International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Punkybrewster]

Bahaha
Looks like one to me. That shows you how much i know.....

Beautiful either way. Lovely birds you have marchick

 

[Chooks man]

not necessarily. I had dominant roos pretending to mate cockerels and young roos.

I had a same problem with one of my old Birchen rooster years ago .
this days I will cull for this problem .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Bahaha
Looks like one to me. That shows you how much i know.....

Beautiful either way. Lovely birds you have marchick

different body type .
different color pattern and copper quality
different comb .
and more ......................

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Chick pics at 3 weeks old. Most are fast feathering type with a few slow feathering type. First pic is of a cockerel that is super fast feathering type.

I do like them a lot .correct marans type .love the early feathering cockerels /pullets .supper grounded and chunky .
some one has done they home work for sure .
well happy for you .good restart .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

@kcrandall
love this solid big looking pullet .slow/medium feathering type . she can help you to breed sex linked day one marans chicks .
I like her a lot .
love they blue eyes .
chooks man

 

[chickenpolo]

Chickenpolo - Your Cockerel has a few issues:

1. His hackle has a halo (gold/yellowish feathers). We prefer the hackle, back and saddle feathers to be an even copper color. When I think of copper color, I visualize a penny - the copper color can range from the color of a new penny to an old penny.
2. His tail is very high, almost a squirrel tail (90 degree angle). We prefer a Marans tail (male or female) to be no more than a 45 degree angle. If mated to a hen with a low tail you will get some male chicks that have a correct tail.
3. His ear tufts are dark - probably dark gray or black. We prefer the ear tufts to be copper colored similar to the hackle, back and saddle feathers.
4. His eyes appear to be lightly colored. We prefer the Marans (both Male and Female) to have a deep redish-orange eye color.
5. His foot / shank feathering is very light. We prefer the shank and outer foot/toe to be lightly feathered.

All of these issues are fixable in future generations if you breed this cockerel to a correct hen. The correct BCM hen should have good type, nice copper hackle, good redish-orange eyes and good feathered feet / legs. Is this cockerel your only option as a breeder? If so then you can work with him if paired to the right hen(s) to offset his deficiencies. If you have other options then post pics so we can see what you have to work with. It would also help if you posted pics of your pullets / hens so we can see how they may compliment this cockerel. You can’t fix all of these issues in one breeding season so it’s best to pick one or two issues to work on. I would start with trying to improve tails and color (eliminating halo) which can take 2-3 generations. Foot/shank feathering and eye color can be corrected in one maybe two generations.

Keith

Thanks for the input! I was thinking his tail was too high, and it’s funny that I didn’t notice the halo on his hackle until I took the picture lol
He does actually have more feathers on his legs but they get pulled out. Sadly he’s all I have to work with right now- my luck with marans has been the worst, I can’t seem to get anything I have 2 BC pullets and one has a white tipped feather in her tail, and I think both also have too high a tail set, and combs aren’t perfectly straight, they sort of flop. I’ll have to try to find a pic of them.

 

[Chooks man]

@kcrandall
gorgeous and correct looking pair . every thing is good about them .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Thanks for the input! I was thinking his tail was too high, and it’s funny that I didn’t notice the halo on his hackle until I took the picture lol
He does actually have more feathers on his legs but they get pulled out. Sadly he’s all I have to work with right now- my luck with marans has been the worst, I can’t seem to get anything I have 2 BC pullets and one has a white tipped feather in her tail, and I think both also have too high a tail set, and combs aren’t perfectly straight, they sort of flop. I’ll have to try to find a pic of them.

we need to see photos of them please ,will help us to comment .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

@chickenpolo
this cockerel has good and bad thing if you want to show him .but if you want to breed him is different story .
he ha a good head and comb .plus .
this copper could be more uniform and well spread to cover all his body .still young will color up more in the future .
his major problem is his tail .too big and too high . need to find pullets/hens with a good tails other wise he is going to produce too much culls .

photos of your pullets will help .
chooks man

 

[chickenpolo]

Here’s some random photos of my two BC hens
These 2 pics are of hen with white tips in feathers

these next pics are of my hen Darcie

sadly I’m thinking I’m not going to improve much with what I have. I don’t think I should use the one with white tips should I?