Black Copper Marans - Time progression of sexing - UPDATED with WEEKs #1-3 PICTURES

[gapey]

3 Weeks old today. They've lost most of their white breasts. I noticed while taking pics today that one of Molly's toes is turned slightly. Never noticed it before but looking back at old pics it seems to have always been that way.

 

[gapey]

This is probably the last of these types of portrait shots I'll do of these two. I dunno maybe I'll do another one when they are full grown but they aren't changing much from week to week now. This week Mary's comb and face seem to be a darker shade of pink. Not sure if that's normal or not. Molly's is still a light pink. My BCM's are much easier to handle than my Easter Eggers of the same age. Which is the opposite of when they were younger. Molly continues to be my best model in front of the camera. They will be taken to their outside home this week and out of the garage. Hope they enjoy the great outdoors.

 

[One Chick Two]

My baby girls are 20 weeks old this week! How time flies. I'm still waiting for that first egg but I think Mary will be laying soon. Molly appears to be a mix of BCM and something else. The place I got them from thinks she might be an olive egger. So ready for some eggs from these girls.

Are't they pretty?

Like how chunky Molly is. Mary may really plump out when she goes into lay. She's over melanized, but paired with a very well-colored male when she starts laying, it would likely not be an issue to get correctly colored chicks. We had very good luck with that pairing.

You can test how close they are to laying by placing fingers between the pelvic bones at the vent area. The width apart of course is for an egg to come through, but it determines how close they are to laying. One finger, it will be awhile... two fingers may be laying small pullet eggs, or, will be laying anytime. To three fingers width onward, the pullet is laying... and laying a good sized egg.

When Molly is finally laying her eggs, crack open an egg, look at the shell inside. Olive eggers have a greenish or bluish cast to the egg that isn't the spray-on brown coating Marans breed provides. It is from a (Wheaten base) Americauna or Easter Egger that the BCM rooster was crossed with.

If the inside of the egg is white, she would not be an Olive Egger... but crossed with some Wheaten based chicken- which can be a Wheaten variety Marans OR, but, not necessarily a Marans at all- which can be nearly anything else (even RIR) ect.

Hens who are mixed with a Wheaten based breed do not always express yellow shanks themselves, but carry yellow shank genes forward to future generations. Not saying this is the case with Molly, but it can happen. We had two sold to us looking correct, but carrying Wheaten/ yellow shank genes. We Wheaten test all of our birds to make sure we breed pure strains of BCM.

To determine an eWh (Wheaten gene) split in a BCM (Birchen base) you have to test every bird. If you are serious about ever breeding Mary to another BCM, and curious to know for sure- What about Molly? I can let you know how to do it, but it involves a Wheaten based rooster.

If all breeders tested their stock first before breeding birds, Marans wouldn't have so many issues at this time.


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3 cockerels and a pullet. If you are going to keep a rooster, keep all the males until they color in to make sure you get the best male. BCM are extremely difficult to get good males. Lots of flaws and genetic dq's to work through.

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[NuggetTheChick]

Heyy I know this is a veryyyyy long thread that probably no one follows anymore, but I Just read everything (all 41 pages!) And I still have no Idea about my FBCM gender. I alrdy made a thread but I was not very lucky with answers and I would love to hear your guesses. My baby is now almost 3 1/2 weeks old and I know he (I say he until I know his gender for sure ) is probably to young but he shows so many signs of both genders! I hope for a pullet because we only have 3 chickens and if its a Roo he will probably mate the others way to often.
So Lets start with a picture of day one

Awhhh my little penguin
Okay but enough about his cuteness. These are photos from yesterday, pls share your guesses with me!

His poot little tail

Sorry for my finger
As you can see he has the smallest tail. But also no wattles and almost no comb. We are like 99% sure the other 2 are pullets but all three are very active and love to explore. When we go for a walk my chick follows me the best and he loves to snuggle and sleep in my neck. However something he also scares away small birds. Its very double and I hope any of you has an Idea (even if its Just a guess pls share it!) If you take the time to Read this (and react) tysm!

 

[n8ivetxn]

This is a cool thread.... I have a trio of Ameracaunas and French Marans running together, and they hatched 5 little ones, can't tell who is what! I'm following their progress and changes and trying to take pics.

It's good to have someone else to help compare them!

 

[gapey]

ok @Bazy Here's some pics from the 5 week photo shoot this evening. Ali, my Easter Egger got in one of the shots. She was being a very bad model tonight. Took forever to get a good pic of her. She didn't want to stand up for me. She must like Molly because as soon as I brought her out she was up and at em.

 

[RoostersCrow HensDeliver!]

A Birchen Marans will look exactly like a Black Copper except the silvery cream birchen color will be replacing the copper leakage. What you have is just a very mossy Black Copper exhibiting way too much copper leakage.
If you are wanting to breed your BCMs, I would get rid of the mossy one and keep the correctly colored one. Mossiness is extremely undesirable and very inheritable.

 

[One Chick Two]

I have a couple of BC Marans chicks, 5 weeks old or thereabouts. One (#1) is starting to get hints of copper in the hackles and on the wings, not sure if this is a cockerel trait. This was the first to feather up too. There is a tiny hint of wattles too.


Bird #1


Bird #1

Bird #1

Bird #2



Bird #2

Bird #2

Hi,

Bird #1 is a pullet. Bird #2 looks like a cockerel to me at this time--, however, it possibly may be a pullet. Grow them out a bit more and repost.

Usually by this time, males are getting redder combs and wattles are much more developed. Notice this male (below) shows a short fringe in front of the tail. By the time it grew out to reach the rest of the feathers, you could see tiny copper saddle feathers coming in near the skin. Also, the shape of the male from above is more like a shield, and the females are softer, more like a heart. Top of the wings on males are often bald, or growing in red bow feathers at this time too (depending on if line has fast maturing feathers.).




This is a same age male from a fast feather maturing line.

 

[sophxmom]

This is my BCM @ 2.5wks barely sprouting a tail. Fingers crossed it's a girl

 

[abbey21]

They are 3 1/2 weeks old and I still think we have 3 boys and one girl! Their combs and wattles are already turning red and they are very feisty. I don't have any updates individual pics because they are too squirmy now but here are some funny chick selfies. BTW the chicks are still inside, this was just a field trip)

We started over and I got 3 new chicks from the same breeder and I am pretty sure they are all girls this time! One is an Olive Egger, a Blue Splash Maran, and a Cream Legbar (ptl for auto-sexing!)

Thanks for everyone's guesses!