International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[chickengr]

Glad to hear Antonio is doing better. Heavy birds just aren't graceful with their landings off a high roost. One of my sussex cockerels flew off the top of the nestbox attached to the outside of their coop and didn't stick his landing quite right and did a sort of nose dive somersault. He of course jumped up in a hurry and shook it off trying to pretend nothing ever happened. I nearly split my side with laughter, and I'm sure the girls in the coop were just as amused.

For roosts, 18" to 2 feet off the ground is plenty high enough for heavy breeds. The issue becomes making sure any nest boxes are lower than the roosts or they will attempt to roost in or on top of nest boxes trying to get as high up as they can get.

My FRF cockerel #2's crop never would completely 100% empty. Most of the contents emptied out and he would pass any soft foods or liquids he was fed so it isn't a complete obstruction. I had been feeding him boiled eggs and yogurt with probiotics and he enjoyed it very much. He hasn't lost his appetite. Each day as I checked on him while he was in the holding pen when he should have been empty, he still had the same small mass of solid objects left in his crop. A movable clump of what feels like small stones. The clump feels about the size of a kiwi but it went down a great deal compared to the orange sized mass of feed and whatever else he originally had in there. I'm only assuming they are small stones that he has eaten because they feel rigid and larger than corn or grain. He eats the weirdest things like mud and dirt, so it wouldn't surprise me if I opened him up to find a small collection of rocks in his crop. The objects are too large to be passed on out of his crop and into his digestive system I guess. I decided to stop treating him and put him back in the coop with the others. He isn't starving and any food he is fed is slowly being digested so I will just watch him and see how he does. He continues to eat and drink fine, and his droppings are normal. The rocks may break up on their own and eventually pass. He remains vigorous with no outward signs of illness so the issue doesn't seem to be bothering him much. Aside from opening his crop up and removing the objects, there isn't much more I can do for him. And I really don't want to put him through that. We don't take our chickens to the vet so if he gets sick or stops eating we will probably just cull him.

He got used to his daily crop massages and extra TLC and would nearly hop into my arms from the holding pen he was in. He is a very sweet boy so I hope I don't lose him.

acv in water and some oil, either syringed or in feed might help. whole BOSS as well.

 

[Red Banks]

My FRF cockerel #1 (Rusty) has a side sprig on his comb I noticed so that is unfortunate. I know the hen's comb is most important in a breeding, but aren't side sprigs a genetic trait that can be passed to or carried by the offspring to show up later? He is the only Marans I have with a side sprig. He is also the cockerel in that group I was hoping to use for breeding.

Would it still be okay to breed him? I guess if it does show up in later offspring, I would just have to cull those offspring and select away from it.

Yes breed him to a hen with a good comb and cull hard. It is recessive so it probably means it is somewhere in my birds too!

 

[Red Banks]

I lost a very nice big FRF pullet. She was egg bound and I could not help her. I don't like to interfere too much in these situations as I feel that the hen is inherently weak and it would just happen again. She was a very sweet beautiful pullet, I hated to lose her.

 

[kcrandall]

I lost a very nice big FRF pullet.  She was egg bound and I could not help her.  I don't like to interfere too much in these situations as I feel that the hen is inherently weak and it would just happen again.  She was a very sweet beautiful pullet, I hated to lose her.

Sorry for your loss RedBanks . It's so hard to obtain nice Marans stock and even harder to hold on to them. I agree with you though about not interfering - it's hard but in certain cases less is more.

Keith

 

[harmesonfarm]

Hello all, decided to join in the thread...I've decided to and started to commit my chickens to Marans breeding and improving.

Excited to get started, this coming new year will be my beginning point.

I'm hoping to focus on B,B,S.

At the moment, we have some baby chicks about 7 weeks old, one bcm roo and two pullets. one blue pullet. I'm hoping to find some splash/blue hatching eggs for the spring to be able to breed some more blues and maybe some splash. (I was unhappy with the egg colouring from the breeder i got these hatching eggs from...from the pictures they looked a beautiful dark brown but when i got them they were not nearly as dark, i'm hoping this is something i will be able to improve on. We'll see what shade the eggs will be from them when they start to lay

)

Is it true though, that with older hens their eggs are not as dark as when they are younger? Is it possible the photos were from younger hens and the eggs i recieved were from older hens for breeding? I am still hopeful i guess...

