International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[KF0002]

Forgive my ignorance, but is a Splash Copper part of the BBS color group? As in, is a Splash Copper just like your regular splash color type or does it have the typical feather colors of Splash but with copper hackles and shoulders, deeming it a 'Splash Copper'?

Splash Copper is like any other splash bird in a BBS breeding but can have some copper leakage in the hackle or other feathers as a result of the diluted black/blue copper color. Whereas a normal BBS type splash is a result of solid colored blue/black birds.

 

[Chooks man]

I start with Mud because he is every thing you need in a Black copper cockerel .
1) Great body type ,rectangular shape with great mass .10/10
2) great rich copper
3) nice solid thick head .
4) well colored eyes
5) nice size comb and wattle ,comb need to be more define not a big deal .
6 ) good size ears lobe and nice red color .
7) good strong beak well colored too .
8) solid and strong neck well arched at the top and well colored
10) nice long flat back , nicely colored lancet and saddle .nice copper .
11) shoulder well held close to the body the way they should be .nice rich mahogany color .need more ,still young .
12) tail ,nice shape and nice size good angle close to 60 degree is accepted .nothing odd about it .
13) body feathers ,free from any fluff ,
14) wing well held close to the body
15)shanks well fathered and colored ,nice and strait .
16) great chest

I haven t seen any thing I dislike about him .

Can any body correct me if I m wrong .
Close to perfection . BRAVO to the you and especially the BREEDER .OF THIS FINE SPECIMEN . .

Chooks man
12

 

[Chooks man]

Copper .from this shot he look well balanced .
great tail , great pyramid shape .nicely formed .
feet well spaced and nicely colored .access of feathers on the shanks .plus fluffy thigh .
comb is not his strongest point .

need a better photos of him standing like Mud . because from the photos you posted doesn t look great body wise . hasn t got that rectangle shape like Mud .

Use Mad more than him in the breeding season .Because Mud can cover any type of hen. .Copper need special hens to correct his fault .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

she is stunning .
great hackle and body type .
nice long back .
well feathered shanks .

she is going to be a great hen when mature .

Chooks man

 

[The Moonshiner]

Can you please explain this better? I have birchens and BCM but I'm 98% sure they will be separate at hatching age. 
However, your comment made me curious. What would result from a birchen male and BCM female; or, a birchen female and a BCM male?
Silver based? what does this mean? 

The short simple answer...
All chickens are either silver based or gold based. BCMs are a gold based bird on a birchen pattern hence the copper/ red/ gold color. Your birchens are a silver based bird on a birchen pattern. Hence the lack of copper/ red / gold color.
Gold based or silver based is sex linked. Meaning males have two copies of the genes but females only have one.
Hens pass their one gene to their cockerel offspring but nothing to tbeir pullet offspring. Roosters pass one of their two genes to all offspring. So pullets only get theirs from tbeir fathers.
The rooster is silver so he has two silver genes that is all he will pass to pullets. All pullets from a silver rooster will be silver. Whether they are silver based or gold based. All pullets from a gold based rooster will be gold based whether tbey are silver based or gold.
Your birchen rooster bred to a birchen or to a BCM will produce birchen pullets. And a BCM rooster will produce BCM pullets when bred to either BCM or Birchen hens.
Now what chooks was talking about....
Since males carry two genes. They get a copy from both parents so they can have two copies of silver and be birchen or two copies of gold and be BCMs or they can have one silver and one gold. Silver is dominate so they will look silver (birchen) but have some degree of gold leakage because of the one copy of the gold gene.
If you cross a silver bird with a gold bird yes all males will be culls in my opinion because they are not one or the other.
You can use them though. Since they have both genes you can cross them to a silver and half will be back to pure silver and half back to carrying both gold and silver like their father. Or the same if breed to a gold based hen. Half will be pure gold based.
Crossing for pullet offspring is simple but yes the crossing will be a mess for the cockerel offspring but nothing that cant be worked with if you understand it.

