Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[Wynette]

geebsie, you would put DARKER hens with this guy?

I thought he looked a might dark...

I like his back - nice & long. Tail angle is good. His eye looks too light to me. Shank feathering should extend to length of outside toe.

I like him, overall! Love the darker hackles/saddles.

 

[geebs]

Ya.... I would use him to improve the red... and then I would breed them back to a more copper male for a good male... two generations down...

He is really close to the balance you want... Hens with a lighter collar would work to make good new hens... but for a good male I would use a hen with a dark body and dark red in the hackles so that the next hen has a stronger black.. Does that make sense... He is a little light colored in the underfluff.

 

[sabella]

Quote:
Reposting as I'd really like a critique on my boy

 

[geebs]

You could try posting him on the marans thread... This is Black Copper thread, perhaps that is why there isn't much critiquing...

He is a handsome bird... Nice copper color. I don't do too much with the blue but, he is certainly eye candy!!!

 

[Kensfarm]

I have some chickens that are supposed to be Marans. They are 6 weeks old today and these pics are from today. I was wondering if anyone could help with sexes and if they really are marans.

Here is what I believe is a Roo. He is feathering nicely, really dark black, has a darker comb, and no feathered shanks.

This one I think will turn out very pretty if he can ever get his feathers in. Slowest to feather out of the whole bunch, feathered shanks, starting to get copper in the hackles, light colored comb.

This is the 2 roos next to each other

This chicken is one of 2 who came out a rusty brown color. I thought maybe a mutt, but another member from BYC mentioned Marans now have alot of different genetics and these could be a result of bad genes showing. I think this one is Roo, very light brown color with black speckles, seems to get lighter with age, nice red comb, no feathered shanks.

This is what I believe to be a hen and the other brown chicken out of the group. She is much darker in color and seems to darken with age, lots more black speckling, small light comb and wattles, has feathered shanks.

These are 3 girls (I think), I like the copper feathering coming in on the hackles.

I think this is what I believe is also a girl, but possibly the prettiest of them. Dark black feathers, feathered shanks, light yellow/org comb and wattles, not very much copper yet in the hackles though.

This is a photo of a bunch of them together, 2 weeks ago.

Last the eggs they came from, I hatched them all myself.

 

[Lotsapaints]

to the dark side

what interesting colors...and what nice colored eggs they came from as long as you want dark eggs they look like fun who knows what they're mixed with if they are and who knows what color eggs they will lay either. I don't know what Marans look like mixed with other breeds as I have enough trouble with mine trying to balance everything and keep the dark eggs. I hope you keep posting pictures of them as they finish out I think they are pretty.

I would post them on the Marans thread as this one is for Black Coppers and hope Village Chickens stops by he can give you the scoop on the genetics

 

[youngbiddy]

Kensfarm, if those were sold to you as a clutch of BCM's I hope you didn't pay much. Don't get me wrong, the lighter colored ones are really pretty and the dark ones with the feathered shanks do look like BCM's, but I'd be afraid to use them for breeding stock if they were all supposed to be Marans. Someone in that breeding pen got around, if you know what I mean.

Your sexing looked spot-on to me.

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
I'm here, I was just checking something. I had a buff orpington cross that feathered out just like that cockerel, with some barring in the juvenile feathers. Somehow along the way, they've been crossed with something non-marans. Db is only supposed to be in the very uncommon blacktailed buff variety. But your hen looks to have the Pg gene as well, which gives her that barring pattern, called autosomal barring. It looks incomplete, so she's probably only got one copy of Db or one copy of Pg, or both. None of the Marans breeds carry Pg (pattern gene). Db is common in buff birds, and birds with lacing will have the Pg gene.

They both have the marbled chickdown pattern characteristic of Pg/Db, such as in Braekel and Campines. Look at feathersite and you will see the resemblance.

 

[Kensfarm]

So heres my story on these chickens

A guy drops off a dozen eggs a week at my work, they are free. He puts a sticker on the front that says they are fertile, organic eggs from free range hens, with the slogan "hatch 'em or eat 'em".

Everyone at my work argues who gets to take the eggs each week. They all want to eat them, nearly everyone has a family with children so eggs get used for everything among us. I was the only one interested in hatching them, so when I got my hands on a dozen thats exactly what I did. I had no idea what breeds to expect, so when they hatched curiosity got the best of me and I asked the guy who brings the eggs what kind of chickens he thought they were. He just said they are french marans, I had no idea what a marans was, so I figured I'd google it. Well turned out the French Marans breed is quite sought after and rare.

Now I want to learn as much as I can about them, cause it seems so interesting to me.

I definitly will continue to post pictures of them growing up.

 

[geebs]

what color do you have??? Nice snag.. lucky ducky!!