International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

Okay, that may take awhile but I can try!

you don t have to read it in one goes , but if you want to know every thing about marans breeding and want to breed them to SOP than this is a place .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

You can breed any rooster to any hen that is laying. The quality of the offspring is where selection of good traits or genes are important. I have hens that lay a # 4 egg in color. I have never had a hen that lays a # 4 egg star laying a #7 egg. I have hens that lay a #7 egg and they lay a #7 egg all the time. Most of their off spring lay a #7 egg. I paid for good genes and breed them the way the breeder I bought them from taught me.
This thread is the best one on the internet. If you follow Chooks man and bred according to his plan it will work. It is all in the gene pool and if you do not start with "Good" genes it will take alot longer or not at all. Just my 2cents TOMView attachment 2500002View attachment 2500002View attachment 2500010

these are proper marans eggs .love they color ,they shape and they sheen .
great job my dear friend .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I only have 2 cockerels. Wish i had a couple more for these reasons.

One has turned into a real jerk. He is my back up but i do not want to use him for breeding because of his temperment.

My other one is calm and cooperative.
Im hoping he gives me some nice prodigy to hold on to.

if your cockerel is getting nasty ,than pen him by him self so he can get used to you better .train him same way as we train the bird for the show . if you take him away from the other ,he will have no need to protect any body .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Heres monty... View attachment 2500355

better photos please .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Those are amazing eggs. these are the colour of egg I'm getting. I think its ok, but I don't have a colour chart. its definitely a few shades darker than my welsummer eggs that are deep terracotta.

ok, I will breed them to the better of the two roosters....and hope my lead on marans eggs from a local breeder comes through in spring.

eggs are good shape ,color good but could be darker .
yes breed them to the best cockerel .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Last year I hatched out some marans April 29-30 and they are now in the breeding pens with their rooster. They started laying in October (I was surprised) . Their eggs are averaging 65-75 g.
I have two unrelated roosters and 3 unrelated hens.

I realize it is strongly recommended to wait til after 1 year and even 2, but when you are starting out and they are so hard to find here, its impossible to wait so long.

Should I breed all 3 hens to rooster 1, then all 3 hens to rooster 2?
Their eggs are all acceptable colour. They all have issues but I need to start somewhere. Ideally I would only have 1 rooster and 4 or 5 hens. (I have other varieties of chickens and would like to keep my "winter flock" to around 30-35. I am just breeding for myself, not to show or do anything fabulous. I just want to try and have the best looking and producing flock I can, working towards SOP.

Do I always need to have two roosters? I'm a bit confused how to start. And if I replace my rooster (s) every year, or only if I hatch out one who is a better specimen. Do always breed line 1 to line 2? and then what does that become line 3?



Also- as a side question- out of the 5 marans I own, one is blue. I am not especially a fan of blue. I wouldn't consider keeping any blue roosters. Will crossing a blue and a black produce 50% of each, and will I be able to tell at hatch which are blue? If I only keep black ones, will those black one be able to produce blue if theiy are only bred to a black? Do you think I should remove that hen from my breeding pen ?

there is many many breeding methods . you need to find the one it is easier for you to practice .
if you want to breed to SOP standard you have to wait till your pullets passes a 10 months mark minimum like I explained it many time over and over before you breed them .
genetic of inheritance does not care about if we have space or not ,if marans are rare or not. rolls are the rolls can not be bent to please every body .
be patient my friend .let the pullets gain size ,it is very important for they helth in the long run .
if you want genetic diversity breed your 3 pullets to the best BCM rooster and to the best cuckoo rooster .they work well together .
I will show you how when breeding time come .
need good photos of you cuckoos roosters please .

here some name of some breeding method practiced by many chooks breeders around the world .
line breeding = many different breeding type in this category = this method is to work with a close breeding cycle . same folk of birds =
we breed mother to sun or father to daughter .back crossing method .
we breed half siblings to maintain and move the line forward .
we breed true sibling to reinforce any stunning genes they share .
we breed many many other relative together in a control programs .

out crossing = we breed to different birds come from different line . they have to compliment each other .

pen breeding = this method is only good when we are working with a proven breeders .

line breeding based on the sire only .he has to be proven producer .
line breeding based on the dam only .she has to be proven breeder .

line breeding based on the blood line to keep it pure .
line breeding based on the genetic traits to keep traits intact so we don t lose them by crossing .

chooks man

and many many other method .so don t worry .there is breeding method for every body and for every flock ,small or large .

 

[Bantambird]

ok, thanks everyone! I will figure out a method to know which hens lays each egg. or maybe I will only set the eggs I am sure about.

that is a good looking rooster above!

Can I try my hand at a critique? Here goes...

Great body mass. Good type and shape. Nice low stance, close to ground. Beautiful deep copper colour. Full pattern. Looks like maybe he is missing the copper speckles from his chest? Good head. Are the wattles a little big? Maybe needs a few more spikes on his comb? Nice bright eyes, orange ear tufts so thats great. Can't really see leg colour or if there are too many leg feathers?- can't tell. Tail angle a bit high (but he looks alerted so maybe not).
How'd I do?

Trap nests are an option, if you want to build or buy them. You will need to be on the ball in gathering, however, because she will be stuck in the nest until you release her and you don't want to untrain her from the nesting boxes.

 

[Chooks man]

set my first BCM / BLCM Dz of the year 2021 under broody hen .
I have 5 broody hens more waiting for the eggs . each hen will be setting on a dz eggs from a singular pen . not mixing the eggs from the breeding pens . keeping only the best eggs .
darker eggs are coming out of Conan TB and Khabib pens . Day Walker and Enkido not bad 3/4/5 .
Ah I bought 3 sheep to help me on keeping the grass shorter for the chooks .White dropper sheep .
3 Turkey { trio } last year hatch .2 bronze females and one white boy . not going to breed him the the girls .waiting to find a good bronze tom .
looking forward to see some chicks ,has been a while now .

chooks man

 

[Punkybrewster]

set my first BCM / BLCM Dz of the year 2021 under broody hen .
I have 5 broody hens more waiting for the eggs . each hen will be setting on a dz eggs from a singular pen . not mixing the eggs from the breeding pens . keeping only the best eggs .
darker eggs are coming out of Conan TB and Khabib pens . Day Walker and Enkido not bad 3/4/5 .
Ah I bought 3 sheep to help me on keeping the grass shorter for the chooks .White dropper sheep .
3 Turkey { trio } last year hatch .2 bronze females and one white boy . not going to breed him the the girls .waiting to find a good bronze tom .
looking forward to see some chicks ,has been a while now .

chooks man

You are very busy!
It is always exciting when we start incubating and hatching. You are very lucky to have broody hens.

So much less stress to let them do the work that we try to replicate with an incubator.

I hope you get a lot of beautiful chicks.

 

[Chooks man]

You are very busy!
It is always exciting when we start incubating and hatching. You are very lucky to have broody hens.

So much less stress to let them do the work that we try to replicate with an incubator.

I hope you get a lot of beautiful chicks.

broody hens are the best if you have them ,no work involved plus better and clever chicks , most of my hybrid hens are going broody ,so I ll be using them all .

chooks man