 

[KF0002]

I start with Mud because he is every thing you need in a Black copper cockerel . 1) Great body type ,rectangular shape with great mass .10/10 2) great rich copper 3) nice solid thick head . 4) well colored eyes 5) nice size comb and wattle ,comb need to be more define not a big deal . 6 ) good size ears lobe and nice red color . 7) good strong beak well colored too . 8) solid and strong neck well arched at the top and well colored 10) nice long flat back , nicely colored lancet and saddle .nice copper . 11) shoulder well held close to the body the way they should be .nice rich mahogany color .need more ,still young . 12) tail ,nice shape and nice size good angle close to 60 degree is accepted .nothing odd about it . 13) body feathers ,free from any fluff , 14) wing well held close to the body 15)shanks well fathered and colored ,nice and strait . 16) great chest I haven t seen any thing I dislike about him . Can any body correct me if I m wrong . Close to perfection . BRAVO to the you and especially the BREEDER .OF THIS FINE SPECIMEN . . Chooks man 12

Wow thank you for the great review on Mud! I am pleased with how he is turning out. I may try several different breedings and mark each set of chicks differently (Mud X FRF pullet, Mud X LA pullet, etc) and see how each set of chicks turn out. Mud will be a busy boy come spring if that's the case. Plus the two different lines of pullets gives me a lot of genetic diversity to work with. So the merging of the 2 different lines wouldnt set me back on egg color you think? Both lines came from stock that produces 5-7 in egg color.

 

[KF0002]

she is stunning . great hackle and body type . nice long back . well feathered shanks . she is going to be a great hen when mature . Chooks man

Once again, thank you! And I will try to get better pics of Cooper. I think what his problem was yesterday was the Sussex cockerel crowing in the next run. They show off to one another. I have never seen him stand so erect as he was standing yesterday. Lol

 

[baunlee]

It is a mild 49 degrees today and I went out to try to snap a few pictures of my Black Coppers. I have to say, Cooper (LA cockerel) was feeling extra photogenic today and I was able to get some great pictures of him. He is such a good cockerel, as gentle as they come.

Mud, my best FRF cockerel is also very friendly and seems to enjoy my affection. Their calm and gentle nature is just another trait that makes me love Marans.

Pardon the muddy run. We've had some rain the past few days. Also pardon my son's bike in one of the pics, and the blue game barrels. I live in Redneck, USA.

Cooper
e.

Ah I love the look of this guy. He's got great coloring and I also like the way his face looks. Sometimes I see roosters that are technically correct ...(and this is just my personal hangup) but some look like butter faces to me haha. He's handsomeeee :O

 

[KF0002]

Ah I love the look of this guy. He's got great coloring and I also like the way his face looks. Sometimes I see roosters that are technically correct ...(and this is just my personal hangup) but some look like butter faces to me haha. He's handsomeeee :O

Thank you! I think he is very handsome too. And the pullets in the pen think so also. They follow him everywhere.

I agree with the butter faces thing. My neighbor has english orphingtons and they are very pretty chickens and they are bred to SOP. But then I see some exhibition type english orphingtons and they have the ugliest faces. Lol

 

[Chooks man]

Wow thank you for the great review on Mud! I am pleased with how he is turning out. I may try several different breedings and mark each set of chicks differently (Mud X FRF pullet, Mud X LA pullet, etc) and see how each set of chicks turn out. Mud will be a busy boy come spring if that's the case. Plus the two different lines of pullets gives me a lot of genetic diversity to work with.

So the merging of the 2 different lines wouldnt set me back on egg color you think? Both lines came from stock that produces 5-7 in egg color.

Ah a good question .

always keep the line pure separately even if did had fault . so you can get bird from it to cross to other line tell you are happy about the result .

hatch a minimum of 25 chicks from Copper and his LA pullet to keep the line pure as LA line or Copper line .Do no cross Copper to the other line .

use Mud as your main sire for both line and compare his progeny with LA pullets to Copper progeny with a same pullets .

so if Copper prove to throw pullets with a dark egg than keep him and get his progeny pullets to cross them to Mud line .

Like you said if you use Mud over LA pullets you still working with the LA gene at 50% rate .they are bringing the genetic diversity .

hatch as many chicks from MUD as you can from different pullets and tug them like you said .and see what you get .

I m not giving up on Copper .yet .I m waiting to see more of his photos in better pose .

chooks man