I have been waiting for the meeting of these two minds for six months.
I am sticking my nose in here and I realize no one asked... but I don't think it is appropriate to cross other types of chickens into the BCM in an attempt to improve them. There is apparently already some of this that goes on and it is misrepresentation.... now... if you are only doing it for yourself, then that is your own business and I would sa rock on.... but if you are doing it to later present them as BCMs than I believe it is inappropriate. Once you make that first cross, they are (IMO) mutts... and trying to bring them back around to what looks like a BCM would be misrepresentation.... I had some that I got from someone that had green legs... this was apparently a side effect of crossing pendenesencas.... (yellow skinned birds that lay a dark egg). They never got into my gene pool as I gave them to a friend who did not care... but this thread is about Black Copper Marans chickens.., Maybe it is just me, but the breed is fine as it is. The egg color can be improved through legitimate means and if not.... well.... crossing in other types of birds is just no longer Marans. No matter if they look like them. I am just a hobbyist at heart here... I am not trying to make money off my chickens, but I do care that they are what they are supposed to be.
her colouring is similar to my rumpless araucana. no idea what she might be. I did see bcm roos with similar colours.
Have this pullet, she is about 8 months old and she is a mystery and I can't stand it anymore so hopefully someone can fill me in on what I have. We hatched her from blue copper maran rooster/black copper maran hen. When she hatched she looked like the chipmunk patterned Easter Eggers chicks just with feathered legs. As she grew we noticed not only the coloring is different than it should be but also has white legs and thought she has some sort of pigment problem and are curious about what color egg she would lay or if she will lay at all. Anyone have this problem before?
