International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

BC rooster is CTB and Amor s son . He is mostly black no shoulder colouration good for my solid black breeding project. Love his low tail angle

Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

My favourite white copper or splash copper with his brother splash both sired by CRB they are massive with great conformation

Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

CRB relaxing the sire of all my Bc and Blc roosters and young hens
He is 50% import ( English line ) 25% frensh line and 25% old oz line . Great combination .he is 4 years old healthy and happy strong as ever he still the boss
Very gentle
Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Just for the look Blondi is Narans X CLB rooster gorgeous looking with great deep body type. The only one left for a large group I breed in 2019

Chooks man

 

[wrathsfarm]

I m at Sydney farm trying to organise the move of the chooks next couples of weeks. Just wanted to see the chooks I have . I haven t seen them since last November they all look great well happy about that. Lost quite few roosters .
Conan The Barbarian he still look s great healthy and chunky
View attachment 3629004

Shamrock
View attachment 3629007
My foundation roosters
Chooks man

How many chooks are at the Sydney farm? I hope all goes well with the move and sorry for your loses.

 

[bigsurfwaves]

I m at Sydney farm trying to organise the move of the chooks next couples of weeks. Just wanted to see the chooks I have . I haven t seen them since last November they all look great well happy about that. Lost quite few roosters .
Conan The Barbarian he still look s great healthy and chunky
View attachment 3629004

Shamrock
View attachment 3629007
My foundation roosters
Chooks man

Gorgeous!!! I love that name Conan!

 

[bigsurfwaves]

Chooks man or whoever knows - what is a blue splash marans? I have a pretty pullet but wonder what the parentage is? Birchen? Black Copper? Blue Copper? I'm clueless. I can see that a Golden Cuckoo is probably a Cuckoo x Wheaten but the splash ... how is it created? There is a thread about it - but it doesn't explain its origin whatsoever. Only compares it with black copper splash. Which I have never seen or heard of. Yet.

 

[wrathsfarm]

This is the extent of my knowledge...
Splash x Splash: 100% Splash
Black x Black: 100% Black
Blue x Black: 50% Blue, 50% Black
Blue x Blue: 25% Black, 50% Blue, 25% Splash
Blue x Splash: 50% Splash, 50% Blue

@Chooks man or @Bantambird can explain in much more detail. Can you post pics of your blue splash?

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Chooks man or whoever knows - what is a blue splash marans? I have a pretty pullet but wonder what the parentage is? Birchen? Black Copper? Blue Copper? I'm clueless. I can see that a Golden Cuckoo is probably a Cuckoo x Wheaten but the splash ... how is it created? There is a thread about it - but it doesn't explain its origin whatsoever. Only compares it with black copper splash. Which I have never seen or heard of. Yet.

Splash is a dilution gene, it has two alleles (versions). The original version is Black (bl) and is what most birds have, but the other version is Splash (Bl). If a bird was two copies of bl, it remains normal, if it was one copy of each, all black parts become Blue (Grey), and if it has two copies of Bl, it is Splash, aka Blue splash. This version is mostly white or pale grey with parts of its feathers darker grey or blackish. Bare in mind this only changes the black parts, so a fully splash bird is an extended black (all black) one with two copies of Bl. Marans often have Splash copper which is like a black copper with the same effect (see Chooks man’s recent rooster pictures, you have all Copper Marans but in black, blue and splash).

Golden cuckoo is a Black copper with the Barring gene, a normal cuckoo is an all Black bird with the barring gene. This one just adds White stripes across each feather.

These versions aren’t always crosses between other versions, they are all separate colour varieties but share a lot of genes, but they can breed true (besides blue which produces all versions of the Black/Blue/splash gene when bred together). However, you can cross some varieties to create the right combination of genes for another pattern. If you want to make Blue Splash Marans you either need parents of this variety or to cross two blue marans together, making 25% of the chicks splash. Once you have these splash ones, you can breed them together and they will produce all splash ones.

That’s a lot of words so if you want me to clarify anything just say.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

To make it simpler, when describing a Chicken’s colour there are two main colours it has: ground colour (I’ll shorten it to GC) and pattern colour (PC). Ground colour usually goes on the neck and shoulders of a Rooster, and is Gold, Silver, Golden, Red, copper, etc. The pattern colour is usually on the breast and tail of a rooster, and is Black, Blue, Splash, White, Chocolate or Lavender. There are some I’ve missed but these are the main ones.

The third thing is the pattern itself, ranging from all PC to all GC.

Extended ‘Black’: all PC

Birchen: PC body, tail and wings, GC neck and saddle. (Neck and Saddle Hackles will have PC centres)

Partridge: like Birchen but the Secondary wing Feathers are GC.

Duckwing: ‘wild type’ almost the same as Partridge but less PC in the hackles.

Wheaten: Like Duckwing but no GC in the Hackles.

This is for roosters only the hens are harder to describe but generally follow the same rule: most PC=Extended Black, least PC=Wheaten.

There are a couple more different genes like barring which adds white stripes or recessive white which turns them all white, but Barring is still applied on top of this general framework. And then another gene is the Columbian gene, which only works on Wheaten, Duckwing or Partridge. It replaces the PC on their breast with GC, though usually leaves the tail and black stripes in the hackles.

There’s a couple more but these are enough to understand most birds you’ll see.

For example, Black Copper Marans have Black PC and Copper GC, and are Birchen patterned. A Golden Cuckoo Marans is the same but has the Barring Gene. A Splash Marans will be Splash PC, and any GC as this is hidden (silver preferable to avoid unwanted red) and Extended Black pattern.

If you want pictures to help I can send you some separately so I don’t fill up the Marans Thread with unrelated pictures.