International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

FeelsRightFarm ;

the hen s look great to me color wise face .comb .and a gorgeous hackle.

But we need to see a type . in the photos both hen s look to me they have a short back ans a boat shape back ,should be avoided .

I ll wait tell I see better photos.

you only need a strait back ,is ok if short BECAUSE the LP rooster you are going to use OR you used over them has a great long and correct back.

chooks man

 

[chickengr]

Thank you! I am far from knowledgable when it comes to breeding. We were trying to make some side money originally to support starting up with all the breeds we liked. We ended up preferring the marans to all our other breeds and have decided to really put in some work with them in the future. We got hatching eggs from Little Peddler originally, but unfortunately out of 12 several arrived cracked and we ended up only getting 3 to hatch. The risk you take with shipped eggs. Silver lining was that two were hens. However, our LP rooster is a total jerk and he is all we have until we can hatch more, which we plan to do in the future.

We got two batches from Greenfire and have 7 hens and one rooster from that batch. Only problem is we started having a lot of issues with predators so they are all locked up which is why they are being overmated.
I had no idea about that being an issue in regards to fertility, however. Perhaps we will work out something smaller temporarily and separate them for a while. We aren't hatching or selling eggs right now anyway, so maybe they will enjoy the summer off.

We used to have a big farm dog but we don't have one now. All our birds used to free range and we never had any issues. Unfortunately, since she has been gone we have lots a lot of birds to bobcats, foxes, owls, anything you can think of ( this week we got a raccoon problem-it never ends!) so to protect them we have to keep them in their pen (it's 40x40 so very large but still not the best situation and the girls can't really get away from the roosters so that is why they aren't doing so well with the back feathers.

I had never considered it a problem health wise though--now we will definitely get something worked out. How do you suggest we do that? Keep the roos separate except for every few days? Allow them conjugal visits 2x weekly?

I just got a new phone so i don't have all my pics on it. I will go through my computer and get some posted here!

I saw at a breeder something that looked like table (not too tall). his hens that didn't want to mate all were up there. then I made a kind of pile of old tyres and my hens jump there when they want to escape roos. I also put a pallet with some palm tree leaves (for shade) next to the fence and when hens are under there there is no room for mating.

 

[chickengr]

Hi chickengr the correct ratio vary a lot can go from 5 to 12 hens /rooster .
a lot factor to consider , ages ,health, season, diet space, etc.....

try to keep the favorite one out of the pen for few day s when you introduce the one.

I keep my roosters separated from the hen after 6 month of breeding .summer off and the molting season as well.

chooks man

if I have 1 roo and 1 cockerel in the same pen can I have 10 hens only with them?

SECOND breeding method ; PEN BREEDING; this is the method most of us use . one rooster with a ? numbers of hens.

this method produce a lot of cull when the breeding subject ( breeders ) are not tested .

when used by the experience breeders ,this method give a great result and safe time and space. because they test mated all they breeders before. they have collected enough data .so they no witch one are compatible .and witch one aren t .

is a good technique for cockerels/ pullets breeding because of the same origin of the stock.they all carry a same genes with a little variation ( variation will be always present doesn t matter how much and how long the line is been worked .) a difference is a percentage, that why we have to chose between cockerels/pullets even they are brother/sisters .closely related .inbred .

it is good as well when many roosters are used in the breeding program . let say 5/10 hen s all related and 5 roosters . they get rotated after 3 weeks . that will cover 6 months of breeding. will give a better result to choose from than a single rooster used all the year around .GET bored .

chooks man

if we breed hens with 2-3 roos some of their offspring will definitively be full siblings and we cannot know which ones. isn't that a problem?

 

[Red Banks]

I locked up all my cockerels except the big guy and I just couldn't stop him when I let the girls out. Tonight when he is on the roost I will put him with the other cockerels. So I have 60 birds out with the one cockerel. This also made me decide to do something about the Ameraucana cockerels, I have 4. I am going to rehome them this weekend. I have someone that wants them. Very nice cockerels but I need to just have one breed that I will be breeding. All the other breeds can be in the laying flock. When it is all said and done I will have 3 BCM cockerels from FeelsRightFarm and I am keeping them locked up together. You can imagine what a fun time I had this morning separating the 6 cockerels from the girls in three pens! Remind me again, why do I do this?

 

[Chooks man]

Chickengr the pallet technique and places to hide.extra roost all are all used by advance breeders.

with 10 hens I will leave just a cockerel NOT the rooster pen him separately and let him rest and molt in peace . 11% protein diet ,that all what he need for maintenance .

cockerel is Ok for him to have a hen s feed high in protein because he still growing .But the rooster no high protein diet all the years around, they don t age nicely .

for me breeding season the roosters diet is as the same as the hens with less calcium and mix grain at 11% diet when of the breeding season .they molt nicely and have a shinny feather and they don t get fat.

if we breed from 2/3 rooster in thee rotation system ,the chicks will hatch at different stages . each hatch will have a same father different mothers.

So we can keep a rooster from on sire and a pullets from the other sires . using the same hen .

half brothers/ half sisters and close cousins breeding .good way to do line breeding by keeping a little variation.

chooks man

 

[chickengr]

Chickengr the pallet technique and places to hide.extra roost all are all used by advance breeders.

with 10 hens I will leave just a cockerel NOT the rooster pen him separately and let him rest and molt in peace . 11% protein diet ,that all what he need for maintenance .

cockerel is Ok for him to have a hen s feed high in protein because he still growing .But the rooster no high protein diet all the years around, they don t age nicely .

for me breeding season the roosters diet is as the same as the hens with less calcium and mix grain at 11% diet when of the breeding season .they molt nicely and have a shinny feather and they don t get fat.

if we breed from 2/3 rooster in thee rotation system ,the chicks will hatch at different stages . each hatch will have a same father different mothers.

So we can keep a rooster from on sire and a pullets from the other sires . using the same hen .

half brothers/ half sisters and close cousins breeding .good way to do line breeding by keeping a little variation.

chooks man

thank you.

my cockerel is young and he is with the pullets. at the moment I must put different breeds with him and the roo as I don't have bcm females (mother hen died, 1 pullet). as this year is a boy's year I cannot find to buy more girls. I will try to hatch them later. I also don't have enough room to make more coops. so I guess I must put more than 10 girls with them. ok, no problem, my chicken math is killing me anyway, lol.

I feed my chickens whole grains, marble powder (calcium) free choice, some boiled eggs/fish/meat from time to time. the roos are not interested in proteins so they can stay together. in summer I feed them: oats, barley and wheat and in winter corn, wheat, some barley. I plan to feed them some oats in winter too. sunflower seed is their favourite treat when the weather coos down.

I can try to work together with my friend breeder. we can exchange our chicks when they hatch: boys from 1 place and girls from another one. the only problem is that we don't have good birds to breed. all of females have bent combs, etc.

 

[CalgaryFarmer]

Boy 1 - All of these are 11 weeks old. These won't correspond to the numbers from the other day.

 

[CalgaryFarmer]

Boy 2 - you can see he has feathers on his middle toe.

 

[CalgaryFarmer]

Boy 3 - This one not recommended by Chooks Man

 

[CalgaryFarmer]

Boy 4