Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[youngbiddy]

Quote:
I would LOVE to see video! My friend Andrea has a two year old that LIVES to toss scratch to the chickens. The second cutest thing he does is try to wrangle a big ol' halter, as big as he is, and a leadrope like an anaconda out to the fence so he can poke his nose through and yell "HO-Seeeee!!! HO-SEEEeeeee!!!" to the minis, that are total cuteness in their own right. DO (when you feel up to it and have time of course) post the video! For now milk it for all its worth and get waited on hand and foot for a few days, more if you can.

If his wife waits on him hand and foot I'll never forgive her.

 

[Hens and Roos]

Quote:
Thanks! They do seem a little slower in size and wing development than the hatchery EE's I have. I will post later though and see if you guys can tell...or at least tell me what to look for!

Ok here is Thing 1 - Pullet?
http://i56.tinypic.com/vo4dw3.jpg

and Thing 2! - Cockrel??
http://i51.tinypic.com/r2jgp2.jpg

They are still a little scrawny. Can any of you tell the gender or do you think I need to wait a couple more weeks?

Our 4 week old pullet chick's comb is still darker looking compared to the pinkish color of the 2 cockerals who are the same age- so you might have 2 boys there but I'm still learning so.....

 

[Bravo]

Quote:
Thanks! They do seem a little slower in size and wing development than the hatchery EE's I have. I will post later though and see if you guys can tell...or at least tell me what to look for!

Ok here is Thing 1 - Pullet?
http://i56.tinypic.com/vo4dw3.jpg

and Thing 2! - Cockrel??
http://i51.tinypic.com/r2jgp2.jpg

They are still a little scrawny. Can any of you tell the gender or do you think I need to wait a couple more weeks?

They look like both pullets to me. They have combs but are still fleshy and not pink at all. It's early and they may change as they get older but for now I say it's a good sign

 

[LarissaCluck]

Quote:
Ok here is Thing 1 - Pullet?
http://i56.tinypic.com/vo4dw3.jpg

and Thing 2! - Cockrel??
http://i51.tinypic.com/r2jgp2.jpg

They are still a little scrawny. Can any of you tell the gender or do you think I need to wait a couple more weeks?

They look like both pullets to me. They have combs but are still fleshy and not pink at all. It's early and they may change as they get older but for now I say it's a good sign

Hey I'll go with your vote for now!

 

[OHmamma]

Quote:
OhBigmamma,

I don't know if I understand this very well. .. . .

I am the queen of hatching roos in this neck of the woods. . . . I hatch more than 8 roos when I am only setting 12 eggs

So, were you able to sell all the roos from the 300 - 400 chickens ? ?

Why do you think people are wanting the feathered legs ? ? Are these folks interested in breeding and are looking for SOP chicks ? ?

Your roo has a side sprig ?? How many of his offspring have it too, is it a high or low percentage?

How many birds do you keep from the 300 - 400 chickens ? ?

I don't think I understood what you were trying to say in this paragraph . . . .

Let me try to re-explain....When I bought my first cucu Marans the roo had sprigs on his comb. I did not kow anything about Marans except that they were known for their dark eggs FOR COOKING. That was my sole reason for buying them. I wanted to EAT THE EGGS. So the the SOP of the birds did not matter to me, infact I did not even care to try to look it up. I paid $45 for the roo and four hens.

That was almost three years ago and I do not have the original cucus anymore. That was the one reason why I did not keep them and it was easier to just get rid of them all since I did not know much about their background and how many were related. My uncle does have some of them including the roo, and I hatch for him and his last hatch of 23 only one had a sprig on his comb; (to answer your question about that) but also the "sprigged roo's" offsrping lay the darkest cucu eggs I have seen even darker than most BCMs.

When I decided to actually breed Marans for SQ I searched "French Marans" I found Bev Davis' website and the definition of a Marans there it says..."Use care when purchasing "Marans" from sources. No matter how beautiful the color of bird, if the flock is not producing #4 or better eggs at some point of the laying cycle, the birds technically DO NOT QUALIFY AS MARANS, PERIOD.

