Black Copper Marans discussion thread

[DMRippy]

Yes, it is me. Changed my internet service to WIFI and dropped my email and could not figure out how to change the email on file since I had already canceled that email name. I had too many posts on that name anyway.

Glad you are back!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Barb, just my personal opinion but I see no way that stubs could be caused by the environment. I think it is what is in the Genes. Some breeds have a problem with them and others never have any of them at all. I have had several breeds with clean legs and never had a stubs show up. I will look in some of the Jull books and see what is in there about Stubs.

He claims he has even seen the stubs show up on ducks!

Says he believes it has to do with birds running in chilly wet conditions, much like animals hair up for winter, the cold stimulates feather production. And this guy isn't a slouch. Knows what he's doing when it comes to breeding birds. But this funky dew thing definitely has a lot of questions being asked.

Also glad to see you back, Don! It was suggested I get in touch with you about my BCM pullet. Significant amount of copper showing on the back of the neck at 8 weeks old. Out of over melanized pullet and Blue or Black Copper daddy. Neither one has excessive copper on the chest. Brother - sister mating, regardless. I never really meant to go anywhere with this hatch. Only hatched 3 eggs out of her. Just threw them in because I was loading the incubator and she happened to lay them. But the copper on this female has me a bit confused. At 8/9 weeks, it's a decent looking pullet and the most copper I've had show on a female so far. I'm sure I should be learning something from this. Just not sure what!

 

[culler]

Barb, here is what Morley Jull says about the Stubs.

Warren(1930) developed by selection a strain of White Leghorn in which a high proportion of the progeny had down and another strain of White Leghorn in which practically none of the progeny had down. These two strains were crossed and the results showed that the presence of down is "more or less recessive in its behavior" and that more than one Autosomal gene is involved.

Post a picture of the BC pullet and will let you know what I think. I have a different perspective on using the over melanized Marans than some.

 

[Arielle]

Arielle, My favorite old poultry book is Poultry Breeding by Morley Jull. It is I believe an old text book as each chapter has test at the end. I have several old Morley Jull Books and they can be bought on Abe books very reasonable. Most of the info is supported by Test ran at different Colleges of the day. I have not found anything yet but still looking.

Thanks for the tip. Love books, especially old books.

 

[DMRippy]

He claims he has even seen the stubs show up on ducks!

Says he believes it has to do with birds running in chilly wet conditions, much like animals hair up for winter, the cold stimulates feather production. And this guy isn't a slouch. Knows what he's doing when it comes to breeding birds. But this funky dew thing definitely has a lot of questions being asked.

Also glad to see you back, Don! It was suggested I get in touch with you about my BCM pullet. Significant amount of copper showing on the back of the neck at 8 weeks old. Out of over melanized pullet and Blue or Black Copper daddy. Neither one has excessive copper on the chest. Brother - sister mating, regardless. I never really meant to go anywhere with this hatch. Only hatched 3 eggs out of her. Just threw them in because I was loading the incubator and she happened to lay them. But the copper on this female has me a bit confused. At 8/9 weeks, it's a decent looking pullet and the most copper I've had show on a female so far. I'm sure I should be learning something from this. Just not sure what!

I think I saw somewhere that Walt, even though his flock has been closed for years, had stub show up in his birds that should be clean legged. Leghorns too I think...

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Post a picture of the BC pullet and will let you know what I think. I have a different perspective on using the over melanized Marans than some.

I'll try to get one of her today. She's still pretty shy. Not the easiest bird to work with! And there isn't much copper yet, but it's there. I should mention, she has a Blue Copper sister. No copper showing on her yet. So far, she's a carbon copy of her over-melanized blue aunt. And there is a Black Copper brother as well. He is showing a load of copper. Probably too much on one so young. Perhaps worth noting that he had a LOAD of yellow down at hatch. Probably 50% yellow or more.

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Post a picture of the BC pullet and will let you know what I think. I have a different perspective on using the over melanized Marans than some.

Managed to dig up a couple of her from last week, when the copper first started showing. She was a day shy of 8 weeks old in these pictures.

 

[culler]

Barb, looks like the copper is coming in real nice. Just keep an eye out for the Mossy feathers as they are about the only fault with the copper showing up in real young fowl.
Last year in the BC I used four males that were the best I had that were borderline being Mahogany. About 90 % of over 300 pullets were heavy hackle feathered copper color. All of the female were mostly Black as I had picked them for type and did not consider the hackle color in this breeding.

For the part that some will disagree with, I would not use these Marans you have in a BC breeding program. You could use them in the Blue program without any problems at all.

 

[Arielle]

Can someone explain the mossy description for the FBCM? I envision green, and though I have asked the q before, I still don't have a clear vision of this problem.

 

[culler]

Marans breeders with clean leg fowl that should be feathered. I have seen where folks say they are not worried with not having fowl with feathered feet as it is an easy fix. This is in no way factional as it will take at least three year to get the feathering to where it is acceptable. Last summer I only had a very few BC young fowl with not enough leg feathering. I bred no female without leg feathering and there is no other way to do this if you want to be competitive at the shows. Sooner or later a Judge that has an idea of what a Marans should look like will show up and some will need a case of kleenex.