International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

@kfelton0002 .
yeah that why we named her queen ,she is really .good photo too .

her son .no name .

similarities =
Head .
Comb
Eyes
wattles .Ears lobes
chunkiness
width of the shoulder
type of copper
amount of copper
type of plumage and it colour .
type and quality of the under fluff ,pure black
shanks colour .slate
tail shape and form . NOT the Angle .

I think they are compatible . many good trait are going to be reinforce ,BUT Expect a lot of pure black pullet .great type and mass for sure .

here who I m thinking ,the best way to breed Queen as truly Queen .
Keep the best son of her from Duke s matting .the most colourful with a good head .

Keep the best pullets from her and her son matting . the largest one ,the heaviest one and the dark egg layers .

breed the cockerel with his half sister all from Queen s . Keep the best cockerel ,the most complete in all the area if possible . and try to keep Queen s a live for as long as you can .
When the cockerel is ready in few years time , breed him back to Queen if she still a live . if Queen is available ,than mate this cockerel back to his Dam or her sisters .

line breed Queen s . make her your foundation . she ll get there faster .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

And yes that is white in Queen's wing. One of her flaws. She is 2 years old so the white is permanent.

parasitic white is Autossomal not sex linked .SO
if her son no name has no parasitic white ,than you can breed the white out by selecting the pure black progeny from Queen s and her son . each generation .

it is not a show .it is breeding as long as you balance the mating of your breeders in your pens , the fault will be bred out .for sure .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Well I trust you! I hope you're right. Thank you.

when we talk marans , you have to trust me . I know how they work .
if you want to know ,watch him when he is alert . look how he stand .when his tail is @ it maximum .if his tail is touching his back ,than he ll have Squirrel Tail when fully mature .
if his tail stay high but does not passes the 90 Degree Angle than he has a High Tail .

take more photos of him post to crow .agitated .Alert .and post them .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting much but for the last month I have been so sick. I started collecting eggs today. I have a pen with my two Birchen and one Blue Birchen hen. I am very pleased with the shade of the one egg from that pen. Pretty dark for Birchen/Blue Birchen. The two eggs top left side of picture came from that pen.

View attachment 1710790

hope you are feeling good .
lovely eggs colour .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Looked through my females free ranging and found a few that looked breeder worthy.

This is a hen I call Princess. Named because she loves attention and eating out of the feed barrel. Very sweet and gentle girl. She is pure line A and was born August of 2017. She was a prospective showbird for the Appalachian Classic but didn't make the cut because of her brown eyes. Coincidentally that same show a brown eyed BCM hen won 1st place out of the Marans.

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Princess .well named .
only her eyes letting her down _ SOP Talk_ .it is a fault regardless what show people say or think .
But she is stunning as breeder 100% . one fault and I ll add her tail is a little longer .
could mated to Duke or No name .

I like her a lot no much I can say .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Here is a Max x #8 hen, born 3/8/18. Very ugly comb. She also has a halo to her hackle. She is a big hen weighing 5.9 pounds. Her mother, #8 was a dark layer so I'm betting some of my dark free range eggs are coming from this hen and her sister. Her earlobes are dry and flaky looking also, not white as they appear in the picture.

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I used a small table I had under a light fixture for the stand to pose the birds for pictures today. A step up from my kitchen counter. lol

she has many faults .BUT if mass and dark eggs are her strongest post .I can not argue with that .
Mass / Dark egg and Type are the 3 posts the hen need to excels .
her body type is good .long and heavy .her plumage type is not as good as Princess .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

And here is her little sister, who is a bit younger. Another Max x #8 pullet (line C). Better comb, but smaller in build. I lover the deep copper in hackle, even though she doesn't have as much. I prefer that to her sister's halo. She also likes to hold her tail high.. but I like the shape and length of her tail and how wide she is from the back view.

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this one has a better comb and better plumage type .BUT she is a smaller than her sister . mass is important .
her tail is not as good as her sister ..
she has a better copper but her sister has a amount .

comparing 2 sister is not easy .

I ll work with pullet 1 she Heavy and good type too. heavy win every time for me when come to select pullet .

here the traits I look for when selecting future pullets breeders in order of importance
1- Body Type = 30 points
2- Body Mass = 20 points
3- Dark egg = 20 points
4 Feet type - wide .strait and medium length .= 10 points
5- Tail . form .shape and Angle = 8 points
6 = hackle marking . amount of copper = 7 points
7 - Hackle marking . quality of copper = 5 points

total = 100 point

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I understand completely. We have had so much snow in February over 2 1/2 ft . We still have patches of snow. All the roosters have frostbite. I had a heat lamp on and it still didn't help. My roosters are not beautiful anymore.

poor roosters .
some thing I don t have to deal with .0 or -2 is lowest can get where My farm is.

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

a little talk about chooks line breeding and the importance of the sex linked genes .

every body know that the rooster as ZZ as sex chromosome .both male chromosomes .So he only can yield cockerel s .
The Hen has Zw as sex chromosomes . Z male ,and w female . so the hen is the one dictating the progeny sex out come .she can yield pullets or cockerels .

if we breed 2 unrelated chooks . not from inbred line
Rooster from out cross line ab so his sex chromosomes are Za and Zb. assuming a is a Sire and b is a Dam.
the hen is from a out cross line ef so ,her sex chromosome are Ze and wf [.e is a sire and f is a Dam.]

they F1 pullets progeny will be 50% Za wf and 50% Zb wf [ Za and Zb from they sire] 2 different Z . the wf [ from they Dam ] same gene.2 different type of pullets
they F1 males progeny ,they will be split into 2 as well . 50% Za Ze and 50% Zb Ze [ Za and Zb from they sire and Ze from they dam ] 2 different type of cockerels.

let say we want to line breed the original hen Ze wf = let see what happen s when we back cross her to her sons ,
we have 2 ways = because we have 2 type of cockerels [ her son s] Za Ze and Zb Ze
but we like cockerel Za Ze .
so we cross her back to cockerel ZaZe X Ze wf [original hen ] = we only going to talk about male [ cockerels ] progeny . we ll have again 2 type of cockerels .
50 % Za Ze like they sire [ he is as well they half brother ] so they ll look like him . not good for line breeding .
50% Ze Ze Homozyges . a same gene from they Dam . so they ll look like her . they are different to they sire sire Za Ze and totally different to they grand sire ,the one we start with Za Zb

Ze Ze cockerels are the only true line breeding ones .Cockerels line breeders .

so the trek when breeding is to select the cockerels who look like they mama ,but better in the area she is lucking

next time I/ ll explain back crossing the pullets to they sire and how the Z play a big role .

too much blah blah .boring ?I? know ,but it very important .

chooks man

 

[KF0002]

if the sire of this pullet is not mottled . or split mottled or related to the mottled hen . than this chicks is not mottled .it is some thing else .

mottled chicks both parent to be mottled .

chooks man

Couldn't one parent be recessive for mottling but not showing it? I thought mottling was recessive?