International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Red Banks]

He was not very cooperative about getting his picture taken but here he is now.

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He is cute!

 

[shepherd6567]

I think @chickengr and @shepherd6567 are correct. We are way too hard on our birds. If you google BCM the majority of the birds I see have upright large tails. Now I am not agreeing with that old saying, "everyone else has it" but..... I am not throwing away a great bird over a 85 degree tail. When they have an upright tail, no back or no slope and no chest then you have lost type. I want to see the right silhouette. No triangles. A good eating bird. You have to ask yourself if it isn't really the tail that is the problem but the rest of the bird.

 

[Red Banks]

I have 2 roos. they both keep their tails upright whenever they feel proud of something (which is 70% of a day, lol). but when they eat, are relaxed, etc. their tails are nice.

I think Chooks said something like that as well. we do need him to come back to this forum, don't we? I hope he will find a nice place for his new farm.

@chickengr There is no one on Marans Aspiran. I have seen no posts since 03/2018 and very few at that time. Of course it is much more difficult to navigate than BYC, I just might be in the wrong place.

 

[KF0002]

@chickengr There is no one on Marans Aspiran. I have seen no posts since 03/2018 and very few at that time. Of course it is much more difficult to navigate than BYC, I just might be in the wrong place.

I registered on the Marans Aspiran website, and definitely have to agree that it is difficult to navigate. I can't seem to find any forums to search.

 

[chickengr]

@chickengr There is no one on Marans Aspiran. I have seen no posts since 03/2018 and very few at that time. Of course it is much more difficult to navigate than BYC, I just might be in the wrong place.

there have been new posts. it is too complicated to navigate though. new posts are new for about 24 hours only. you have to search through different threads.

 

[chickengr]

I registered on the Marans Aspiran website, and definitely have to agree that it is difficult to navigate. I can't seem to find any forums to search.

there are different topics only. you can comment and that will appear as a new post. or you can start a new one.

 

[Red Banks]

@kfelton0002 You will not have access to the full forum because you have not presented yourself. It is below the chat on the home page.

 

[Magnolia Hill]

Those chicks would be considered mossy. Mossiness is simply excess color, whether the mossy chicks yield mossy females or overcolored males when they mature. One or more of your very well colored hens likely produced those chicks I bet. It happens easily when a well colored male is mated to a well colored female. Like with Apollo and Zanitta, the chicks they produced are mossy because Apollo had plenty of color and Zanitta is the most colored hen I have. I broke the pair up once I saw the mossy chicks. But when I mated Apollo to Sheraz, who is not as well colored, they didnt produce mossy chicks.

As newborn chicks the mossy offspring from Apollo and Zanitta looked normal, albeit they did have more white on their faces than I like. The didn't have any brown on their down at all and it was only after they started feathering that I noticed the mossiness.

Two perfectly colored Marans specimens bred together wont produce perfectly colored male and female offspring. This is why a lot of show breeders maintain separate female and male lines. A pair that throws beautifully well colored females will likely throw overcolored males. A pair that throws appropriately colored males will likely produce darker not as well colored females.

Man o man, I guess we keep breeding till we figure it out, I feel like I'm chasing unicorns here.

 

[Red Banks]

Man o man, I guess we keep breeding till we figure it out, I feel like I'm chasing unicorns here.

There are some things that are easy to fix (leg feathers) and some things that are harder to fix (parasitic white) but the one thing we can be sure of...... there is always something we have to fix.

 

[KF0002]

Man o man, I guess we keep breeding till we figure it out, I feel like I'm chasing unicorns here.

I know what you mean.. I get frustrated on a daily basis, but the little victories keep me going. Sometimes I think a unicorn would be easier to find!

Redbanks has to constantly remind me that you cannot focus on fixing everything in one generation. Choose one or two things you want to improve each generation, like type and tail angle. Once you get that improved then you can work on improving color and comb, etc.

Here is my best cockerel so far from my fall hatch. I have been calling him Jupiter. Even though he is my best for type, you can see he has white in his wing. He also has white under his hackle. I have other cockerels with no white but their type isnt as good, so for now in my A line I am trying to ignor the white and focus on type. The struggle is real.