International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[chickengr]

Line #3
W118
Big Mama
I kept her because she follows me around and wants to be held.
Always poor egg color. She is a cull.

do you have a laying flock? culled girls can be kept as layers. I boil extra eggs and feed my animals. that is a big help.

 

[Chooks man]

do you have a laying flock? culled girls can be kept as layers. I boil extra eggs and feed my animals. that is a big help.

I do a same thing . Cheap and good protein . Plus I can keep the good looking hens without breeding from them. Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I m about 40 min from the farm. Actually it is nicer journey on the train no stress about driving plus it is cheaper. I m prepared to take as many photos as I like . Want to show you guys all the Marans we have . Plus I ll be pairing some breeders or the fertile eggs market and to hatch some for us. Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Weather is going to be challenging a lot of rain last few days hope will be dry next few days when I m in the farm. Lot work to do . Hard to work in the rain . Chooks man

 

[chickengr]

do you have any salmon marans?

 

[Punkybrewster]

@Punkybrewster we are keeping these 4 hens ( 2 from line#2 and 2 from line #3) to breed pullets line from them .
we just need to breed them lightly and we can let them go if you want .
we need to mate them to 2 best cockerel we kept .yellow tag and one of the other 2 .the one with a nicest comb . that will give us different group of pullets to select from in the future .
so to make it clear =
.the 4 hens we are keeping are pullets line hens . we back cross them to the young cockerel, they pullets progeny should lay dark eggs . this pen is pullets line .
the other 3 best pullets we selected before are to produce for as cockerels . this pen is to produce better comb and well colored cockerels .this pen will be cockerels pen .
now you have 2 breeding pen .
4 adult hens .
3 older pullets.
3 cockerels ( yellow tag and other 2 his half brothers)
the rest you can sale them or do what ever you want with them .

I will rexplain this method to you later when I have more time .I m on my way to the farm today ,so I m running out of time .
chooks man

Yes.
I will keep the 4 hens from line#2,3 for the pullet line and to back cross.

Taking pictures and explaining each hen, pullet and cockerel makes this so much easier. I see what you are teaching me.
I know what you are going to tell me to do most of the time when I see the photos posted now.

I will have to cull the other hens. I have no room.
I do have 2 coops that can hold 12 birds.
I will make them pullet line coop and cockerel line coop once the younger group of pullets are divided.

Thank you @Chooks man.

 

[Punkybrewster]

do you have a laying flock? culled girls can be kept as layers. I boil extra eggs and feed my animals. that is a big help.

This is an excellent suggestion.
I would love to do this but I am running out of space!
I have 2 small flocks of Light Brahma and Ameraucana for extra eggs.

 

[Punkybrewster]

I don't have great pictures but found these. They are young still around 12 weeks I think.

Very nice!
Im glad you have 4 bc.
So sorry you have a lot of health problems. It makes it hard to do the things you want to do. It must be very frustrating.
But even so, you are getting results in the Marans pen.

 

[marchick]

Very nice!
Im glad you have 4 bc.
So sorry you have a lot of health problems. It makes it hard to do the things you want to do. It must be very frustrating.
But even so, you are getting results in the Marans pen.

Thank you! It has been a challenging year. I have so many doctors appointments. I have been to the doctors more this year then all the other years put together. I feel like a pincushion. I am like leave me alone! I don't have any blood left. Lol

 

[Punkybrewster]

Tonight I am caging the 2 cockerels to butcher in the morning.
-The high tailed one
-and the one with an M in his comb.

I will also cull the hens that we chose not to keep.

This will leave:
3 F1 cockerels
2 line #2 hens
2 line #3 hens