International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[KF0002]

the marans cockerels are good to be processed at 5 and half month to six month old .
here how they do it in France .I do the same thing too .
first 2 month ( 8 weeks) under the heat lamp . feed chicks crumble at 20/22 % protein
from week 9 tell 5 month of age .they are out free ranging ,they allow 5 to 10 square meters by chook .feed .pullets grower 5% of the ration the rest 25% wheat or corn .
last 2 or 4 week .the chooks are held indoor .in special cages or small pens . feed .corn flour and milk . in this period the chooks rest and put a little weight plus they meat become tender .
I found left over bred from the bakery socked in milk does the same thing plus is free too .
my cockerels carcasses at 6 month is around 1.7 Kg to 2.5 Kg ,some varieties have better mass than other .

if you still want to process them around 4 month old than you have to start them with high protein chicks started 25% meat bird starter of wild bird for the first 6 weeks .

chooks man

I wondered if I should pen them up for a while prior to processing them. A lot of the old timers say they did it that way when they had chickens to butcher. In my mind I was thinking they would get fatter free-ranging because they constantly graze, but instead they stayed pretty lean. Very healthy, but lean.

Your method makes a lot of sense. It fattens the birds up and keeps them from moving around so much to tenderize the muscle mass. I will be trying that next time. I will slop feed my culls bread, corn, and milk and fatten those boys up. Thanks Chooksman!

 

[KF0002]

Forgot to mention I penned up Cooper's son and #60 yesterday. Neither was pleased, especially the cockerel. It distressed him to be separated from his harem of hens and pullets. Poor fella.. lol. They have a very large 8 ft x 8 ft coop and a 10 ft x 20 ft run all to themselves. Since all of my chickens have been free ranging all summer the grass has grown back in the run. I will hopefully get some chicks from them before autumn.

 

[KF0002]

Also, I have decided to name my cockerel (Cooper's son) Apollo. Named him after the greek god of the sun.

 

[Amanita]

Hello, do you mind if I join your thread? I'm not a breeder of anything yet, but I've been planning and researching for almost a year now and I feel ready to start. I made a short list of breeds that I was interested in, and I kept coming back to the Marans. When I found this thread and saw the lovely mix of scientific approach and relaxed attitude, that was the icing on the cake!
I live in Ireland, and I'm also a big fan of all things French. J'ai etudié le français quand j'etais en fac, malheureusement je n'ai pas souvent l'opportunité de prattiquer recemment...
I'd love to know if there are any Marans breeders that you know of in Ireland that I could get in touch with; if not I'm more than willing to take a trip to France and get started on the right foot

 

[chickengr]

While processing some of my cull cockerels a few weeks ago, we noticed they didn't tend to have a lot of breast meat. They were around 4-5 months old. I was afraid to wait much longer for fear of the meat being too tough. Should I have waited longer? What age is best for processing Marans cockerels?

5 months.

 

[Richard Pryor]

My chicks are now 6 weeks old. Out of the 14, I think I have 4 pullets and 10 cocks :-/

I plan on keeping 1 maybe 2 cocks. I'd like to give the rest away as I don't really have the time or interest to process them at this point. Plus, the roost bar is getting kind of crowded.

How old until I can determine obvious faults?

PS: BCM's really show their gender pretty early on, don't they?

 

[chickengr]

Hello, do you mind if I join your thread? I'm not a breeder of anything yet, but I've been planning and researching for almost a year now and I feel ready to start. I made a short list of breeds that I was interested in, and I kept coming back to the Marans. When I found this thread and saw the lovely mix of scientific approach and relaxed attitude, that was the icing on the cake!
I live in Ireland, and I'm also a big fan of all things French. J'ai etudié le français quand j'etais en fac, malheureusement je n'ai pas souvent l'opportunité de prattiquer recemment...
I'd love to know if there are any Marans breeders that you know of in Ireland that I could get in touch with; if not I'm more than willing to take a trip to France and get started on the right foot

welcome!

not all of us are the breeders but we all love this beautiful breed. you can join the french forum http://marans-aspiran.com/ and tell them you come from byc. it will be easier for you as you speak french. I use google translate and it sometimes makes no sense. if you are willing to make a trip to france monique will give you the eggs. good luck! (I am chickengr on that forum as well, chooks man is chicken man, you can mention us).

 

[Amanita]

welcome!

not all of us are the breeders but we all love this beautiful breed. you can join the french forum http://marans-aspiran.com/ and tell them you come from byc. it will be easier for you as you speak french. I use google translate and it sometimes makes no sense. if you are willing to make a trip to france monique will give you the eggs. good luck! (I am chickengr on that forum as well, chooks man is chicken man, you can mention us).

Thanks for the welcome! I signed up on that site but then I got a bit shy about posting since my French is a bit rusty and I don't know the proper chicken vocabulary! I'll try again

You're in Greece, right? I was trying to figure out the rules about moving chickens around in the EU but I'm still not confident I understand them. Did you have any problems?

 

[Richard Pryor]

One of the boys at 6 weeks old.

 

[Old Man Tom]

One of the boys at 6 weeks old.

Are you in Wash State. I have 14 cockerels to choose from not sure to get one good one. What line or breeder did you get your birds from? How long will your grow these out?? Last year I culled at 3 and 4 months. This year I'm going to try for 6 months to 1 year. My cock birds eat a lot of feed. I feed my cock birds 18 % at extras. Produces nice birds to process.