Blue Copper and Splash Copper Marans Discussion

[budda]

Is anyone planning to cross a french copper with a blue this year? We had a French copper / blue cross last year and unfortunately it was killed by a raccoon who is now in the afterlife. We really want to get another. She was the light slate blue color with a rust colored collar.

 

[pinkchick]

Kim, with amount of Blue Copper you have to work with I would single mate all of them and that way you can find out real quick if you are going to have a problem with any of them. Once you start single mating you will be on board with this style of breeding fowl. I would go ahead and try the #1 splash pullet with the young male.

Thanks Don. I only have so few birds because I culled down to what I thought were the best birds I had here to work with......funny thing..I don't miss all the other birds I had to choose from, I'm glad they are gone. Looking back through all the photos yesterday and this morning I saw some real junk and saw some problems that I should have culled out before such as pinched tails and narrow bodies.

I agree that if I am going to see issues that I will see them quick fast and in a hurry with such small numbers to work with.
I tried to keep the better birds that I thought I could pair up even if they the 2 are half siblings. When you helped out my neighbor with breeding advise for the Coronation Sussex brother sister breedings to rebuild her flock, a light clicked on in my head. If all works out with the single matings and lots of hard culling as you suggested, I should be able to breed from these birds for years without having to bring in any new blood right?

 

[gilavina]

Yeah, she's a chunker alright....she carries it well. LOL! The last time I weighed that dark cockerel he weighed in the same as his dad and that was about 3 mos. ago. I suspect he is not done adding bulk and weight. I seriously hope he follows in Bill's footsteps and weighs in just over 10 lbs, now that would be nice. I know it's too large for the breed but I am a sucker for the bigger lugs.

I am on pins and needles waiting to see what that Luella girl will give you.

Here's what I figured I can do with the single mating pens.....I can take Lil' Bill, #4 and put him back over Splash hen #3, Darryl and would hopefully get some Splash males out of them....they have produced nice Splash offspring in the past. Pullet #1 is a result, now if I could only get a nice Splash male out of them. By the way, when I was weighing them, I gave Splash #1 a nice once over......she has about 6 very nice spots of copper flecking in her hackle. The color of it is very nice...so if all goes well this will help add color back to the females as you suggested earlier.

While those 2 are together I could test that dark male over Splash #1, if the half sibling mating is okay.

Then the 3rd single mating I can do is the dark male over the Blue Copper hen and see what I get by way of nice medium toned blue copper offspring. Undoubtedly, they will not have much color on them..but if I can get a good Splash male, I could put him over her and create some more blues later on.

Off loading the Birchens right now will allow my budget and myself to grow out some more babies for the copper program.

sounds like a good plan. Honestly, I'm a bit envious that you can so easily test mate all your coppers. I need to get everything all written out on a calendar now so that have a plan in place, otherwise I'll be all over the map and forget stuff. I am still thinking on thinning out some of my other birds yet as it is so much work to try and stay on top of all the varieties in the breeds I have. Time is just not there like it was when I first got the Marans, so would like to just keep the ones I really am in love with. Lets face it, if I were to hatch chicks for every color variety and every breed to sufficient amounts to make good progress, I'd be over run and in the poor house way too fast.
That black birchen cockerel I showed a few months back is really developing into a looker. He has that leakage, but body type wise and pretty much in every other way he is what I'm going for. The crazy thing is that he is waaaaay nicer than any other males I've produced yet, so its a very good step forward for them this year that I definitely want to focus on.

 

[snowbird]

Kim, I will never have the number of fowl I had in the past, but will try and be more ready to cull each hatch to just a few keepers. I can cage 250 large fowl in single pens until they mature. Will just use small breeding flock so I can single mate.

I think I have told you before that I do not use pullets for breeding once I get my flock set. They have to live through one winter before I breed them. Will put down in writing the method I use so anyone that wants can try the method.

 

[pinkchick]

Kim, I will never have the number of fowl I had in the past, but will try and be more ready to cull each hatch to just a few keepers. I can cage 250 large fowl in single pens until they mature. Will just use small breeding flock so I can single mate.

I think I have told you before that I do not use pullets for breeding once I get my flock set. They have to live through one winter before I breed them. Will put down in writing the method I use so anyone that wants can try the method.

I've had up too 150-180 large fowl, 5 breeds of chickens and it was TOOOOOO much for this girl. No way, never again will I have that many birds.


So the Splash pullet #1, I should wait on? She is 8 mos., has yet to lay an egg , We are still in winter..her first winter. So do I wait? Granted I have to wait until she lays.

 

[pinkchick]

Vicki~ This is the first time I will be working with so few birds....it may show me some things I don't want to see...so hold off on that envy my friend.

I don't regret getting rid of the other birds and chosing Marans only to work with....I think this will be my biggest learning curve with them. Even after all this time with them I still feel like I am at the beginning. I'm coming from a background of no chicken knowledge what so ever.....it is I that am envious of friends like you and Don that have this first hand engrained old time knowledge that is so uncommon and hard to come by these days.

 

[snowbird]

I've had up too 150-180 large fowl, 5 breeds of chickens and it was TOOOOOO much for this girl. No way, never again will I have that many birds.


So the Splash pullet #1, I should wait on? She is 8 mos., has yet to lay an egg

, We are still in winter..her first winter. So do I wait? Granted I have to wait until she lays.

Kim, At the point you are now I would go forward once the pullet starts laying and she will have survided a winter anyway. What is good about single mating is you can breed all the sister siblings in the same pen as a mating if you would like. I really like the single matings though.

 

[gilavina]

Vicki~ This is the first time I will be working with so few birds....it may show me some things I don't want to see...so hold off on that envy my friend.

I don't regret getting rid of the other birds and chosing Marans only to work with....I think this will be my biggest learning curve with them. Even after all this time with them I still feel like I am at the beginning. I'm coming from a background of no chicken knowledge what so ever.....it is I that am envious of friends like you and Don that have this first hand engrained old time knowledge that is so uncommon and hard to come by these days.

haha, regardless of the outcome, you won't be as divided in attention when it comes to the birds, so to me that's a good thing!
I am a lot like you when it comes to making choices to let birds go. Rarely do I ever regret my decisions. I just want to be able to focus more on the Marans and maybe the sussex and one or two colors of wyandottes. so that leaves me quite a bit of room to cut down.

 

[snowbird]

Vicki~ This is the first time I will be working with so few birds....it may show me some things I don't want to see...so hold off on that envy my friend.

I don't regret getting rid of the other birds and chosing Marans only to work with....I think this will be my biggest learning curve with them. Even after all this time with them I still feel like I am at the beginning. I'm coming from a background of no chicken knowledge what so ever.....it is I that am envious of friends like you and Don that have this first hand engrained old time knowledge that is so uncommon and hard to come by these days.

Kim, I believe Vicki believe the same as myself, What good is having the Knowledge if we do not share with the people that really want you to share. I will share as long as there is a couple of people interested in what I have to say. I will not make a statement unless I know for a fact that it will work for anyone

 

[gilavina]

Kim, I believe Vicki believe the same as myself, What good is having the Knowledge if we do not share with the people that really want you to share. I will share as long as there is a couple of people interested in what I have to say. I will not make a statement unless I know for a fact that it will work for anyone

I would agree with that....it doesn't matter how much a person knows if they aren't willing to help and to make sure that the knowledge lasts longer than they do. To me, the knowledge is not something that I own, but something I'm a steward of.