Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[GaryDean26]

Take a close look at your male he has the wheaten Halo from being crossed with wheaten somewhere down the line. Look at the males in the above post.

I set up some test mates for some of these "Wheaten Halo" cockerels a while back and found that they were NOT carries of wheaten. From what I can tell the eb loci is a lot more common in some lines than eWh and some BCM line were build on cuckoo marans lines with no wheaten out crosses at all (but they still get halo). As far as I can tell these halo have nothing to do with wheaten crosses. I see the same halo effect in Brown Leghorns and other breed and those breeds have zero possibility of any "Wheaten Influence" in them. As far as I can tell this is simple a lack of red enhancing color modifiers in the line.

 

[Bejammie]

If you can wait until about December I will have 4 hens that started laying this spring that I will sell for general pullet prices

Sounds wonderful

 

[Alaskan]

 
Take a close look at your male he has the wheaten Halo from being crossed with wheaten somewhere down the line. Look at the males in the above post.

I set up some test mates for some of these "Wheaten Halo" cockerels a while back and found that they were NOT carries of wheaten.  From what I can tell the eb loci is a lot more common in some lines than eWh and some BCM line were build on cuckoo marans lines with no wheaten out crosses at all (but they still get halo).  As far as I can tell these halo have nothing to do with wheaten crosses.  I see the same halo effect in Brown Leghorns and other breed and those breeds have zero possibility of any "Wheaten Influence" in them.  As far as I can tell this is simple a lack of red enhancing color modifiers in the line. 

Then in your opinion... That halo is a..... Cull? Or breed a bunch out of him and keep the best ones?

 

[GaryDean26]

Then in your opinion... That halo is a..... Cull? Or breed a bunch out of him and keep the best ones?

The halo is one of my pet peeves. I am really hard on cockerels that have it, but the way I determine culling priorities to by the tendency of my flock (so I could use a cockerel with a Halo according to my breeding plan). If I see a defect in 1 out of 30 birds then it really is not that big a deal if I breed a bird with it (but never two birds with the same defect). I am not likly to seem many of the offspring in the flock with that defect because the rest of the flock will compensate for that defect. If I see a defect in 25 out of 30 birds then It is a huge problem in my flock and if I breed a bird with it then I am dooming my flock to continue producing a high number of defective birds. Defects that are common in my flock I make the top priority and only breed two birds with out the defect so that I can work on breeding it out. Having said that I start by looking for vigorous birds, then look to production, the to type, then to color. So even a top priority color defect may be passed over for 2-3 years while I work on Type, production, or vigor. Color in the cockerel is usually not considered until the 2nd or 3rd generation and color in the hens is usually not a consideration until the 3 or 4th generation.

People that have been working on their breeding line for 8+ year should probably be culling for the Halo. People that have been breeding their line for less than 2-3 years probably shouldn't be.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Would anyone happen to have a decent rooster in PA that they aren't planning on Keeping? Mine is not a good example of the breed and he's becoming rather nasty.

 

[morbius18]

Black copper eggs are the dark ones, lighter ones are from my golden cuckoo marans that im trying to improve the color on.

 

[morbius18]

The dark pullet eggs in the previous picture are from these girls. They just started to lay.

 

[Gremores]

I am really hoping for some Marans. Are there any quality breeders in Georgia or surrounding states? If not, can you give me suggestions for breeders that ship? I would love some this year, if not I would like to get on a waiting list for spring.

I have 2 roosters that we are needing to find homes

 

[TNBielefelder]

2 week old Marans chick can already tell this is a rooster in the making. Hatched 8 and I think i have 3 roos and 5 pullets.

 

[morbius18]

That's better than my ratio. 5 roosters 2 pullets, lol. At least I can see which rooster traits mine throws.