I wasn't sure if the solid black would work out, but I would like to see my hens and their eggs larger. That is the main reason for choosing that roo. At 5 months old in my opinion other than a comb that's a little large and being over melanized I think he has an extremely well put together form. He is probably about the same size or a little larger than the roo I previously had for breeding which other than being a little smaller than i want and a short back he was OK, although his hackle started turning straw coloured through the summer( not sure if the sun can bleach out feathers). The one that I have chosen has some copper/mahogany that I believe will do well with the 1 yr old hens that seem to throw cockerels at least that have lots of colour( some with 50% on chest). I am planning on hatching a large amount in the spring and after they grow out choose the best and sell/ cull the rest of my flock. It's an experiment, I do sell hatching eggs but I also inform everyone what my concerns are and will keep doing so. Most people just want them for the egg colour which I believe should be darker even with these grow outs as my over melanized hens were putting out eggs that were a little different ( some were about a 4-5 on the pointy end but ended up as 7-8 on the other end of the egg) all I can do is try! I'd like to have a nice line that is completely from my own breeding, not saying they are from such and such a line.
Ah you come to your senses .
you really want to increase the egg size Not Breeding the Black ( because they are the hardest variety to breed out there , a reason i m leaving it last tell I establish a pure silver gene first )
Any way you have to prioritize what you like to achieve first and go from there , but if you want to breed a great marans ( any variety ) than you have to follow the possible .
For the egg size I ll chose the hen with a largest and less pointed egg ,breed her to a rooster who hatched from a similar egg size ( if you don t have any rooster seem to correct her physical conformation ) =
1) hatch her eggs and rise her offspring male and females as F1 progeny .
Year 2 =
select the most correct 2 cockerels and 3 pullets from your F1 as F1Cockerel1 and F1cockerel2 , F1pullet1 etc.........
after you selected the best one based on body type and color .
Pen 1 mama hen X F1cockerel1 = you mate the hen to her son n1 = you will get = BX1 ( genetically we call it Back Cross 1 progeny ) .from this pen we are trying to produce a cockerel as BX1
Pen 2 = 3 F1pullets mated to they brother = you will get a true F2 ( from this cross we are trying to recombine the existing genes without adding new one to them ) from this pen we are keeping only the best 3/4 pullets based on the egg size shape they lay .as F2Pullets.
hatch a minimum of 25 chicks by pen and rise them and select from them .
Year 3=
Pen one and only pen needed to move forward the line .
mama hen and her best grand daughtersF2Pullet mated to BX1 cockerel = will get F3 progeny , we select the best cockerel and the best 3/4 pullets as F3 .
Option 1 = if we are happy with a F2 pullet and the BX1 with they body type and eggs size , we retired the mama hen and keep the pen the way it is
