International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

Here are some of our marans chickens. They lay realy dark eggs.

Still waiting for a good photos.

here what I like . Hen on right ; she is a pure BCM for sur. big hen . great head ( true marans head solid and thick )
great mass
great eyes
great tail
nice copper

hen 2 no much I can say . except nice pure black and great tail. good copper hackle.

both hens have a nice pure black with shinny chest on the big hen . ( shouldn t ,but it is ok )

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

This is Gabby's first egg. Well...... the first egg I have found.

that is a good first egg. nice sheen and form .not pointed . great start. there is some little pigmentation there too .very hard to see but is there for sure .
1 in the basket 29 to go.

here the method used by the marans breeders to select hens based on the eggs criteria .
only need the first 30 egg to know exactly what genes a laying pullet is carrying .

1) weight each egg from 1 to 30 at the end add the weight of the 30 eggs and divided by 30 , that will give you exact weight of the eggs we are looking for 65g average NOT 65 g each egg like most peoples think.
2) shape a.same thing, average of the first 30 eggs. oval shape we are looking for minimum third . half is good . two third is great.
3) color a same thing. average of the first 30 eggs. 4 minimum 6 good 7+ great.

this 30 first eggs has to be layed in the first 60 day of the laying period.
pullets with 30 GREAT ( that will give around 180 eggs per year .) number 6/7
pullets with more than 30 Excellent layer but not good . eggs color will suffer .number 4/5
pullets with less them 30 Bad layer . expect really dark colored eggs if the gene is there. number 8/9 ( never mate 2 breeders witch come from eggs number 8/9 together. bad IDEA )

MARANS IS ALL ABOUT BALANCE , Well put together breed , Not extreme. ALL ABOUT BALANCE

hope this sort of information will help you guy understand the marans breed.

Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Sorry they are brown . they should be orange .
Black are the worst .
green eyes when young mean they will have a great eyes color when adult Orange

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Here the fault I don t tolerate . I do no breed chooks with sort of Faults;

1) Black eyes - related to a recessive black - bad Melanin ( for us as marans breeder )
2) black comb ,face ,wattles . Recessive black . BM.
3)Rooster with a dark feets no sign of pink. too much Melanin ( not a bad one RB)
4) Rooster with a black shoulder ( absence of the Mahogany ) AR controller panel are the shoulder .

this are my 4 night mere genes I do not take them lightly . they are number culling at the very young age . they go to the pet shop .

the rest of the fault I m not too worry about them . I ll breed them out .no problem.
good planning and test mating will help me find the right combination to go forward .

chooks man

 

[Red Banks]

Quote: I was disappointed with her first egg. I thought the first were the best. We will see. I have some really bad BCM older hens that lay better eggs but they are very infrequent egg layers.

I read this on Little Peddler.

The key to really dark egg color is inbreeding to be honest. Only use cockerels from the very darkest eggs. Progeny test: if cockerel produces offspring daughters laying good egg color, backcross. 1st year 50/50 2nd 75/25 etc etc
Inbreeding restricts amount of genes that can be expressed. Just need to get the right genes clicking! All you can do is split them and call pens 1,2.3 Only hatch from darkest eggs don't be tempted by light ones. You might find that if you concentrate on breeding for egg color you will lose the looks of the birds. With Welsummers most breeders breed for egg color and end up with birds that would not make show cage and the opposite good show birds that don’t lay the darkest eggs. Often birds which produce darkest eggs are usually bad layers in terms of eggs laid!!

 

[Red Banks]

Here the fault I don t tolerate . I do no breed chooks with sort of Faults;

1) Black eyes - related to a recessive black - bad Melanin ( for us as marans breeder )
2) black comb ,face ,wattles . Recessive black . BM.
3)Rooster with a dark feets no sign of pink. too much Melanin ( not a bad one RB)
4) Rooster with a black shoulder ( absence of the Mahogany ) AR controller panel are the shoulder .

this are my 4 night mere genes I do not take them lightly . they are number culling at the very young age . they go to the pet shop .

the rest of the fault I m not too worry about them . I ll breed them out .no problem.
good planning and test mating will help me find the right combination to go forward .

chooks man

I need to go thru my pullets and really look at them point by point. I will post pictures, then you can help me match them with Bello, Antonio or Claude.

 

[chickengr]

I am glad to find so many posts in this thread but I have been overloaded with work these days. I reserved this weekend to go through the posts as there is so much information. I will try to keep notes as well.

thank you very much and I am sorry I cannot comment yet as I am a total beginner.

 

[Red Banks]

I am glad to find so many posts in this thread but I have been overloaded with work these days. I reserved this weekend to go through the posts as there is so much information. I will try to keep notes as well.

thank you very much and I am sorry I cannot comment yet as I am a total beginner.

You have supported this thread from the very beginning. You are a contributor. Whether it is a question or an answer. Asking a question opens a door. We are all learning and I am thrilled with all the information. Thank you for being here, don't hesitate to comment.

 

[Chooks man]

I was disappointed with her first egg. I thought the first were the best. We will see. I have some really bad BCM older hens that lay better eggs but they are very infrequent egg layers.

I read this on Little Peddler. Here again you would lose the looks to get the darkest eggs instead of a balance of good Marans and good egg color.

The key to really dark egg color is inbreeding to be honest. Only use cockerels from the very darkest eggs. Progeny test: if cockerel produces offspring daughters laying good egg color, backcross. 1st year 50/50 2nd 75/25 etc etc
Inbreeding restricts amount of genes that can be expressed. Just need to get the right genes clicking! All you can do is split them and call pens 1,2.3 Only hatch from darkest eggs don't be tempted by light ones. You might find that if you concentrate on breeding for egg color you will lose the looks of the birds. With Welsummers most breeders breed for egg color and end up with birds that would not make show cage and the opposite good show birds that don’t lay the darkest eggs. Often birds which produce darkest eggs are usually bad layers in terms of eggs laid!!

Extreme method based on fixing and stabilizing one trait -
it is not a good methode to keep a strain healthy and complying to it own standard .

Marans hen existed for over a 100 years , she is a well established breed and one of the top 3 high performer in Haute Game ( high quality meat ) marked .
So she is well know for her dark eggs . table quality and rich breeds with many varieties within .

So we have to keep a BALANCE between this trait ( we can strip her off of her heritage .no fair )

DARK EGG. MARANS TYPE - purity of her varities-

If the meth of hatching only a darkest eggs will you more dark egg progeny THAN we should have all dark eggs layer by now .SO WHAT HAPPEN . because is not true .is not genetic formula.is just a METH . that all .

we need a good breeding practice .

chooks man

 

[Red Banks]

Quote: Yes.... I was thinking of your balance post when I posted this article.