International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Tiegrsi]

You have a great start with your birds all you need to do is sort how to breed them forward. If you post individual pics of your breeding cockerels and hens the good folks on this thread will help you with the mating selections. Good luck! Keith

These girls do NOT love having their picture taken (except Blackie)! My hens: Molly : feathers on shanks but not toes. Slight, sporadic mossiness on wings. 6 pt comb. Blackie: feathers on tops of shanks but not down the leg and not on toes. No mossiness. 7 pt comb, and has the most petite comb. Agave: slight mossiness in small spots, 7 pt comb which is very short in height. Lays reddish eggs with freckling. Couldn't see her legs/feet because I don't want to take her off her eggs. Kalia: nicely feathered shanks and outer toes, tiny bit of mossiness on wings, 7 pt comb, lays the darkest eggs of all my hens but has the least copper coloring. Imani: no feathers on toes and has the most mossiness on her wings of my girls. 6 pt comb which seems slightly misshapen in the front, and extends the farthest back. I have some eggs incubating right now from these guys and gals, but I did not direct the breeding; they are all in one pen together. I am very hopeful for the future chicks, though! Maybe I will have some even more lovely birds!

 

[Chooks man]

I am based in Bathurst NSW Australia. I breed light, lavender, silver and coronation sussexs. Ok i have somebody coming to look at them in the next few days. I have been putting apple cider vinegar in their water for months and they love it and most of them are looking good. I will give them the medicine. Thanks for the help.

good to hear they are coming along ,

I m based in Tahmoor near Picton one hour from Sydney.

I breed mostly marans chooks few Cream leg bar and some white Aracauna.

do no give them too much of the Apple cider .one week a month is enough .

here what do I give my chooks every month =
week1 Apple cider 20ml per litter .
week 2 just plain water ,
week 3 Cod liver oil 5 ml per liter
week 4 plain water .

in they feed I add Vitamin B complex and sea weed plus milk. too all mixed with they breeder feed ( Show bird breeder MP ) nice worm mash for this time of the year .
plus they get 20/30 g of sunflower seed ( black one) a day .

when they loose vigor or get a little sick I give them Antibiotic Triple C 5 ml per liter for a duration of one week .

SUMMER time I don t give them the Sun flower seed .instead I give them germinated wheat 20/30 g per chooks per day .

I worm them every 3 month .
they have a lot apace my chooks 10/20 meter square per chooks of free ranging space .

Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Do you have to get it from a vet or can you get it from a pet story.

you can get it from any chooks feed store .or you can order it from the net $ 95 for a 500g tub . I don t get the smaller size, too expensive plus I have a lot of chooks . $30 for 100g tub.

it is the best thing we have in this country .work magic .
I do not use any other medicine .

Good luck .

Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

These girls do NOT love having their picture taken (except Blackie)! My hens:

Molly : feathers on shanks but not toes. Slight, sporadic mossiness on wings. 6 pt comb.




Blackie: feathers on tops of shanks but not down the leg and not on toes. No mossiness. 7 pt comb, and has the most petite comb.




Agave: slight mossiness in small spots, 7 pt comb which is very short in height. Lays reddish eggs with freckling. Couldn't see her legs/feet because I don't want to take her off her eggs.




Kalia: nicely feathered shanks and outer toes, tiny bit of mossiness on wings, 7 pt comb, lays the darkest eggs of all my hens but has the least copper coloring.




Imani: no feathers on toes and has the most mossiness on her wings of my girls. 6 pt comb which seems slightly misshapen in the front, and extends the farthest back.




I have some eggs incubating right now from these guys and gals, but I did not direct the breeding; they are all in one pen together. I am very hopeful for the future chicks, though! Maybe I will have some even more lovely birds!

Iyou have very nice BCM hens .

I do no see any mossiness and I do no see any major fault either .

they have nice body type .
nice mass .
great hackle .except the one laying I can not see her hackle
shanks are nicely colored and feathered no access feathering .
gorgeous orange eyes .
nice long back
And the best tail ,form and shape ( I ll say the best tail shape ,thin and pointed ) great to have .because a lot American strain have a square open tail .bad thing .
they all have nice combs .

you should be pleased with you flock .I ll be if I had them

to breed a great chooks you need to know witch egg come from witch hen. so you can track the progeny and see who is doing what .

Chooks man

 

[Tiegrsi]

you should be pleased with you flock .I ll be if I had them

to breed a great chooks you need to know witch egg come from witch hen. so you can track the progeny and see who is doing what .

Chooks man

Thanks so much; I am quite pleased! As far as knowing which hen lays which egg, I am still working that out. They all lay in the same set of boxes, and usually all in the same box, so I've had a hard time guessing except for when I have actually caught them in there (as I did the two I know). All of them lay distinct eggs, so once I've got it down it will be easy to know which came from which.

Thanks again for all your comments and advice! Its really been very helpful.

 

[ejcrist]

Thanks so much; I am quite pleased! As far as knowing which hen lays which egg, I am still working that out. They all lay in the same set of boxes, and usually all in the same box, so I've had a hard time guessing except for when I have actually caught them in there (as I did the two I know). All of them lay distinct eggs, so once I've got it down it will be easy to know which came from which.

Thanks again for all your comments and advice! Its really been very helpful.

