International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Red Banks]

Never post a photos of Claude like this one .you make him look so old and grumpy .

I m watching you RedBank don t mack around with Claude !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

chooks man

LOL.... you think I do not treat Claude properly. I wanted you to see the lovely speckles on his chest.

 

[chickengr]

cockerels arrived .
he got it all wrong .

the Wheaten = was a actually wheaten and a good one from a good line I sold him his father a year ago .

the White ( specked ) = is actually a dark Silver cuckoo .

and the Blue Copper = is A Blue Wheaten ( he is an F1 cross between the Blue copper rooster from the imported line and a Wheaten hen ) he look wheaten . That was a surprise .safe me 1 year of work .



I ll try to get a better photos later today.

chooks man

you are like me, happy with the new chickens and it doesn't matter if they are the wrong ones, lol. btw, lovely birds!

 

[Red Banks]

I can tell now that Claude and Bello are from parent stock .

Antonio is from ( or has ) LP line on him .


they are all great but they don t cover the same hens to give a best result ..

chooks man

Yes.... at a glance Claude and Bello are hard to tell apart. I know them so of course it is easy for me but they look just alike. Same silhouette. I believe Antonio is from the LP rooster. He is built like a tank. Gabby is always at my feet. Yesterday I picked her up and she is a very solid heavy hen.

I have a couple of pullets with very little copper but good type - Claude or Bello
Gabby and her like - Antonio..... at least this first go around.
I am looking forward to the chicks!

 

[chickengr]

Yes.... at a glance Claude and Bello are hard to tell apart. I know them so of course it is easy for me but they look just alike. Same silhouette. I believe Antonio is from the LP rooster. He is built like a tank. Gabby is always at my feet. Yesterday I picked her up and she is a very solid heavy hen.

I have a couple of pullets with very little copper but good type - Claude or Bello
Gabby and her like - Antonio..... at least this first go around.
I am looking forward to the chicks!

I can't wait to see their chicks as well! antonio and gabby will give you show birds.

I am still struggling with tapeworms and viruses but luna already looks like a young hen. she is much better than her mother was. my 2 not so good bcm gave me offspring that is not bad at all. @Chooks man is right, we should not cull our birds for not being perfect.

 

[Red Banks]

Quote: I am glad you like your Luna and Marco! Yes.... I could have been much further along if I had not thrown my first birds away but.....maybe I wouldn't be where I am now because it would have taken a long time to fix them, LOL. No more throwing away BCM that aren't perfect. I was on the BCM thread and someone asked about her birds because they didn't have tails yet. She was told to cull them all. I know in my limited experience, they will get a tail. That has been the standard advice on the BCM thread before now, just cull them. I hate to think of all the people that got frustrated and quit, actually I quit, but came back because the other breeds I chose could not compare to the challenge or beauty of the BCM. Chocolate eggs and all.

 

[Magnolia Hill]

hen or rooster?

 

[Magnolia Hill]

 

[Magnolia Hill]

it has no color anywhere on it except in the hackles.

 

[KF0002]

I have a BCM pullet that has been laying for about a month, she is 24 1/2 weeks old and she has gone broody. Is this normal for this breed?

Yes Marans are very prolific broodies. My oldest Splash Copper pullet is 8 months old and has been broody twice already since she started laying at 24-ish weeks. She is in broody jail as we speak. She lays just a hair shy of a number 4 colored egg, has too high of a tail, a short back, and black eyes so I'm probably not going to use her for breeding. And she isn't much of a layer because she lays a few eggs then goes right back broody, but she is going to be one fine mama hen to surrogate chicks next year. For that I will keep her around.

 

[Red Banks]

Quote: My BCM are not broody but my Splash, Black and Blue were all broody. I lost all my broody hens to the predator. The blue Marans was the last to go a couple of weeks ago. I would give anything to have a broody right now..... beats the incubator everytime.