International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[kcrandall]

Well, they all free range from 9am-9pm as they wish. There are 65 birds altogether. Two roosters- a 3 yr old, and a 2 yr old, and 20 mature hens. The rest are all 16 wks (25 of them) and 12 weeks (18 of them).
Both of these birds are very tall and gauky, lanky... and I have seen them be "mated" by their hatch mates (who are my roosters from the other photos). By the way- would love some feedback on some of my rooster photos too. Who to keep- who to eat?

If you’ve seen them being mated by the older males then they’re pullets.

Post pics on any bird you want an opinion on.

 

[Minky]

If you’ve seen them being mated by the older males then they’re pullets.

Post pics on any bird you want an opinion on.

I'd love opinions on the roosters photos I posted bottom of page 1628 and at the top of page 1629. Would like opinions on the best one to keep for breeding, if any are suitable.

 

[Chooks man]

Hello folks. My marans are 16 weeks old today so I took some photos. I am trying to do my first round of "culling". Any opinions on my birds would be very helpful. I am new to marans. I am primarily breeding for egg colour, so I will not keep my splash. I will likely keep one cuckoo (he is nice looking) and I would like to have some help with these guys below. Faults and attributes.
One has a lot of copper- the other is mostly black. Is there a preference? Would the black one still be a BCM? Which is likely to have darker egg genes? Would it make sense to keep both and breed with my hens to see? Thanks

if you are breeding for dark eggs colour .you have to select the cockerel who hatched from dark eggs .

both of your cockerels are good type .the darker one is much better . the other is over colored .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

And here are two others, one lots of copper, one mostly black. Could you guys weigh in on which roosters out of these 2 and the last 2 are the better ones? In the ones below, the black rooster has one white feather on his left foot. Photos 1 and 2 are the blacker one, photos 3,4,6 are the coppery one, and 5 has both in it.

dark one is better .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

And then I have these two that I think are roosters... but they are way behind the others in terms of comb and rooster behaviour. Thoughts?
Pics 1 and 2 -smaller comb, feathered feet
Pics 3,4,5 slighter larger comb, clean feet

are these even roosters? I see curling feathers in front of their tails....
16 weeks, 1 day

those are not marans .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Ok, more close ups of those mystery cockerel/pullets. Feathered feet and clean feet. I pics 2,3 and 7 are feathered footed bird, others are clean foot. And what the heck kind of comb does feather feet have?IS that a mutt comb? Supposed to be a pure Marans. An olive egger that I mis-tagged is possible for both of these birds, I suppose. I hope not.

those are not marans .
they look like Langshan X EE.

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

They dont look like pure marans to me. The rose combed one must be an accidental olive egger as you think it is mistagged.
The others look like mixes?

agree with you .they are a cross .no marans on them at all .

chooks man

 

[marchick]

I have been going nonstop. I just caught up on reading everyone's posts. I went out this morning and took a few pictures. Out of all the 3rd and 4th hatch this BC cockerel is the only guy looks promising. He is 14 weeks old now. These are bad pictures since they are still not coming out of the house into the pen.

 

[Punkybrewster]

He looks lovely.

 

[marchick]

He looks lovely.

Thank you! I think he has potential. We will see in a few weeks.