International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

I am excited for next year. Long winters give me chick fever. Seeing all your gorgeous chicks makes me want to hatch but I am waiting for them to get older. If they where old enough i would be hatching already.

keep preparing them for breeding .
preparation is great makes the job easy when time come .

spring chicken are the best of all the hatch ,because they have the natural on they side .
Winter chicks hatch need a lot of space and heat ,big shed .
Summer hatch are great if a person has a orchid like my self .free heat ,the chicks love it Autumn hatch are great to produce pullets . but the fertility is a problem some time because the breeders molting time .

chooks man

 

[marchick]

culling them is better , what you have now is great .

working with a major fault produce a lot cull .so better to avoid it .
chooks man

I really want to improve egg color but not to lose quality of the birds. Birds come first to get line established and then darken eggs. Egg color is good but would like a little darker.

 

[Chooks man]

now I have hatched liza s marans eggs .2 hatch from a first pairing .I have =
28 Splash chicks from SP X BL pairing .20 of them are from 3 hens with a special eggs .
one hen her eggs are long and dark with sheen
2 hen eggs are oval dark dotted ,
3 hen eggs are oval dark with sheen .

now I have 6 Dz from a same hens paired to he import BLC rooster .expecting more Splashes .
from those 3 hens .than I will have a great base to work with to create a good splash copper line .so this line will be produced by 3 related hens and 2 different rooster ,1 related and 1 is not .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I really want to improve egg color but not to lose quality of the birds. Birds come first to get line established and then darken eggs. Egg color is good but would like a little darker.

line breeding and great selection will improve the egg colour 100% . your line have a genes .need to regrouped properly that all ,so they can express them selves better .

for me I like a marans hen to be correct and lay #6 eggs .better than hen lay #7/8 with bad body type .
it is a worst thing to work with dark eggs layer marans hen with a bad body type . hard to work with .because body type come from the hen .

balanced hen is better .Dark egg layer hen is for showing .nice to have them as breeder don take me wrong .but hard to find .people who breed for dark eggs tend to forget about the other traits .they are so scared to loose the dark egg colour .

chooks man

 

[marchick]

line breeding and great selection will improve the egg colour 100% . your line have a genes .need to regrouped properly that all ,so they can express them selves better .

for me I like a marans hen to be correct and lay #6 eggs .better than hen lay #7/8 with bad body type .
it is a worst thing to work with dark eggs layer marans hen with a bad body type . hard to work with .because body type come from the hen .

balanced hen is better .Dark egg layer hen is for showing .nice to have them as breeder don take me wrong .but hard to find .people who breed for dark eggs tend to forget about the other traits .they are so scared to loose the dark egg colour .

chooks man

For me other traits come first. My egg color is good so I am Blessed. Always room for improvement.

 

[marchick]

I think I need this! Lol

 

[KF0002]

Can we have that in writing! JK! lol
We really did miss you when you where gone. We where still here just a little more unsure. Well me for one was lost with the yellow legs I produced from the old line. So I culled them. Right or wrong. Glad I have what I have now. I never did hear your thoughts on producing yellow legs. There where several offspring from Julie's birds that ended up having yellow legs.

Yes we sure did miss you @Chooks man ! I miss Redbanks too. I hope she is well and her Marans are as lovely as they ever were.

 

[KF0002]

I think I need this! Lol
View attachment 1969254

As long as you have feed, your chickens will tell you whatever you want to hear. lol

I do talk to my chickens, I hope that doesn't make me strange. I like to tell them they are pretty. It builds self-esteem and improves flock morale I think.

 

[KF0002]

For me other traits come first. My egg color is good so I am Blessed. Always room for improvement.

You're lucky you got the good egg color genes from HM's birds. I think the egg color of Duchess and the egg color Duke carries leaves something to be desired. I am hoping a male from your birds will improve upon that as well. My 2019 pullets are laying 4's and are lighter than their dams' eggs. Duchess barely lays a 4 which makes me question even using her.

 

[KF0002]

Back crossing DA and DH to Queen and Malika will hopefully restore the darker egg color to the line.