Blue Copper and Splash Copper Marans Discussion

[Chickenman76]

One of the easier things with Marans in my opinion. Get yourself a rooster that has great shank and outer toe feathering and maybe even if he has a couple no-no feather stubs on the middle toe and cross him over your best feathered females.......or visa versa...find a female with the good shank and outer toe feathering and maybe even a couple no-no feather stubs on the middle toe.

In my personal experience with clean legged or lightly feathered birds......you have to have atleast one of the parent birds that has great shank and outer toe feathering. It can take alot of test mating and crosses to improve the leg feathering but it can be done.
It is very important to have the good feathering to start out working with even if it is just one bird.


3 genes are involved in leg feathering, 2 dominant and 1 recessive. The 2 dominant genes control the amount and type of shank feathering they get....such as one of the dominant genes produces Langshan shank and toe feathering and the other Brahma shank and toe feathering and the recessive gene is for clean legs.

When 2 birds (even if they have fully feathered shanks and outer toes) are crossed and a clean legged bird is produced in the offspring, both parent birds each carry one copy of the recessive gene. This does not mean that the parent bird is not useable just understand that every now and then you will get a clean legged bird when crossing these 2 particular parent birds together, they will also produce feather shanked birds.....just remember that they (the offspring) get that one copy of the recessive gene no matter what. Keeping notes on who you breed to who and what they produce will help you know who carries what so that you can avoid those crosses later and hopefully avoid getting birds that have the issues you are trying to get away from.

Try not to cross birds together that both have an issue. For example, if you cross a rooster that has only 2 shank feathers on each leg to a pullet that has 4 feathers on one shank and 3 feathers on the other shank or she has just same as the rooster......you will get offspring that mimick their parents.
On the other hand....if you take that same pullet from above and cross her to a rooster that has GREAT shank and outer toe feathering........you will get some chicks with good feathering or better feathering, you will also get some chicks that have the crappy crap that you are trying to work away from.




Hope others come by to give you their advise and or opinions about how they breed for it.

Thank you, that was very useful info

. I just want my Marans to meet the standards

 

[sol2go]

pinkchick-

thanks for the nice comment regarding the photos I posted recently; it doesn't make it any easier to rehome them! They are really cute and sweet and run around with the big kids. Unless something sad happens, I can't keep anymore roosters. If I knew how to ship them, I would consider that.

Your later post on shank feathering is a handy reference, thanks for that too.

 

[cajun backwoods]

Can you get a couple more photos of her and a close up of her comb? The photo I see on my end is blurry.

i hope this helps im not very good at takeing pics and worse on my cell phone

but i spoke to the breeder and she said that the black copper that they have do have some blue in their backgraound and every now and then one of them pops up. they even offered to trade the 2 chicks for some more but i like these and want to see how they turn out. but i hope this pic. is better but not sure

 

[westkyracer]

Just sharing some pics of the chicks they are almost 2 months old. I have one splash that is a really pretty blue/grey color.

 

[pinkchick]

i hope this helps im not very good at takeing pics and worse on my cell phone

but i spoke to the breeder and she said that the black copper that they have do have some blue in their backgraound and every now and then one of them pops up. they even offered to trade the 2 chicks for some more but i like these and want to see how they turn out. but i hope this pic. is better but not sure

Thanks for the extra photos. She is still young and her comb will start getting bigger pretty soon but it will seem slow going, until she starts laying or just before she starts, blammo...it seems overnight they instantly have a comb. She has lovely hackles. I have copper hackle envy of everyone right now, it is one of my primary focus' in this years breedings. To touch on the blue being in the background and every now and then a blue pops up. There must be a blue bird there now and currently being bred or a blue bird cannot be produced. My guess is that the breeder has a blue bird that is so dark blue that the blue actually appears black. I have for very near 5 years been working with Blue Coppers and been working with this very dark blue that appears black. I had a male (was suppose to be Black Copper) that was dark blue- looked black and I used him as the patriarch rooster in my Marans, it can still be tricky from time to time discerning the very dark blue from the black. Blue can vary, from a very light blue... to the so dark it looks "black" blue. When these very dark blue birds are bred to a black bird they can produce more blue birds that appear black and not knowing how the blue gene works or how to spot it on maturing birds, it is very easy to think they are all black birds. If this young gal came from Black Copper parents....guaranteed one of the parents is not Black Copper, but Blue Copper. When the breeder thinks one is just popping up every now and then, it's only because the shade of blue came through a lighter blue so it was noticed.

 

[pinkchick]

Just sharing some pics of the chicks they are almost 2 months old. I have one splash that is a really pretty blue/grey color.

Cute boys! Do you have more Marans or just these 2?

 

[pinkchick]

Thank you, that was very useful info

. I just want my Marans to meet the standards

pinkchick- thanks for the nice comment regarding the photos I posted recently; it doesn't make it any easier to rehome them! They are really cute and sweet and run around with the big kids. Unless something sad happens, I can't keep anymore roosters. If I knew how to ship them, I would consider that. Your later post on shank feathering is a handy reference, thanks for that too.

Your welcome and I hope that it made sense and didn't confuse anyone and if I mispoke or explained it poorly that someone comes by and corrects me. I also hope others come by and talk about how they breed for the leg feathering. I find it very useful to get many many takes on what works for folks.

