely my first correct flock will turn into pets, and I will keep a few of them. I just want to know that when I sell the extra chicks that I am selling someone a decent starting point. I wanted these BCMs so badly, drove forever to get them, and got burned. I do like them, though, and a layer flock is probably what they will turn into. I'm just keeping up with this thread and learning what I can so I can make a better informed decision when I decide to build that next coop. You guys have been a tremendous help