International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Tstraub]

The funny thing is that a lot of Marans breeders end up with Legbars. I have never entirely figured out why.

I don’t have any legbar yet but they are definitely on my list of breeds I would like to add once I get more structure to house them. I’m attracted to the breed for colored egg baskets. Legbar have 2 copies of the blue egg gene and the are auto sexing at hatch.

 

[TexasBlues]

crested legbar seem to be fairly easy to find here. Something about their looks I just don’t like. I guess it’s the crest, they look like an awkwardly big scaled quail.
I chose the whiting true blue for their variety of looks and also the size of the egg is supposed to be large and of high production.
I hope to cross BCM with the WTB to get olive eggers and will probably go for leghorns for my white egg. It gets super hot here in the summer so I think a straight comb variety like the leghorn is a smart choice to beat the heat.

 

[NanaK]

I've noticed a lot of Marans owners also have Cream Legbars, too.

I actually got Cream Legbars before I got my Marans. I thought the Marans' eggs would add more color to my basket.

This is a photo I took for an egg contest earlier in the year. There are Cream Legbar, Marans and Wyandotte and one EE's eggs in the mix.
Love all the colors!

 

[wrathsfarm]

I've noticed a lot of Marans owners also have Cream Legbars, too.

I actually got Cream Legbars before I got my Marans. I thought the Marans' eggs would add more color to my basket.

This is a photo I took for an egg contest earlier in the year. There are Cream Legbar, Marans and Wyandotte and one EE's eggs in the mix.
Love all the colors!

View attachment 3717200

Beautiful !! Did you win??

 

[NanaK]

Beautiful !! Did you win??

No I did not win but I got a lot of nice comments. There were tons of great entries.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

I've noticed a lot of Marans owners also have Cream Legbars, too.

I actually got Cream Legbars before I got my Marans. I thought the Marans' eggs would add more color to my basket.

This is a photo I took for an egg contest earlier in the year. There are Cream Legbar, Marans and Wyandotte and one EE's eggs in the mix.
Love all the colors!

View attachment 3717200

Those pale speckled eggs
I’d love some like that one day, hopefully crossing my birds around might produce some.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

crested legbar seem to be fairly easy to find here. Something about their looks I just don’t like. I guess it’s the crest, they look like an awkwardly big scaled quail.
I chose the whiting true blue for their variety of looks and also the size of the egg is supposed to be large and of high production.
I hope to cross BCM with the WTB to get olive eggers and will probably go for leghorns for my white egg. It gets super hot here in the summer so I think a straight comb variety like the leghorn is a smart choice to beat the heat.

I prefer CCLs over WTBs (I don’t even know if WTBs are in the UK), I don’t mind the crest when they’re bred properly. However, I don’t like the crests when they are olive eggers, something to do with the birchen pattern rather than barred duckwing. Either breed makes good olive eggers. They will probably lay bigger eggs with the WTBs, but the CCLs will produce sex links with non white marans.

 

[NanaK]

Those pale speckled eggs
I’d love some like that one day, hopefully crossing my birds around might produce some.

Thank you! They were laid by 2 of my Wyandottes.

Hope you get some too!

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Thank you! They were laid by 2 of my Wyandottes.

Hope you get some too!

I didn’t know Wyandottes could even produce speckles, wow.
One of my original Wellie hens laid an egg similar, but I little darker, I’m hoping Thor (my OG SDW cock) carried similar genes and passed them on to his hybrid sons and daughters, which will make the eggs paler when bred to leghorns, legbars (imagine green ones) or each other.

 

[Tstraub]

Thank you! They were laid by 2 of my Wyandottes.

Hope you get some too!

I’m going to have to have a talk with my Wyandottes. I get very faint speckles from one of them but nothing like the ones in your picture.