So taking that into consideration, I started with 20 chicks and 3 dozen cucu and blue marans eggs from a man that has raised them for 8 years, I went to his farm and saw his birds and eggs. I bought 2 dozen hatching eggs from a family south of me that has raised them for 5 (also a nice farm visit). I won chicks from eggbid which was a HUGE waste, I ordered some from a breeder in Ill too which was another huge waste, (both were praised for their birds and I do not know why the were defected and sickly from being linebred for too long.) I also bought chicks from nearby reffered breeders with flocks from WJ/Grisham, Davis, and some with Davis/Presley. My whites are from the orignal Ripley line. I recently bought cucus from a woman that has raised them for 15 years and has Fugate/Davis lines in her flock. In all I had around 75 chicks shipped to me and hatched 5 or 6 dozen purchased eggs that were Marans. Of those I only have my breeding stock of 20. I have two that I kept due to their birth/genetic defects but they are my free rangers and I let them breed with EE to make "Olive eggers"

As for the 300-400 chicks I sold last year they were not just Marans. I also breed Silkies,Auracauna,Ameracauna,EE, and last year I also had Black Astrolorps, Old English Game, Brown Legghorns and Polish too. I also do custom hatching for half of the chicks or payment and so I had all kinds of breeds, guineas,emu,ducks, and geese too. I don't remember how many I kept. Right now for breeding purposes at my home I only have 37 adults and 26 are Marans.

I sold most of the chicks and others as straight run but I am sure I had plenty of roos. PLENTY. I did sell all the extra Marans roos and pullets but the 8 cucu roos (which I kept intentionally until last month) and even after I had taken them to my friend to process I had a guy calling me and one week later wanting one so I went and got it back and gave it to him. I do actually have people calling me just wanting roosters I know it sounds crazy but it does happen from time to time.

Now as for the feathered legs. I do not know why people are asking specifically for feathered legs, maybe it is because the breed is becoming more popular around here and so more people know they should have feathered shanks. I personally prefer the clean legs. I let my favorites free range and that means dirt and mud too and I hate how the fethers breakoff and matt up. I also find the look of the open folicles gross. BUT I am trying to breed what I have now so that when my children are old enough they can have decent chickens to show so that means breeding to the SOP.

So as I said first the egg color, then the shanks, I sell my chicks to fast to judge the comb development for some but obvious sprigs go, I figured that if the comb is big enough to really see the sprig at a day old then it is probably a roo anyway. I have only found a few this year none were from my own chickens but from eggs I had bought and some chicks I went to look at that my neighbor has. I explain to the people that I sell chicks to why I am selling them and that I am trying to get some SQ chickens and really most of them are just worried about the egg color and the feathered legs.

I hope that makes it clearer but I think I just rambled too much and even confused myself.

Don, if you need to say something then say it. You seem to be so smug in your opinions from what I have read on these boards. I have met plenty of peole like you in my life and you are not going to say anything that is going to offend me. I am one of the few people in this world that accepts everyone just like they are no matter how curmudgeonly they may seem to be. I actually appreciate critisisms and opinions wether it is anything I want to hear or not. I know you have been breeding poultry for longer than me and believe it or not I would like to hear what you want to say. Lighten up man, they are just chickens.

Time to fly, I have a coon to kill.

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I think it made things clearer. . . . It sounds like your chicks fly out the door ( so to speak) so quickly that you don't have the same issues that I have.

I have so few that those that I do hatch, I hold onto for as long as possible before selling / culling.

When you have such a large and quick turnover in stock, how do you decide who gets to stay longer than a month or so ? ?

 

[OHmamma]

Quote:
If you were closer we could help each other out.

I feel your pain there. I had such a hard time even finding some when I first started raising them. I knew it would be a lot of pick and choose so that I was only keeping the best ones but it was still hard to do. It is even hard for me not to hatch an egg that is less than 6 after what I went through to get these. The good thing is whether it is a 8 or a 2 they all taste good!!