 

[Runawaylobster]

Thanks for the extra photos. She is still young and her comb will start getting bigger pretty soon but it will seem slow going, until she starts laying or just before she starts, blammo...it seems overnight they instantly have a comb.
She has lovely hackles. I have copper hackle envy of everyone right now, it is one of my primary focus' in this years breedings.

To touch on the blue being in the background and every now and then a blue pops up.


There must be a blue bird there now and currently being bred or a blue bird cannot be produced.

My guess is that the breeder has a blue bird that is so dark blue that the blue actually appears black. I have for very near 5 years been working with Blue Coppers and been working with this very dark blue that appears black. I had a male (was suppose to be Black Copper) that was dark blue- looked black and I used him as the patriarch rooster in my Marans, it can still be tricky from time to time discerning the very dark blue from the black.

Blue can vary, from a very light blue... to the so dark it looks "black" blue.
When these very dark blue birds are bred to a black bird they can produce more blue birds that appear black and not knowing how the blue gene works or how to spot it on maturing birds, it is very easy to think they are all black birds.
If this young gal came from Black Copper parents....guaranteed one of the parents is not Black Copper, but Blue Copper. When the breeder thinks one is just popping up every now and then, it's only because the shade of blue came through a lighter blue so it was noticed.

I was just going to ask about that blue popping up and you beat me to the question with an answer ... THANKS also thanks for the feathered leg info that is also super interesting...

 

[cajun backwoods]

Thanks for the extra photos. She is still young and her comb will start getting bigger pretty soon but it will seem slow going, until she starts laying or just before she starts, blammo...it seems overnight they instantly have a comb.
She has lovely hackles. I have copper hackle envy of everyone right now, it is one of my primary focus' in this years breedings.

To touch on the blue being in the background and every now and then a blue pops up.


There must be a blue bird there now and currently being bred or a blue bird cannot be produced.

My guess is that the breeder has a blue bird that is so dark blue that the blue actually appears black. I have for very near 5 years been working with Blue Coppers and been working with this very dark blue that appears black. I had a male (was suppose to be Black Copper) that was dark blue- looked black and I used him as the patriarch rooster in my Marans, it can still be tricky from time to time discerning the very dark blue from the black.

Blue can vary, from a very light blue... to the so dark it looks "black" blue.
When these very dark blue birds are bred to a black bird they can produce more blue birds that appear black and not knowing how the blue gene works or how to spot it on maturing birds, it is very easy to think they are all black birds.
If this young gal came from Black Copper parents....guaranteed one of the parents is not Black Copper, but Blue Copper. When the breeder thinks one is just popping up every now and then, it's only because the shade of blue came through a lighter blue so it was noticed.

thanx for the info, im VERY knew to the marans and this is my very first rodeo so to speak lol, the info is very helpful and extremely appreciated, now for another question, i have about 15 or 20 white marans and a few black coppers and i will deff. have a few extra roos, i was told these 2 breeds are used to breed the splash, is this true and if so whick one has to be the roo, the black or the white? and once again thank you SO VERY MUCH, and i might be getting in over my head lol

 

[pinkchick]

thanx for the info, im VERY knew to the marans and this is my very first rodeo so to speak lol, the info is very helpful and extremely appreciated, now for another question, i have about 15 or 20 white marans and a few black coppers and i will deff. have a few extra roos, i was told these 2 breeds are used to breed the splash, is this true and if so whick one has to be the roo, the black or the white? and once again thank you SO VERY MUCH, and i might be getting in over my head lol

First of all you are not in over your head......just remember to have fun with them and enjoy them! Marans are great fun! Now let's talk about how to get those Splash birds. 1st~ BCM crossed with the White Marans is NOT how Splash is created. White and Splash are 2 different things. The blue gene is a diluting gene and 1 copy of the gene effects black, diluting it to blue. Your pullet only has 1 copy of the blue gene making her the "blue" that we see. If she did not have the blue gene, she would be a Black Copper. Splash birds are BLUE birds that have 2 copies of the blue gene. When the 2 copies of the blue gene present it dilutes the blue to a white-ish color feather and allows leakage of other random lighter and darker blue feathers randomly throughout the birds plumage, it also allows the copper to show, but the copper is usually random and broken and not a complete pattern like you will see on the Blue Copper and the Black Copper. Also, it is said that the blue gene and it's diluting effects can lighten the copper coloring a bit from time to time, but I don't normally see this in my birds. To create a Splash bird you will need 2 Blue birds or a Splash bird and a Blue bird. Westkyracers recent post with the 2 cockerels in it.....the first photo and the last photo are a splash male. Blue does not breed true. In other words, when 2 blue birds are bred together they will create all 3 colors....black, blue and splash. If you breed your blue gal to one of your black roosters you will get blue and black offspring. Keep the best blue male from that cross and breed him back to his blue mother and this will produce black, blue and splash chicks. Below is the expected color ratio of offspring from blue matings......I should say that this ratio is based on the number of eggs set at a time and I believe that I remember that number being around 20 eggs or more. Blue x Blue = 50% blue, 25% black and 25% splash Blue x Splash = 50% splash and 50% blue Blue x Black = 50% blue and 50% black Black x Splash = 100% blue Splash x Splash = 100% splash Black x Black = 100% black