International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[chickengr]

She is too fat .I bet you she is pul 1.

that what happen when pullets grow faster especially with a winter hatching .

here how I rise my winter hatched pullets . Chicks started for the first 10 weeks.
Pullets grower for 2 weeks than I start giving then mix grain ( 13% protein s) by the 4 weeks I ll give them 50/50 one feeder each . I help them build they frames and strange bones , when the time comes I ll put them into the layers diet 15%

Spring hatched pullet ; first 8 weeks Chicks starter than a pullets grower tell the point of laying I ll change they diet to breeders feed 17% plus mix grains at 13% proteins .

I have no problem with double yolk .

chooks man

we don't have starter and grower feed here. we have a choice of 21%, 20%, 18%, 14,7% and 13% protein feed, all called grower feed. so I must be watching what I buy. another problem is if I don't buy a sealed bag they might put just cornmeal and sell it as grower feed.

so I start with 20 or 21 % and when they are about 2,5 mo I start mixing wheat and barley (50% feed, 30% wheat, 20% barley).

 

[Chooks man]

we don't have starter and grower feed here. we have a choice of 21%, 20%, 18%, 14,7% and 13% protein feed, all called grower feed. so I must be watching what I buy. another problem is if I don't buy a sealed bag they might put just cornmeal and sell it as grower feed.

so I start with 20 or 21 % and when they are about 2,5 mo I start mixing wheat and barley (50% feed, 30% wheat, 20% barley).

that the way I ll do t my self .

after 2.5 month of age they protein intake should be lower to around 17/15 %

chooks man

 

[chickengr]

you are absolutely right Chickengr . i agree with you

humid and wet climate maybe a lot of bugs around and your chooks are having a time off they life.

put them on the scale = how much they weight ? at 5 months old. they shouldn t passe 2.6 Kg at that age.

chooks man

my climate is dry but I learned the lesson. the first year I had their run totally clean, looked like sahara. then I started to throw in there grass, leaves, etc. if it is too dry I wet it so the bugs and worms gather there.

I had my favourite naked neck that weighted 3 kg at 3 months but she was a big bird, mix of an old greek 6 kg adult birds. unfortunately she passed away a few weeks ago. I don't feed them corn at all till it gets cooler. I replaced corn with whole oats and it seems it helps them to expel some tapeworms as their poop is not smooth anymore (looks more like horse's).

 

[chickengr]

Thanks Redbanks! And thank u Chooksman for posting my eggs here.

These are the eggs from my oldest group that I got from a breeder in Louisiana. The breeder is a very nice man and breeds his birds to SOP while maintaining good egg color. He sent me the eggs free of charge to help me get some good starter stock. I was humbled by his kindness. He otained his main parent stock from Bev Davis herself. I have actually talked to Bev on facebook and she is brilliant and she is one of the best Marans breeders in the United States. He also purchased some stock from Debbie Little of Little Peddlers Marans and infused them into his Bev Davis stock. He regrets infusing the LP due to the occasional cropping up of vulture hock in a small percentage of his offspring now where he never encountered it before. One of my cockerels has mild vulture hock. He is tagged to cull. Anyhoo.. long story short he sent me eggs from two different pens so I could line breed the two. Strangely all of my pullets hatched from one set and the cockerels all hatched from the other set so it worked out okay. Here is a pic the breeder sent me of the parent stock of my cockerels.



It was never my intention to obtain BCM Marans from two sources. He offered to start collecting eggs to send to me after I had already arranged to purchase hatching eggs from Feels Right Farm (GFF/LP bloodlines).

Now I am trying to decide how to breed my two groups from two different sources. Do I breed them into each other (best cockerel from one group with pullets of the other group and vice versa) or would it be best to breed the two groups separately and not mix the two? I hope that isnt horribly confusing.

thank you for posting pics. it is so useful for total beginners like me.

btw, your marans are great.