After the egg color and shank feathers I wait to see how their coloring and type develops and that seems like the longest wait. I have raised SQ animals before so I know how few you really get. I will get rid of mean ones right away no matter how nice looking because my children help me with the chickens. I have enough room to keep quite a few as long as I am making enough selling extras to pay for the feed.

In the end I have to get it down to less than 50 total so I can winter them in the barn. It will be much much harder this year. I already have 22 chicks from my own birds, I still have 6 dozen eggs in the bator and I just ordered 20 more from Tom Culpepper, I haven't seen that his lay the darkest eggs but I love their feathering and height. I have some hens that still lay about an 8 so I am going to cross the two lines. I plan on keeping some of those pure too for as long as I can. Hopefully my uncle will be able to keep my cucus and whites at his place so I can focus on the blues and blacks. If not I my drop one of my other breeds

 

[math ace]

Quote:
I am raising a lot of speckled sussex this year. They are from two different breeders and in the fall I am expecting a batch of eggs from a third breeder. Lots of culling will be going on at my house. I will have to get the numbers down to less than 10.

I don't have that issue with the Marans, I started small and keep hatching roos instead of pullets. Our last mean rooster was named "soup pot". We don't tolerate mean roos either. I can't sell the mean ones . All the mean ones have to go to freezer camp.

So were your previous SQ animals - - chickens, dogs, or horses ? ? ? It never ceases to amaze me as to how many BYC people have previous experience with either horses or dogs.

We do like

pictures of eggs or chickens, so feel free to post some !

 

[Raven1]

Math you are right about that I had bred horses for years with dogs sprinkled in here and there but the chickens are so much better. I was always so worried about my animals matching up to the right family and being sure I had buyer before breeding, making sure if it didn't work out I had backup homes. Well with the chickens ...... the culls taste great!

 

[OHmamma]

I am raising a lot of speckled sussex this year. They are from two different breeders and in the fall I am expecting a batch of eggs from a third breeder. Lots of culling will be going on at my house. I will have to get the numbers down to less than 10.

I don't have that issue with the Marans, I started small and keep hatching roos instead of pullets. Our last mean rooster was named "soup pot". We don't tolerate mean roos either. I can't sell the mean ones . All the mean ones have to go to freezer camp.

So were your previous SQ animals - - chickens, dogs, or horses ? ? ? It never ceases to amaze me as to how many BYC people have previous experience with either horses or dogs.

We do like

pictures of eggs or chickens, so feel free to post some !

I love the speckeld sussex we had one hen that laid like mad for the longest time. Very pretty birds. I also like the red laced blue Wyandottes,Brahmas,Serama,Orlorff, and Sumatra but my barn just isn't big enough. What I also like are good old EE's I have two hens left that are chicks of chicks from my original batch that I bought 10 years ago. They are almost like my great grand kids.

When I was a kid I had show rabbits and my mother raised SQ Dobermans. With my own children we have raised rabbits and Dairy goats. We have 4 horses and one mini horse but all of my horses except one are rescue horses. I decided on chickens for my younger kids to show in 4-h and me at APA shows because they are dual purpose and we love chickens. We raised chickens for food when I was a kid and I have had them for my own family for about 12 years. We will probably do some meat goats too next year if I can convince the horses to share their field again.

I still have one sneaky roo that my husband is dying to eat. He is one I bought as a chick from the breeder in Ill. he is very nice looking but does not like my husband, I think it is because I usually do all the care on myown and he thinks I am his hen. He will square off with my husband almost everytime he is out there especially if he gets too close to me. He is in a pen with his ladies for now and makes very nice looking chicks with my other Blue Coppers.

Here is one of my Blue Copper Roo and two black copper hens. These hens have very little copper but lay great. The one in the foreground is in with my Silver cucu roo.

These are two chicks from my Blue Copper roo the first is from a blue copper hen the second a black copper hen. These little fellows hatched on my brithday April11th.