Incubating French Black Copper Marans

[Forgetfulfreda]

Thank you so much! That explains a lot! I just won't put it in the BCM's pen. I also have some mixed breeds, if it is a hen, will put it with them for egg sales.

 

[Tumbleweed Farm]

I have 16 black copper marans in the incubator now on day 10. This is my first time ever so this post has been so informative! I tried to candle them this weekend and couldn't see very well in the 5 darkest ones. Does an extremely bright LED help more and does it hurt the chicks developing eyes to use too bright of a light? I just used a regular bulb on my table lamp with the shade off.

Ive hatched out about 50 BC Marans. I don't candle. Even with my eagle tek its a frustrating experience. I just put them in and wait to see what comes out. Crazy huh

 

[GaryDean26]

Yes, they can. It's most likely a Wheaten chick. Years ago there was a cross done with Black Copper and Wheaten Marans. The Wheaten gene got passed around to a lot of the BCM gene pool. Despite over a decade of working to breed it out of the Black Copper strains, the occasional Wheaten does still crop up in BCM hatches. I would go back to the breeder from when you got the parents. Ask then how often Wheatens crop up in their BCM's. No need to get accusatory, the gene can be a tough one to breed out of the BCM gene pool. The breeders answer will tell you what ratio to expect and from there you can figure out how to winnow your stock further. Do not use the Wheaten baby for breeding. Just sell it for an egg layer, or cull if it is a male. It will only pollute either color if you use it in either Wheaten or BCM gene pools.
Best,
Karen
Really, I don't think one of 10 is a bad ratio. If you want,
1.Go to a BCM breeder who never gets Wheaten and buy a hen from a dark egg laying mother.
Ideally, it should be a strain winning at the egg shows. Since you will lose a bit of darkness
when you cross strains ( that's normal and you will regain it in a couple of generations
with judicial selection) , you want the bought hen to come from as dark an egg laying strain
as you can find.
2.Then cross it with the best male you are hatching now.
a. Hatch a bunch of eggs from them
3.Breed the best male from that hatch back to the bought hen.
4.Then breed the best male from that hatch ( step 3) back to your hens you are now hatching.
5.Then breed the best male ( from step 4) back to the bought hen.
It won't matter if the bought hen is a 2 or 3 yr. old when the best cockerel you are
hatching now is ready to sire chicks. A cockerel to an older hen mating is a preferred mating.

It's a weaving process, always coming in thru the female side,
never breeding full siblings and always using only your best males.
You can do this without worrying about inbreeding because poultry have
a very wide genetic base. And because poultry have a plethora of sex-linked genes.

Why not just test mate for wheaten?

EO = Euskal Oiloa or Basque Hen.
This is a wheaten based breed with the Columbian restrictors and barring genes.
I put my EO Hens in three of my Black Copper Marans pens last fall to make sex-links. If any of my BCM cockerels were carrying wheaten (or e+, eb, y, etc.) I would expect to get 50% yellow chicks from that pen and 50% black chicks and cockerels without recessive to produce 100% black chicks. So far all I have seen are black chicks, but I will be doing this test again since I want to prove them with a larger hatch to be sure (that and the fact that this turned out to be a great cross).

I haven't test mated many of my hens yet, but that would be just as easy. I would just put one BCM hen in the EO pen and collect and hatch her eggs (it would be the dark brown ones, so they wouldn't be confused with the eggs from the other hens in the flock). After hatching a clutch of eggs from that hen I could put a different hen in the EO pen and keep cycling them until I had tested all the breeding BCM hens. It would even be safe to put that BCM hen right back in the Marans breeding pen after her test since you would know which chicks were sired by the EO and which by the BCM since the EO's would be barred and the BCM's would be solid. If you test mated all of your breeding stock and remove the carriers you could breed out the wheaten in one generation with out adding any new blood. If you choose to breed the carriers, you could repeat the test mating on their offspring in the same manner until it is breed out of your breeding line.

Wouldn't introducing new blood and weaving with the rolling mating system just "stirs the pot" with out actually breeding anything out (but still add anything in that the hen from the new line is carrying which could include wheaten even if the owner of the other flock hasn't seen it pop out since recessive can lay dormant in a line for many generations with out popping out)?

 

[JennieRD]

I'm not new to eggs, but I am to hatching maran eggs. can anyone who is incubating maran eggs tell me what your average weight loss is on days 4, 7, and 18? I'm averaging ..05 to .10 and a few .15's on my jumbo eggs weighing 2.5 oz or more

Is this normal for a maran egg using dry humidity, 25%to 30% average. I am incubating 12 maran and 12 blrw

Or should I ask does this seem normal to those of you who are hatching maran eggs for the first time, or even those who have hatched several clutches. Anyone's response would be appreciated.