International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Two rivers]

 

[Two rivers]

 

[Two rivers]

 

[Two rivers]

 

[Punkybrewster]

Im back.
We are all moved and have the pens and runs set up. Still a lot to do making them more secure but slowly working on it. Much better than the set up we had on the steep hill.

We call it our "chicken village" haha

While moving the birds to our new place, Whalon, our only mature rooster was put into a small crate. We moved the rest of the birds and their coops to the new home.
Waylon got loose and escaped up the mountain into the woods. With no coops for him to come back to roost in at night, it took 2 days to catch him. But we did and he is back with his girls.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Ive been doing a lot of sorting and culling.

Line #1
I have only 2 pulletsI have kept.
Carol lays a nice egg and likes to talk to me while im out there working.
Judith lays a huge consistantly dark egg. Problem is, she eats them so i am in the process of making and buying rolling nest boxes for everyone to stay a step ahead of anyone else even thinking of eating theirs.
Maggie never laid a dark egg in her life. She was sold as a brown egg layer.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Georgia, the only bird in her line from shipped eggs. She had a nice low tail and I planned to breed her to Waylon to pass that on. Her eggs were consistantly small. Too small to use. She was sold with Maggie.

 

[Punkybrewster]

So I officially have 3 lines to work with.

Line#2
They will be a year old in July.
I have kept only Waylon out of the cockerels.

So far, I have not culled any pullets from this line but I do plan to check each ones egg color again soon. I am letting them settle in some more from the move. They dont like the roll out nest boxes quite yet and I am finding a couple of eggs in their run.

One of the girls laid a beautiful but chalky egg in the run. The darkes I have gotten so far. I am sure it is from the stress of moving and new nest boxes that made her hold that egg in longer than usual but its still pretty cool. The lighter one is from Judith, line#1.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Line#3
Oh boy, this will be picture heavy...

Stunning Marans. I love them.
I just have a nagging feeling about parasitic white coming in on the cockerels as they mature. All their sires had it when I visited the farm i got the eggs from.

I bought 15 eggs, 9 hatched, looked like almost all cockerels but ended up 4 cockerels, 5 pullets.

Of the 4 cockerels, one had vulture hocks. He was sold with Maggie and Georgia as a trio. That leaves 3 to choose from.

 

[Punkybrewster]