When I was designing my breeding program for Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds I had exactly that dilemma. I knew I had to identify which eggs came from which hens and keep them separate until I could toe punch them and wing band when they're about six weeks old. I read about trap nesting in some of the older books I have on breeding but that's not at all practical since I'd need a lot of trap nest boxes, and also where I live in central AZ it gets pretty warm during the day even in the winter and I didn't relish the thought of having my prized hens stuck in a nest box until I got home from work.

Anyway, long story short, I talked to breeders in my area and found out about single breeding - putting hens in their own breeding pens that are around 5'X5' and rotating the cock between the pens daily. So I built several breeding pens and that's what I did - it worked great. I collected the eggs daily beginning Saturday and I marked the eggs in pencil as to which number hen laid them. I set them all the following Friday in the incubator; I have the Sportsman 1502 so each week's eggs get assigned a given rack on one of the shelves. 18 days later I candle them and transfer to a Sportsman 1550 hatcher which has five trays, and I further subdivided those so I could separate the eggs of 15 different hens for a single hatch and know which hen they came from. I didn't hatch from that many hens this past season which was my first, but I'm prepared to do that this fall when I start breeding again. Once they hatch I've been toe punching them according to the hen they came from, and then at about six weeks I wing band them using Jiffy 890 aluminum bands. After that I enter them in the breeding database Zoo Easy which is an outstanding program for tracking your birds. With this system I've been able to keep extremely accurate records during this first breeding season and I'm sure it'll come in handy as I learn what I'm doing. At least I'll be able to make decisions based on accurate info, even if I make the wrong breeding decisions I should be able to track back and figure out where I went wrong. Sorry for the long-winded response but I know some of those issues like how to identify the laying hens' eggs really kept me up most nights so I wanted to pass that this stuff along in case it'll help.

 

[DeYoungs]

Do you have to get it from a vet or can you get it from a pet story.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51wjI1ZERoL._SX425_.jpg

 

[DeYoungs]

you can get it from any chooks feed store .or you can order it from the net $ 95 for a 500g tub . I don t get the smaller size, too expensive plus I have a lot of chooks . $30 for 100g tub.

it is the best thing we have in this country .work magic .
I do not use any other medicine .

Good luck .

Chooks man

Chooks man, I have heard both sides of not eating eggs while taking and some eating while on triple C. What are you thoughts on this?

 

[Bantambird]

Well, I was still looking for lines to bring in to augment my group, when my husband went ahead and won one of the auctions for the blue Birchen Marans. They came in yesterday! Plus, they sent 2 extras, so there are 17 chicks! Ended up being about 20 dollars a chick that way, which is actually pretty reasonable. I've had enough personal experiences now, I can definitely live with that. So they sent a lovely mix of blues, splash, and black Birchen chicks! Some even have very nice coloration on the faces! There are about a third to half with some middle toe feathering, but most that have it aren't excessively so but one or two. There are no clean legged birds, however, so that's alright.

Sorry about the lighting, it's raining outside today.

I'll get better pics when it stops raining and I can get natural sun. Really show off the blue!

 

[Tiegrsi]

When I was designing my breeding program for Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds I had exactly that dilemma. I knew I had to identify which eggs came from which hens and keep them separate until I could toe punch them and wing band when they're about six weeks old. I read about trap nesting in some of the older books I have on breeding but that's not at all practical since I'd need a lot of trap nest boxes, and also where I live in central AZ it gets pretty warm during the day even in the winter and I didn't relish the thought of having my prized hens stuck in a nest box until I got home from work.

Anyway, long story short, I talked to breeders in my area and found out about single breeding - putting hens in their own breeding pens that are around 5'X5' and rotating the cock between the pens daily. So I built several breeding pens and that's what I did - it worked great. I collected the eggs daily beginning Saturday and I marked the eggs in pencil as to which number hen laid them. I set them all the following Friday in the incubator; I have the Sportsman 1502 so each week's eggs get assigned a given rack on one of the shelves. 18 days later I candle them and transfer to a Sportsman 1550 hatcher which has five trays, and I further subdivided those so I could separate the eggs of 15 different hens for a single hatch and know which hen they came from. I didn't hatch from that many hens this past season which was my first, but I'm prepared to do that this fall when I start breeding again. Once they hatch I've been toe punching them according to the hen they came from, and then at about six weeks I wing band them using Jiffy 890 aluminum bands. After that I enter them in the breeding database Zoo Easy which is an outstanding program for tracking your birds. With this system I've been able to keep extremely accurate records during this first breeding season and I'm sure it'll come in handy as I learn what I'm doing. At least I'll be able to make decisions based on accurate info, even if I make the wrong breeding decisions I should be able to track back and figure out where I went wrong. Sorry for the long-winded response but I know some of those issues like how to identify the laying hens' eggs really kept me up most nights so I wanted to pass that this stuff along in case it'll help. 

Thanks for the info. I won't be incubating again until the fall because I want to get my NPIP certificate and the chicks have to be 3 months old first. By then I will have worked out which ladies are laying which eggs so I can pen them separately for specific pairs. I have a large wire dog crate that I can put right next to the coop and I can separate one girl at a time to see what they lay. I only have 5, and only 3 are undetermined so that should be easy enough for me. I have 2 coops currently and am working on a larger third one just for my layers, and will probably build one more. That will give me 2 breeding pens, a large flock pen, and a grow out pen for my meat birds. Since I'm not going large scale, do you think that will be enough? I will not be keeping more than 40 birds at a time, and other than when I breed for chicks I'll have closer to just 20.