 

[Chooks man]

My FRF cockerel #1 (Rusty) has a side sprig on his comb I noticed so that is unfortunate. I know the hen's comb is most important in a breeding, but aren't side sprigs a genetic trait that can be passed to or carried by the offspring to show up later? He is the only Marans I have with a side sprig. He is also the cockerel in that group I was hoping to use for breeding.

Would it still be okay to breed him? I guess if it does show up in later offspring, I would just have to cull those offspring and select away from it.

I don t think any rooster have or had a bad comb like my Charlie the silver cuckoo .

go back and read the post .I posted photos of his comb and the photos of the combs of his progeny SLEEK has an excellent comb ( SLEEK is an F2 )

we are working with an no inbred chooks ,so what we see doesn t mean they are a true breeders for that trait ( fault or quality ).so we can breed from and move on the a new progeny ( better if it is larger) and chose the best one .

I have been saying the Show chook and the Breeder chook are different .

we need to breed our own line ,so we ll know what we are doing and how to work with them .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Hello all, decided to join in the thread...I've decided to and started to commit my chickens to Marans breeding and improving.

Excited to get started, this coming new year will be my beginning point.

I'm hoping to focus on B,B,S.

At the moment, we have some baby chicks about 7 weeks old, one bcm roo and two pullets. one blue pullet. I'm hoping to find some splash/blue hatching eggs for the spring to be able to breed some more blues and maybe some splash. (I was unhappy with the egg colouring from the breeder i got these hatching eggs from...from the pictures they looked a beautiful dark brown but when i got them they were not nearly as dark, i'm hoping this is something i will be able to improve on. We'll see what shade the eggs will be from them when they start to lay

)

Is it true though, that with older hens their eggs are not as dark as when they are younger? Is it possible the photos were from younger hens and the eggs i recieved were from older hens for breeding? I am still hopeful i guess...

Welcome . you found your way .
it is international here .So we don t have apply the American SOP .
we go here with the original the French SOP and the French way of breeding the marans chooks .
they have breeding them for over 200 years .so they must know what they are talking about

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I lost a very nice big FRF pullet. She was egg bound and I could not help her. I don't like to interfere too much in these situations as I feel that the hen is inherently weak and it would just happen again. She was a very sweet beautiful pullet, I hated to lose her.

Sorry to hear that .

life with chooks ,

I lost a Splash and a Black copper hens about a month ago because of the eggs bound . nothing we can do about it .just happen .

last week my new dog manage to kill 2 hen ( Bianca my white hen and a Crem leg Bar .) she had a test for the most expensive chooks .NOW she is fine with them .I still don t trust her .

we are going to lose some .so better be prepared for this sort of thing .

chooks man

 

[Red Banks]

Hello all, decided to join in the thread...I've decided to and started to commit my chickens to Marans breeding and improving.

Excited to get started, this coming new year will be my beginning point.

I'm hoping to focus on B,B,S.

At the moment, we have some baby chicks about 7 weeks old, one bcm roo and two pullets. one blue pullet. I'm hoping to find some splash/blue hatching eggs for the spring to be able to breed some more blues and maybe some splash. (I was unhappy with the egg colouring from the breeder i got these hatching eggs from...from the pictures they looked a beautiful dark brown but when i got them they were not nearly as dark, i'm hoping this is something i will be able to improve on. We'll see what shade the eggs will be from them when they start to lay

)

Is it true though, that with older hens their eggs are not as dark as when they are younger? Is it possible the photos were from younger hens and the eggs i recieved were from older hens for breeding? I am still hopeful i guess...

Welcome to the thread. We have a great group. Many breeders advertise writing that the eggs they have pictured were from earlier in their season. As they say...... the hen ran out of ink. Hens that lay eggs every day will have lighter eggs than hens that lay less often. The longer between eggs the darker the egg. I don't think it is age as much as frequency and intervals between eggs. I could be wrong, others will chime in if I am. I recently had a very dark egg, darkest I have ever seen from my chickens..... it has never been repeated. What number were the hatching eggs on the color chart?

 

[Red Banks]

Quote:
Thank goodness I have developed a tough skin when it comes to chickens. I would not have chickens because I would have never emotionally survived the losses. In a very short time I have experienced all kinds of problems, illnesses and of course the predators! I have learned that for a lot of things intervention is not required unless it is to ease suffering (euthanasia). I felt guilty at first, now I know ..... I am just being practical.