International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[KF0002]

I tried my very best to get pictures of my @RedBanks cockerel. He is very difficult to photograph. I think he is small because of the more dominant meat cockerels in the pen. I will be butchering those meat birds this weekend so the Redbanks cockerel will have the pen to himself with his sister. He has a lot of copper leakage but he still looks better than my current FRF cock bird, Gideon. His copper is way better and his tail.

 

[Red Banks]

I tried my very best to get pictures of my @RedBanks cockerel. He is very difficult to photograph. I think he is small because of the more dominant meat cockerels in the pen. I will be butchering those meat birds this weekend so the Redbanks cockerel will have the pen to himself with his sister. He has a lot of copper leakage but he still looks better than my current FRF cock bird, Gideon. His copper is way better and his tail.

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Thank you for the pictures.

 

[KF0002]

Here is my Mashburn cockerel all grown up. He is very overmelanized but I really like him. He is a very solid feeling bird and his shape is nice I think. I have him mated to Sheraz who has a nice long flat back and she is HUGE so their offspring should be an improvement. His best feature is NO WHITE anywhere! Beautiful smoky grey underfluff. He stole my heart on that trait alone. Hopefully he can help me correct that in my birds.

 

[chickengr]

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.

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he is gorgeous! white feathers at that age mean nothing.

 

[chickengr]

I tried my very best to get pictures of my @RedBanks cockerel. He is very difficult to photograph. I think he is small because of the more dominant meat cockerels in the pen. I will be butchering those meat birds this weekend so the Redbanks cockerel will have the pen to himself with his sister. He has a lot of copper leakage but he still looks better than my current FRF cock bird, Gideon. His copper is way better and his tail.

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he would be perfect for my ladies in black.

 

[KF0002]

Better pictures of Jupiter, who is the front runner of my A line for now.

He is lacking in his breast, nothing new for that line, but my plan is to mate him back to his mother, Sheraz later in the year. Sheraz is a very popular girl. I can then blend the offspring from that mating with the offspring from the Mashburn cockerel to improve the white and breast hopefully. The Mashburn cockerel will help both I think.

 

[chickengr]

Here is my Mashburn cockerel all grown up. He is very overmelanized but I really like him. He is a very solid feeling bird and his shape is nice I think. I have him mated to Sheraz who has a nice long flat back and she is HUGE so their offspring should be an improvement. His best feature is NO WHITE anywhere! Beautiful smoky grey underfluff. He stole my heart on that trait alone. Hopefully he can help me correct that in my birds.

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if they give you dark pullets you will have perfect match for the handsome guy above! I am glad you didn't cull him.

I don't have enough faulty chickens to balance. they all have the same faults.

 

[KF0002]

he is gorgeous! white feathers at that age mean nothing.

Thank you! I sure hope he molts them out. I just hate to see white in them, its a pet peeve of mine. The white under his hackle will persist, this I am certain. Just like his father and grandfather before him. The white is a pain in my backside. Lol

 

[KF0002]

if they give you dark pullets you will have perfect match for the handsome guy above! I am glad you didn't cull him.

I don't have enough faulty chickens to balance. they all have the same faults.

I'm sure he will throw plenty of dark pullets, and I will find great use for them. Balance is the key, Chooks man has told us that from the beginning. Redbanks says don't throw the baby out with the bath water. All great advice in breeding chickens.

 

[KF0002]

he would be perfect for my ladies in black.

I think he would balance nicely with some pullets that lack in copper. He is in a pen with some meat cockerels I need to butcher that are more dominant than he is, so that has stunted his maturity I think. Once I butcher those other cockerels I think he will blossom.