Critique on my Black Copper Marans babies.

[katiek77]

We have 5(county)-6(district) months before the county fair and the district fair.

 

[Amer]

From a lady that raises them. These are her birds.
View attachment 1728060

Hm. It's good she's breeding those hens with a rooster with a lot of gold, considering they don't seem to have a gold hackle. I'd recommend you buy a Standard of Perfection for your birds. You'll learn a lot.
@Fanci Feathers Marans what do you think of the brood stock?

 

[Amer]

We have 5(county)-6(district) months before the county fair and the district fair.

That should be enough.

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

*enters*
Everyone is wrong.
*Leaves*

 

[katiek77]

T

Hm. It's good she's breeding those hens with a rooster with a lot of gold, considering they don't seem to have a gold hackle. I'd recommend you buy a Standard of Perfection for your birds. You'll learn a lot.
@Fanci Feathers Marans what do you think of the brood stock?

Thank you. I will definitely be looking into getting one. I did break down and buy three bcm roosters. Their pictures looked much better than they did in person. But I brought them home. They are down with my bym girls protecting them. They are def not sop and have some white feathering in them. They also had some feather loss and starting to look much better. We are also working on putting weight on them. They were on the thin side. They love ranging the three acres and they chase us down when they see the Donnie’s feed buckets in our hands. In the short couple of weeks we have had them the donkeys are now letting them eat with them.

 

[katiek77]

*enters*
Everyone is wrong.
*Leaves*

Know I’m really confused??? Lol.

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

@katiek77 you're not wrong in asking for judging on chick down. There's a lot of research that goes into studying a marans's developing stages and linking that to what results later. Some even say that you can tell which ones are boys by how much white they have and where, though this isn't reliable. I also... can't quite remember which is which. I think maybe the ones with more white on their faces near the eye were likely to be roosters? But like I said, my memory is fuzzy on that. If I were to guess, they're all hens.

The only one that stands out to me is the third chick, with all that white. I would probably refrain from breeding that one. Not only is there a chance of it having 'parasitic white' in which a bird retains white wing feathers into adulthood, but it could also have way too much copper coloring or even straw color.

The parent stock looks nice, but young. I like the boy's small tail, but he has a long time to grow it out. I'd say he's a year or younger. Just like people, chickens look their best when young, so this is the best he's going to look.

Sometimes.​

When you have truely good stock, they age like fine wine, and retain their nice body shape and simply fill out to be pleasant beef cakes.
It's hard to judge the parent stock, especially when I can't see the breast or wing feathering. I'd also like to see the hens...

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

Know I’m really confused??? Lol.

Good.

 

[katiek77]

@katiek77 you're not wrong in asking for judging on chick down. There's a lot of research that goes into studying a marans's developing stages and linking that to what results later. Some even say that you can tell which ones are boys by how much white they have and where, though this isn't reliable. I also... can't quite remember which is which. I think maybe the ones with more white on their faces near the eye were likely to be roosters? But like I said, my memory is fuzzy on that. If I were to guess, they're all hens.

The only one that stands out to me is the third chick, with all that white. I would probably refrain from breeding that one. Not only is there a chance of it having 'parasitic white' in which a bird retains white wing feathers into adulthood, but it could also have way too much copper coloring or even straw color.

The parent stock looks nice, but young. I like the boy's small tail, but he has a long time to grow it out. I'd say he's a year or younger. Just like people, chickens look their best when young, so this is the best he's going to look.

Sometimes.​

When you have truely good stock, they age like fine wine, and retain their nice body shape and simply fill out to be pleasant beef cakes.
It's hard to judge the parent stock, especially when I can't see the breast or wing feathering. I'd also like to see the hens...

Thank you so much for all of this information. I was wondering about the third one. It started out with its first line of feathers white while the others had black in their first line with a little white. Lol. I love your aging story. I have some 7 month old Roos that I think have the parasitic white. I’m waiting to see how they look after I fatten them up and their first molt. One has a back length that I like but he is no good if he doesn’t put weight on and loose those white feathers but I still will not use him because his halo is noticeable. This is the only other picture I have of hers that has a hen in it. She has black copper, blue copper, and splashes. I also bought some light Brahma eggs from her.

 

[Amer]

Thank you so much for all of this information. I was wondering about the third one. It started out with its first line of feathers white while the others had black in their first line with a little white. Lol. I love your aging story. I have some 7 month old Roos that I think have the parasitic white. I’m waiting to see how they look after I fatten them up and their first molt. One has a back length that I like but he is no good if he doesn’t put weight on and loose those white feathers but I still will not use him because his halo is noticeable. This is the only other picture I have of hers that has a hen in it. She has black copper, blue copper, and splashes. I also bought some light Brahma eggs from her.
View attachment 1728114

To me, I wish the neck had copper on it. Keep a look out for copper-necked hens in your chicks, I guess.