International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Red Banks]

Look at all that mass.. just magnificent. He is definitely oooh and ahh worthy! Antonio is a very handsome fella. He has minor faults and is a very impressive rooster.. a true genetic goldmine.

Thank you Kayla, I wish I could really get a good picture of him.... his copper is amazing against his dark shoulder. He is huge.

 

[KF0002]

I think he will be an excellent breeder. Tony2 is getting all new feathers. 16 weeks
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He is lovely and coming along very well. I think he will be a very nice rooster when mature. His mother had a lot of hackle color, you can see that from the amount of copper he inherited (one of your beautiful Gabbys?) He will give his daughters plenty of copper as well. His leg feathering proves how easily leg feathering is corrected. Antonio's leg feathering is lighter, but Tony inherited a correct amount of leg feathering from his mother. Keep the pic updates coming as he grows!

 

[KF0002]

Thank you Kayla, I wish I could really get a good picture of him.... his copper is amazing against his dark shoulder. He is huge.

Yes the contrast of the copper with his black feathers is stunning. He is your supreme sire indeed. A very royal bloodline.

 

[KF0002]

these are the rest of the eggs:
View attachment 1195958

the last four look different. you cannot see it but they are speckled. maybe the greater number of light eggs just means I have more girls who started to lay. there is a hope that their eggs will get darker.

Wow your birds are really cranking them out now! I am envious of all those eggs. My Marans are such divas. They only lay when it pleases them. lol If they were just my regular yard layers they would be getting the boot. But I am tolerant because they are as precious as diamonds to me and I love them so.

I have a few laying now and I am tracking their egg color and size. They only lay every other day to every third day so I'm lucky to get 2-3 Marans eggs a day. I am patient and trying to fight the urge to squeeze the eggs out of them.

 

[KF0002]

Here is another one of Apollo and #60's chicks. I only got a closeup of his head and comb because at this point they are mostly all black. It gives us a good opportunity to discuss his comb. The more we talk about combs the better because I am determined to get them right.

His comb has the windblown, saw blade look. That is purely aesthetic and not a disqualification (I have been reading ). But the posterior lobe is split (right @Chooks man?) and that IS a disqualification. He has the correct number of points, 5 am I right?? The points all lie on the same "base comb axis". The "base comb axis" and "peak comb axis" appear to be the same. The comb is not arched. I don't see any double points with my novice eye. No S shape. How did I do on my comb assessment?

He has a handsome face though I think. His eye color will be orange like Apollo's. And check out those ear tufts.. he is going to be well coppered. But I have got to get past these split posterior lobes, double points, and S shaped combs if I want to have birds appropriate for show.

 

[Chooks man]

I think he will be an excellent breeder. Tony2 is getting all new feathers. 16 weeks
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he really look s good .
he start to show the goods .
love his long flat back and the way he stand .

who is his mama ? please

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Here is another one of Apollo and #60's chicks. I only got a closeup of his head and comb because at this point they are mostly all black. It gives us a good opportunity to discuss his comb. The more we talk about combs the better because I am determined to get them right.

His comb has the windblown, saw blade look. That is purely aesthetic and not a disqualification (I have been reading ). But the posterior lobe is split (right @Chooks man?) and that IS a disqualification. He has the correct number of points, 5 am I right?? The points all lie on the same "base comb axis". The "base comb axis" and "peak comb axis" appear to be the same. The comb is not arched. I don't see any double points with my novice eye. No S shape. How did I do on my comb assessment?

He has a handsome face though I think. His eye color will be orange like Apollo's. And check out those ear tufts.. he is going to be well coppered. But I have got to get past these split posterior lobes, double points, and S shaped combs if I want to have birds appropriate for show.

View attachment 1196580

french SOP your cockerels comb is great .

US SOP is almost there .free from any deformity or double points .he has 6 points ,#6 the last one on the top of the lobe it is too early to know who is going to go , if is going to stay on the points axis or is going to stretch with the lobe .
the us SOP call for5 points and a clean upper part of the lobe well lifted .

he is a comb breeder for sure almost there .does not come in one go .one step at the time
you only need one chooks with a faultless comb ,breed him/here and cross they progeny back to them .

here a photo of my cockerel with a split lobe or fork type .

chooks man

 

[KF0002]

french SOP your cockerels comb is great .

