International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Punkybrewster]

Ive owned chickens most of my life but have never actually LOOKED at them the way i have to now. The little things that are actually big things. My heads going to explode! So much to learn...

 

[Chooks man]

He wont stand still but you are right.
Feathers on middle toe. There are a couple like that. I also notice a few have heavy feathering on legs.

feathers on middle toes and access feathers on the leg is a problem . you need to watch .
marans are well known to have a problem with they leg feathers ,hard to keep them stable , because it is not a pure gene .
pure gene are = Clean legs and heavy legs feathering like brahman . marans are some where in between . only half of the feathering genes are needed .so there is always access or little ,
a trick is to breed a heavy feathered legs to a light feathered legs . always need to balance it out . never bred 2 heavy feathered leg or 2 with little legs feathering .

same thing with a copper too much and the bird is too mossy ,too little and the bird is almost black . need to be balanced all time .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Yes. The striped bar in the feather of the first, and the second has these several feathers with a splatter of copper on them.

I feel like the second (the splatter) is going to grow out, but the first one, is that called shafting?

yes it is shafting . marans at young age will show some degree of shafting . will go away as they mature .
some marans line exhibit white lacing at young as ,but will go away as they mature .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

So i counting comb points is reliable at this age. I didnt know that. Thank you

the shape and the number of point on the comb are easy to spot at very early stage ,
we look for long , thick ,with nice points 5/6 and long lobe .
we try to ovoid the short and fat comb with less or too many point .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Ive owned chickens most of my life but have never actually LOOKED at them the way i have to now. The little things that are actually big things. My heads going to explode! So much to learn...

keep learning ,need very fat note book . take as many note and photos too as the chicks grow up . later you can always go back to your note bock for references .

marans are complex chooks to breed and work with .so be prepared . MARANS are the best chooks in the world .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

A mix of 2


The chicks i have been showing you are line A.
A mix of 2 different lines.

The eggs i hatched from a local woman who only has 1 cockerel and about 6 hens. Bev Davis line. The nosy little pullet you like was hatched from these.
I bought another dozen to incubate.

I bought 7 as chicks from a breeder on line. She sent me various ages. 3 day olds, 7 day olds, 2 week and the blcm cockerel was about 4 weeks old. Greenfire farm line.

Because this flock is mixed, it makes me nervous what flaws will come out with the on line purchase. I am assuming her claim of egg color #6,7,8 is truthful and she has good stock.
I guess i just dont know what im doing at this point so i expect to make huge mistakes.

The big bcm cockerel is an on line chick as are the 2 blcm. So she must have pretty good stock or im just lucky at the moment.

So this line A will have mixed blood.

Line B will be just the hatched eggs. No new blood.

Of course im open to any suggestions .View attachment 2159972

eggs to die for .
don t panic ,mix blood or not .I will show you how to breed them and turn them into your line .
all line have they problem ,so of them will need work .
tag them ,take note as they grow ,when time come we select the best ones and breed them .
if you want to breed a great marans chooks ,you have to practice test mating to see witch pairing is the best producer .
we as breeder we try to find a bird that can produce stunning progeny .even if they have fault them selves .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

View attachment 2160013

This is a bad tail, right?
It looks like i may have a couple with tails like this. Seems to be only hens?

does she always hold her tail that high ?
chooks man

 

[Punkybrewster]

does she always hold her tail that high ?
chooks man

Yes. Looks like someone stuck a fan up her rear end.

 

[marchick]

feathers on middle toes and access feathers on the leg is a problem . you need to watch .
marans are well known to have a problem with they leg feathers ,hard to keep them stable , because it is not a pure gene .
pure gene are = Clean legs and heavy legs feathering like brahman . marans are some where in between . only half of the feathering genes are needed .so there is always access or little ,
a trick is to breed a heavy feathered legs to a light feathered legs . always need to balance it out . never bred 2 heavy feathered leg or 2 with little legs feathering .

same thing with a copper too much and the bird is too mossy ,too little and the bird is almost black . need to be balanced all time .

chooks man

That I think will be my problem Harvey's line has lots of color so some of my BC chicks are mossy. Middle toe feathers can also be a issue.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Im assuming around 6 -7 months is when i start looking at my birds and deciding which ones to use as breeders and which ones to get rid of. Correct?

I wish the legbands would get here. It would be nice to band which ones came from eggs and which ones came from on- line breeder before their too old to accurately band....or does it matter if their all staying together as line A?