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

[jennibos]

Your 'babies' look great! How quickly they grow up! Can you tell me what ages the girls started laying? I've a trio of pullets at 4 months old and wondering when they will become productive? Ty

 

[gvilledh]

One of my girls, Molly the mottled one, started laying around 28 or 29 weeks, but only laid a few eggs a week and then became sporadic and stopped. We had a light in the coop, which had burned out, and I think they had something to do with it. Our pullets that started laying in the winter last year laid consistently. Our other two young ones, now 36 weeks old, still have not laid. One is starting to squat somewhat, Marans can be a little slower to lay since they are larger birds. Since yours are maturing as the days are getting longer, I would hope they would start around 26-28 weeks. Squatting was the best sign for us to use as signal they were close to starting, Mollly is squatting again so hopefully she will lay again soon. We have had so many gray days this winter, I think it has messed all of ours up. We have had 4 weeks with no eggs from 9 birds. 3 decided to molt. We finally got 6 eggs in the last 5 days, so it is a start.here is a picture of my Molly.

 

[r1forb]

I'm so happy I found this thread!! I have 5 FBCM's and I've been reading and searching every night trying to find little clues here and there that might give me a little insight on what they heck I have! lol I'm going to post some pics for you all later today and see what you think. I've taken a lot of photos of them but not sure any are close up enough for you to tell. I did get some last night of one I'm thinking may be a roo. I go back and forth. 2 of them are pretty big, actually all of mine look fairly large compared to what I've seen for their age. They are not quite 3 weeks (will be this Fri March 1st) but none have the red coloring yet like "chickenguysmom" did wow ...those really were pretty obvious. But my 2 larger chicks do also have much larger tails and they are all growing sooooo fast!!! I'm too scared to really give them real names yet lol.
This is one of my bigger "boys?" I'm guessing this is a roo .....the nickname has been zebra due to the eye coloring. He was the 3rd chick hatched on Feb 8th. These 2 pics were last night ....having a little play time together with me

 

[nbenevento]

I'm curious, with Copper Marans, can you not determine the sex with the wing test when they are day old chicks? I don't have a ton of experience but I was easily able to sex my EE's and Australorps as day olds. I have some BCM fertile eggs on their way to me and I am hoping I will be able to sex them when they hatch.

 

[r1forb]

I don't know anything about the wing test BUT I can tell you I have done a TON of research on Black Copper Marans ...breeding, hatching, raising, etc ....and while I've got varying opinions on some things determining sex was NOT one of them. Even some of the most experienced breeders I spoke to of BCM's say they get surprised all the time by these guys!!!

I guess they are difficult all the way around and maybe that's why we love them so much?! Poor things have a harder shell ....harder time to hatch, require different humidity than most all other breeds and I guess often you can't tell if you have a roo until he crow's! Mine were 4 weeks old on Thur and I'm pretty lucky I have 2 that have become obvious are roo's. (they are even starting to fight around the ladies when I put them outside for the day!) 1 was obvious from fairly early on, just from behavior but the other wasn't quite so much. I have a 3rd that I'm still on the fence about. I thought it may be a roo....3 looked the same from the get go and the other 2 were the same ...making you think you have 2 pullets and 3 roos .....but then they grow and catch up, some change , some don't. lol I see what they mean about waiting til one crows.

 

[r1forb]

I'm curious, with Copper Marans, can you not determine the sex with the wing test when they are day old chicks? I don't have a ton of experience but I was easily able to sex my EE's and Australorps as day olds. I have some BCM fertile eggs on their way to me and I am hoping I will be able to sex them when they hatch.

I don't know anything about the wing test BUT I can tell you I have done a TON of research on Black Copper Marans ...breeding, hatching, raising, etc ....and while I've got varying opinions on some things determining sex was NOT one of them. Even some of the most experienced breeders I spoke to of BCM's say they get surprised all the time by these guys!!!

I guess they are difficult all the way around and maybe that's why we love them so much?! Poor things have a harder shell ....harder time to hatch, require different humidity than most all other breeds and I guess often you can't tell if you have a roo until he crow's! Mine were 4 weeks old on Thur and I'm pretty lucky I have 2 that have become obvious are roo's. (they are even starting to fight around the ladies when I put them outside for the day!) 1 was obvious from fairly early on, just from behavior but the other wasn't quite so much. I have a 3rd that I'm still on the fence about. I thought it may be a roo....3 looked the same from the get go and the other 2 were the same ...making you think you have 2 pullets and 3 roos .....but then they grow and catch up, some change , some don't. lol I see what they mean about waiting til one crows.

 

[r1forb]

I'm curious, with Copper Marans, can you not determine the sex with the wing test when they are day old chicks? I don't have a ton of experience but I was easily able to sex my EE's and Australorps as day olds. I have some BCM fertile eggs on their way to me and I am hoping I will be able to sex them when they hatch.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ing-bcms-from-hatch-to-maturity#post_10612097


Here's the thread I started with pics of my 5 BCM's I was going to post weekly pics from start to maturity but didn't get anybody talking in there so I didn't mess with it. But you can see what mine look like.

 

[redfancy78]

Great thread! We were told by the feedstore these chicks were black copper marans...but? Also thinking they are both boys, any thoughts?

 

[redfancy78]

 

[FVRM]

Great thread! We were told by the feedstore these chicks were black copper marans...but? Also thinking they are both boys, any thoughts?

this one definitely looks like a boy just by looking at the comb, but this breed has large comb girls so i would say 60% boy