US SOP is almost there .free from any deformity or double points .he has 6 points ,#6 the last one on the top of the lobe it is too early to know who is going to go , if is going to stay on the points axis or is going to stretch with the lobe .
the us SOP call for5 points and a clean upper part of the lobe well lifted .

he is a comb breeder for sure almost there .does not come in one go .one step at the time
you only need one chooks with a faultless comb ,breed him/here and cross they progeny back to them .

here a photo of my cockerel with a split lobe or fork type .
View attachment 1196700
chooks man

Wow that's great! I hope the 6th point stays a point and doesn't as you said stretch with the lobe to make it split. Discussing combs this way with examples really helps me learn. As my cockerels grow out, I will take pics of their combs so we can evaluate them this way. Thanks a lot!

 

[Bantambird]

While I was out of town for Thanksgiving, one of my pullets apparently had a well hidden nest. My husband, who stays home with the animals, discovered a lone chick huddled next to a dead sibling screaming her head off. He brought her in and warmed her up, fed and watered her, and then went out to listen for more chicks. He didn't find any, and he didn't know how to find the mom. Once I got home later that day, I suspected that I knew the only place a nest could do well after the snow we had two weeks ago, and so I checked the doghouse. Lo and behold, a nest full of dead Marans chicks, blues and blacks, very sad to discover. The poor pullet had either been bullied off her nest when the others heard her babies( I saw evidence of a massacre) or she got off the nest and only two went with her since she's only 8 months old and is too young for babies. There was a total of 12 dead. I located the mother by tucking in the little pullet into my warm shirt, and her soft cheeping let me know who mom was when the pullet stood patiently by my feet and accepting back her baby. I worked fast and made her a brooder box using a truck topper propped on haybales on three sides and an old storm door on the east southeast side ( winter winds here are usually from the north and west) and the survivor and her mother are doing well. I will get some pics when I am out there and I think of it again, but I've got one little purebred pullet with a lot of fire in her belly and a spirit of survival. Her mom has very excellent silver hackles, pure and well marked, and handsome may be her sire based on the mix of blues and blacks dead in the nest, and the mother being a black birchen, but we will see, it could be one of several potential parents. Heck, it might be a different mother! Still, I really like her so far. I'm about as certain as I can be that the chick is a girl, her head just screams female to me.

 

[KF0002]

While I was out of town for Thanksgiving, one of my pullets apparently had a well hidden nest. My husband, who stays home with the animals, discovered a lone chick huddled next to a dead sibling screaming her head off. He brought her in and warmed her up, fed and watered her, and then went out to listen for more chicks. He didn't find any, and he didn't know how to find the mom. Once I got home later that day, I suspected that I knew the only place a nest could do well after the snow we had two weeks ago, and so I checked the doghouse. Lo and behold, a nest full of dead Marans chicks, blues and blacks, very sad to discover. The poor pullet had either been bullied off her nest when the others heard her babies( I saw evidence of a massacre) or she got off the nest and only two went with her since she's only 8 months old and is too young for babies. There was a total of 12 dead. I located the mother by tucking in the little pullet into my warm shirt, and her soft cheeping let me know who mom was when the pullet stood patiently by my feet and accepting back her baby. I worked fast and made her a brooder box using a truck topper propped on haybales on three sides and an old storm door on the east southeast side ( winter winds here are usually from the north and west) and the survivor and her mother are doing well. I will get some pics when I am out there and I think of it again, but I've got one little purebred pullet with a lot of fire in her belly and a spirit of survival. Her mom has very excellent silver hackles, pure and well marked, and handsome may be her sire based on the mix of blues and blacks dead in the nest, and the mother being a black birchen, but we will see, it could be one of several potential parents. Heck, it might be a different mother! Still, I really like her so far. I'm about as certain as I can be that the chick is a girl, her head just screams female to me.

Ah I hate when that happens. So sorry the 12 chicks didn't make it.

It will be a cool story to tell when the chick grows up. Be sure to give her a strong name.. Neige is french for snow. That might be a cool name. I am in love with the french language now. lol

Congratulations on your little girl! Can't wait to see pics!