 

[Chooks man]

my climate is dry but I learned the lesson. the first year I had their run totally clean, looked like sahara. then I started to throw in there grass, leaves, etc. if it is too dry I wet it so the bugs and worms gather there.

I had my favourite naked neck that weighted 3 kg at 3 months but she was a big bird, mix of an old greek 6 kg adult birds. unfortunately she passed away a few weeks ago. I don't feed them corn at all till it gets cooler. I replaced corn with whole oats and it seems it helps them to expel some tapeworms as their poop is not smooth anymore (looks more like horse's).

I know Greece is dry .

I was talking about RedBank Florida .maybe they catching all sort of thing .

I like the way you feed your chooks ,Guess Greece chooks keeper/breeders still using traditional ways .

I remember my mam mixing all her chooks feed by hand ,all home made from grain and seed .fish oil and other green stuff .NO commercial feed.

at lease they knew what they chooks where eating not like as we believe in the label . we have no clue.

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Cropped closer up pic of my roo with vulture hock.

It is pretty normal we run to this sort of thing ( vulture hock and featherless shank ) with a marans breed.Not because the parent stock are not well bred .

Because we are working with a Pti1 gene ( Causing the shanks to feather up only from the outside only ) So Pti1 is not stable gene , the real gene on the chromosome at the pti Locus is = pti+ clear shank .and Pti2 heavy feathered shank .
the Pti1 is some where in the meddle on the chromosome between the two So hasn t got a proper location on the chromosome .can be any where.

we are the one who need to find the balance .

MARANS ARE ALL ABOUT BALANCE NOT EXTREME

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I need to start asking the guy I give my culls to if he will do a few for me in return. I tend to forget about them as soon as I get rid of them, I also have some old hens that need to be culled off., can't pass up the idea of chicken and dumplings.

I only eat marans chooks meat no other chicken ,

Best testing chooks around.my dogs agree with me they have one cockerel /week/ dog .they like them to be cooked nice ,very fussy buggers .

my friend did not believe me .he want out there and got a bag of left over roast chooks ( normal one ) and gave it to my dogs . they smell it and gave him a gad look like some thing is wrong with him . like saying to him. Hey man we don t eat this sort of stuff .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Being southerners we have made dumpling for my entire life. Nobody beats my grandmothers, however we have never made it with a fresh chicken. But you can PM the recipe, I am sure to give it a go.

Grandma recipe are always the best regardless the culture they come from .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

@Chooks man

I am full of new questions after setting up a few new breeding pens, and I am glad I set them up now because I see a few problems associated with the locations right now. I will have to fidget with location once the weekend rolls around.

Do you like to have a general number of birds per group?

I was thinking of having a coop with my group of over melanized hens (already present) and over colored roos (future birds).

Another pen for well marked, well balanced, generally nice looking birds. (future birds)

I will keep my 2 other pens for juveniles, roosters and the likes.

I have a smaller coop that I want to use as general needs (tracking a hens production, egg color, medical care, quarantine)


Bonus question!

Do you ever cull a bird because of temperament? This question is rather important because my family helps tend to my birds and are quite skittish of rude birds.

Depend the size of the flock or the group and the time of the year.

here my set up =
Breeders pens 10 metre square by chooks , can go from one pair to 10 hens and 1 rooster, but the principal is a same 10 m Sq .Could be indoor or free ranging .

Layer pens No more then 30 in one group . big pen free ranging . 15/20 MSq /chooks.

Sub adult pens; from 13 weeks of age tell point of laying free ranging 5 to 10 MSq / chooks.

juveniles pens; from 8 weeks tell 12 weeks , 2end stage of they life ; big pen 50 /100 by group ; 5 MSq manly indoor with access to outside in the good weather.

Nursery 5MSq for 50/100 chicks .indoor,


I LIKE YOUR PLAN will work good for you .you got it all sorted . IMPRESSED .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

here few photos of different pens in different section on the farm . some are from Marans Australia ( Victoria farm ) other from my set up in NSW. MistyRiverMarans.

Enjoy