Blue Copper and Splash Copper Marans Discussion

[pinkchick]

Donna~ Congrats on your Birchen boys! I can't wait to see them! Maybe with my little blue that is probably cuckoo and out of the solid splashes that I have we can work something out later on down the road for our projects.

 

[DMRippy]

Donna~ Congrats on your Birchen boys! I can't wait to see them! Maybe with my little blue that is probably cuckoo and out of the solid splashes that I have we can work something out later on down the road for our projects.

This is off topic for this thread but my blue cuckoos don't look birchen..... could I still use them?

would that produce birchen pullets? I am guessing YES since silver is sexlinked and the hens can only give that to the roos and the Birchen roos will give the silver to all their chicks..... am I right in my thinking?

 

[BlossomSilkies]

Forgive me......what do you mean "what you have?" Are you wanting to know his faults and where he lacks compared to the SOP?
Or are you simply trying to understand the SOP by comparing a bird to it?

Actually, both.

 

[pinkchick]

This is off topic for this thread but my blue cuckoos don't look birchen..... could I still use them?    would that produce birchen pullets?  I am guessing YES since silver is sexlinked and the hens can only give that to the roos and the Birchen roos will give the silver to all their chicks..... am I right in my thinking?

That's how I see it!
I am going to use the little blue that is cuckoo bred back to my solid splash male and use the solid blues that she produces back to Birchen to produce Blue Birchen.......that is when ever I get more Birchens without the side sprigs and lay a decent egg that atleast hits the egg charts.



P.S. Your blue cuckoo's should not look Birchen.....what you are borrowing from them is the silver, blue and the sexlinking. It's your Birchen males that will help you produce more Birchens and the solid females from the Birchen to Cuckoo cross bred back to the Birchen males is what you want to do.
Now if that is not right I am hoping that Vicki will set me straight.

 

[gilavina]

Why is that? Do you think they will help because of the dilution effect and that maybe it will lighten the dark red/copper? Tell us what is going through your head.

I believe part of the problem you are having is that the blue has gone too dark. For a blue to be overmelanized, it is easier to work getting color on than in the BCMs, you will want to be careful about the tones of blue you keep back in the offspring. The copper may not appear in this generation of offspring, but if you continue controlling the tone of blue, it will help immensely. Along with the blue tone, I would highly recommend holding back males that are not mahogany in color, these two things are what has made it possible for me to get the copper on the females in the blues.

 

[pinkchick]

I believe part of the problem you are having is that the blue has gone too dark. For a blue to be overmelanized, it is easier to work getting color on than in the BCMs, you will want to be careful about the tones of blue you keep back in the offspring. The copper may not appear in this generation of offspring, but if you continue controlling the tone of blue, it will help immensely. Along with the blue tone, I would highly recommend holding back males that are not mahogany in color, these two things are what has made it possible for me to get the copper on the females in the blues.

This is why I LOVE YOU! You and Don! So willing to share what you have experienced and your knowledge! Thank you!

 

[gilavina]

This is why I LOVE YOU! You and Don! So willing to share what you have experienced and your knowledge! Thank you!

Haha, I just hope it works, I suppose it really does depend on what you have going on with the copper, and whether your birds are mostly producing mahogany, but you should be able to find out with the splash. I'd also recommend seeing if you can get a splash male that exhibits just a bit of copper, doesn't need to be a ton, but enough to show you what color he is. I do not prefer keeping or using splash males with all the red as I don't think they will get to where a person would want to go long term. That male should be able to help as well with the coppering, when crossed onto your dark females.

 

[Runawaylobster]

You and me both! LOL! I lost copper in the females a long time ago, probably about 3.5 years or slightly more. I have melanised birds that carry Mahogany and I am fighting that. I hope the chicks I posted above, or atleast a couple of them show me some sort of color. I know the males will all express some color, even though I am sure it will be dark, but it's the girls I am really counting on.

I encourage you to post photos or repost some photos of the males that you have and maybe someone can help you out with which male might help with color. Also, post photos of the females.


If when you are ready to make the blues and splash, I strongly suggest using the color of male that you are looking to reproduce. Don made this suggestion many times in the past and also talked about it here in the Blue Copper thread........I believe he is absolutely right.
I am seeing what he talked about first hand in my chicks that I have been hatching this year.


Is it possible to single test mate your Blue roo to the good colored Black female and see what happens?

I'd like to thank you for sharing, I am learning so much from everyone. I had planned to post the males when they were old enough to have useful feedback, and not waste your time with pics too early.. but I would LOVE to post them. I had a couple of exciting developments in the last 2 days. One of the girls is showing a tiny weeny bit of copper, not much but it is there.. and the little blue roo is coloring in already (as well as trying to crow..) I do have two good copper girls that are laying now so i can test mate him as soon as he is ready and I will do that and let you know the outcome.

I am having a bit of trouble understanding what Mahogany is? I see quite a few shades ranging from almost yellow, on Spike, to dark red on some of the others. Is Mahogany the color that I see on the saddle of my Wheaten roos? How do you draw the line between dark copper and mahogany or are they completely different?

It's very exciting now as many of my birds are just getting mature enough to try some of these things with to improve them.

I am going out of town tomorrow but can get some pics next week. The roos seem to improve daily when i first got them i was disappointed but who knew that whey they grew up they would be so much better ...

thanks again for the advice, i would be lost without BYC...

 

[DMRippy]

I don't have a Mahogany Marans roo but I do have a Partridge Rock and a BLRW. Both have the mahogany gene.... I think that is right


Partridge Roo





Blue Laced Red Wyandott Roo


Another BLRW Roo (sire to the above roo)



My avatar is a BLRW Hen. It is a nice deep red with no rust or brassyness. Very pretty color, but not copper. Vicky has a Nice Colored roo... maybe she will post him. If she can't find the picture, I have it in my Marans folder of what I WANT mine to look like.

 

[Runawaylobster]

I don't have a Mahogany Marans roo but I do have a Partridge Rock and a BLRW. Both have the mahogany gene.... I think that is right


Partridge Roo





Blue Laced Red Wyandott Roo


Another BLRW Roo (sire to the above roo)



My avatar is a BLRW Hen. It is a nice deep red with no rust or brassyness. Very pretty color, but not copper. Vicky has a Nice Colored roo... maybe she will post him. If she can't find the picture, I have it in my Marans folder of what I WANT mine to look like.

Thank you very much I can see these guys are the really red color. Now i know what i am looking for. I have some partridge cochins that i thought might be the color but no, they are much more brown looking than this. I actually like this Mahogany, it reminds me of that crazy red color some people do their hair.. I love that too.

I may have one roo with this but he is also very very black and i can just see faint red in the hackles barely enough color at all to say it's there.

thanks again