International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[kcrandall]

my 2 rooster possibilities. The first has a lot of copper leakage on his chest.

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I like this cockerel’s color so far. He looks to have a slight halo on his hackles (lighter colored feathers at bottom of hackle). He has copper spotting on his breast but it doesn’t bother me...some of the spotting will molt out after his last juvenile molt. His tail is longer and higher than I prefer but it’s not a squirrel tail (90 degrees or more). I cannot tell from the pic if he has good type or not - we need a full side pic taken on his level.

If paired with a hen or pullet with minimal to no copper hackles with good type, long back and short well angled tail should produce some nice female offspring.

 

[kcrandall]

The second prospect.
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This cockerel looks to have decent type but his copper color appears uneven and he has a definite halo. He has a better angled tail than the first cockerel (we want a 45 degree angle on the tail). My biggest concern is that he is expressing parasitic white (i.e., the white fluff at base of tail). Tail fluff should be black or dark gray. Check the first cockerel to see what color fluff he has at base of his tail. Parasitic white is a problem in a lot of BCM Flocks...it can be breed out but it takes many generations and a lot of culling to do so. Both cockerels have some growing to do so let’s see how they look in 2 or 3 months.

 

[Minky]

Hey everyone. I posted this on the emergency thread, but thought one of you guys may be able to help me.

She is a 20 wk old pullet. Just yesterday I was watching her check out the nesting boxes and I was happy she was doing that!! she was free ranging and chest bumping with her flock mates, she roosted fine at 7 pm. This morning when I opened the coop and everyone ran out- she was laying in the hay, so I moved to her, and she scooted away on her chest/face/ flapping all over and pushing with her legs. I had a 10 am appointment to get my snow tires on so I put her in a cat carrier with food and water and when I got back I took this video.

Any help or ideas? I have inspected her legs and wings and she seems very healthy, although she did have her beak open this morning when I carried her to the feed room and put her away into the cat carrier. So sad. She is holding her tail open (like a turkey) and her head down low to the ground. Cannot balance. When you hold her, you can't feel anything is wrong. She feels strong.

 

[kcrandall]

Hey everyone. I posted this on the emergency thread, but thought one of you guys may be able to help me.

She is a 20 wk old pullet. Just yesterday I was watching her check out the nesting boxes and I was happy she was doing that!! she was free ranging and chest bumping with her flock mates, she roosted fine at 7 pm. This morning when I opened the coop and everyone ran out- she was laying in the hay, so I moved to her, and she scooted away on her chest/face/ flapping all over and pushing with her legs. I had a 10 am appointment to get my snow tires on so I put her in a cat carrier with food and water and when I got back I took this video.

Any help or ideas? I have inspected her legs and wings and she seems very healthy, although she did have her beak open this morning when I carried her to the feed room and put her away into the cat carrier. So sad. She is holding her tail open (like a turkey) and her head down low to the ground. Cannot balance. When you hold her, you can't feel anything is wrong. She feels strong.

She is definitely having balance issues so it could be neurological, respiratory causing inner ear disruption or vitamin deficiency. Give her 1 cc B-12 and 1 cc Poultry Cell (a multivitamin supplement) orally for 2-3 days to see if that helps her. Listen to her breathing and check her nasal and throat passages for mucous to make sure it’s not respiratory. If you think it’s respiratory you can give her an antibiotic IM (in the breast muscle) using a 0.25” needle small gauge. In the States I use Tylan 50 at 0.25 cc per pound of body weight given daily for 5 days. Alternate injection sites.

She may have fell off the roost during the night and hit her head. You can also give her some aspirin disolved in water for inflammation if she did hit her head. When give medication orally I use a 5 cc syringe (remove the needle) to administer the medicine. Tilt her head up slightly and squirt a little in her mouth at a time so she swallows it on her own to prevent aspiration. You can restrain her by wrapping her up in an old bath towel exposing only her head. This will keep her from fighting you to much and she will be much easier to control. Keep her confined for a few days with fresh water and feed. I wish you well with her!

 

[Minky]

She is definitely having balance issues so it could be neurological, respiratory causing inner ear disruption or vitamin deficiency. Give her 1 cc B-12 and 1 cc Poultry Cell (a multivitamin supplement) orally for 2-3 days to see if that helps her. Listen to her breathing and check her nasal and throat passages for mucous to make sure it’s not respiratory. If you think it’s respiratory you can give her an antibiotic IM (in the breast muscle) using a 0.25” needle small gauge. In the States I use Tylan 50 at 0.25 cc per pound of body weight given daily for 5 days. Alternate injection sites.

She may have fell off the roost during the night and hit her head. You can also give her some aspirin disolved in water for inflammation if she did hit her head. When give medication orally I use a 5 cc syringe (remove the needle) to administer the medicine. Tilt her head up slightly and squirt a little in her mouth at a time so she swallows it on her own to prevent aspiration. You can restrain her by wrapping her up in an old bath towel exposing only her head. This will keep her from fighting you to much and she will be much easier to control. Keep her confined for a few days with fresh water and feed. I wish you well with her!

Ok, thank you so much. I, of course, dont have anything medical for chickens except a vitamin powder to add to water. (called stress aide). I will start with that.
B12 - can I use human B12 ? can I use human baby aspirin? ( I have bayer) I am very unprepared for sick chickens it seems.

 

[kcrandall]

Ok, thank you so much. I, of course, dont have anything medical for chickens except a vitamin powder to add to water. (called stress aide). I will start with that.
B12 - can I use human B12 ? can I use human baby aspirin? ( I have bayer) I am very unprepared for sick chickens it seems.

B-12 is just to give her an energy boost and for immune support if she is fighting an infection. You can use human grade B-12 but I am unsure of the dosage conversion for chickens. Start with the vitamin powder per dosing instructions. Baby Asprin will work at a dosage of 25 mg per pound of body weight for a max of 3 days. You can split the daily aspirin dose into a morning and evening dose.

 

[kcrandall]

Ok, thank you so much. I, of course, dont have anything medical for chickens except a vitamin powder to add to water. (called stress aide). I will start with that.
B12 - can I use human B12 ? can I use human baby aspirin? ( I have bayer) I am very unprepared for sick chickens it seems.

Here is the B-12 Dosage for chickens. Vitamin B deficiency in chickens can cause neurological symptoms such as leg weakness and imbalance.

 

[kcrandall]

The Marans SOP states that that plummage should be moderately tight and smooth textured. You may recall that we have mentioned tight or loose feathering in some of our critiques. I thought I would share an example of loose feathering (undesirable) in one of my growout pullets. I will wait until after her final juvenile molt but I suspect that this fault will not improve. She will most likely end up in my layer pen unless she lays an exceptionally dark egg then I may consider single mating her then culling hard for loose plumage. In the pics, notice how the feathers are fluffed outward from the middle of her back towards her tail.

 

[Punkybrewster]

I notice my marans with overfeathering on their feet have loose extra fluff around their thighs and such.

The ones with correct, feathering on their feet have better, tighter plumage.

I guess thats a no brainer...haha

 

[kfelton0002]

The topline starts at the base of the comb and ends at the tip of the tail. Each breed has their own specific topline (or shape, if you will) based on the Standard of Perfection (SOP) for that breed. In simple terms, we want our Marans to look like a Marans shape-wise. This is why we stress the importance of type first when breeding a new line of Marans. We can have a beautifully colored Marans Hen but if she looks like a Cochin then she is not correct per the Marans SOP. The Bottomline is equally important as well.

Couldn't have stated it better!