International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[ejcrist]

Thanks for the info.

I won't be incubating again until the fall because I want to get my NPIP certificate and the chicks have to be 3 months old first. By then I will have worked out which ladies are laying which eggs so I can pen them separately for specific pairs. I have a large wire dog crate that I can put right next to the coop and I can separate one girl at a time to see what they lay. I only have 5, and only 3 are undetermined so that should be easy enough for me. I have 2 coops currently and am working on a larger third one just for my layers, and will probably build one more. That will give me 2 breeding pens, a large flock pen, and a grow out pen for my meat birds. Since I'm not going large scale, do you think that will be enough? I will not be keeping more than 40 birds at a time, and other than when I breed for chicks I'll have closer to just 20.

It should be enough for what you're planning to do. For now anyway. Be advised though, I never seem to have enough space when I run the long-term numbers in my head for what I want to do. I guess that's a perpetual challenge when it comes to breeding.

 

[chickengr]

Chooks man, I have heard both sides of not eating eggs while taking and some eating while on triple C. What are you thoughts on this?

I am not chooks man but I will tell you what my vet told me. if an adult with 60+ kg body weight eats eggs while chickens are taking antibiotics or anything else, no problem. but if a baby or toddler eat them - big problem. I personally eat them but I never take antibiotics for any reason so it is not problem for me anyway. but I never sell the eggs if chickens are on antibiotics as I don't know who is going to eat them.

 

[DeYoungs]

I am not chooks man but I will tell you what my vet told me. if an adult with 60+ kg body weight eats eggs while chickens are taking antibiotics or anything else, no problem. but if a baby or toddler eat them - big problem. I personally eat them but I never take antibiotics for any reason so it is not problem for me anyway. but I never sell the eggs if chickens are on antibiotics as I don't know who is going to eat them.

Thank you chickengr

 

[Braxton Brigade]

Many of the my pullets have begun laying, egg color is promising with everyone so far. They are 23 weeks old, I believe almost all of them have laid at least 6-7 eggs. I want to start penning them up individually for a week each, this should help me determine egg color and give me a chance to observe each girl in a relaxed environment. The poor girls; the cockerels have gone mad with all these pullets running about.

I have an idea for pictures so I can save them for myself (I will also share some with all of you). I'm going to take a picture of each girl and the egg she lays, I am a very visual person. I tend to recall images better than words on paper, when it comes to things I write down haha.

It's been so muddy/rainy lately that all my chickens are rather filthy, I need to get some sand in their pens so they can clean themselves up haha. They should be ready for their photos at that point.

I have around 5 cockerels in this bunch, 3 are rather poor looking (not pretty haha). One is my favorite, I will keep his brother, the "runner up" safe and sound in case I encounter any health issues with my first pick.

 

[Tiegrsi]

It should be enough for what you're planning to do. For now anyway. Be advised though, I never seem to have enough space when I run the long-term numbers in my head for what I want to do. I guess that's a perpetual challenge when it comes to breeding.

I only have 3/4 of an acre here, so space is determined by the land rather than how much I can build. Some day we will have more and I will be able to have a larger flock, along with other animals I'd like to get!

Chooksman, (I hope I spelled that right!) I contacted the breeder I got my birds from and she said that their parents were from the 2015 Greenfire Farms line, which were imported birds...that may be why they have the pointy tails.

 

[Chooks man]

Thanks so much; I am quite pleased! As far as knowing which hen lays which egg, I am still working that out. They all lay in the same set of boxes, and usually all in the same box, so I've had a hard time guessing except for when I have actually caught them in there (as I did the two I know). All of them lay distinct eggs, so once I've got it down it will be easy to know which came from which.

Thanks again for all your comments and advice! Its really been very helpful.

that is correct .each hen lay distinctive eggs .ones caught will be easier to identify they egg .

that what do any way

I do pen separately my pullet when they start laying for the first month to see they first 30 eggs . ones I know that ,I decide if she is breeder or no .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

When I was designing my breeding program for Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds I had exactly that dilemma. I knew I had to identify which eggs came from which hens and keep them separate until I could toe punch them and wing band when they're about six weeks old. I read about trap nesting in some of the older books I have on breeding but that's not at all practical since I'd need a lot of trap nest boxes, and also where I live in central AZ it gets pretty warm during the day even in the winter and I didn't relish the thought of having my prized hens stuck in a nest box until I got home from work.

Anyway, long story short, I talked to breeders in my area and found out about single breeding - putting hens in their own breeding pens that are around 5'X5' and rotating the cock between the pens daily. So I built several breeding pens and that's what I did - it worked great. I collected the eggs daily beginning Saturday and I marked the eggs in pencil as to which number hen laid them. I set them all the following Friday in the incubator; I have the Sportsman 1502 so each week's eggs get assigned a given rack on one of the shelves. 18 days later I candle them and transfer to a Sportsman 1550 hatcher which has five trays, and I further subdivided those so I could separate the eggs of 15 different hens for a single hatch and know which hen they came from. I didn't hatch from that many hens this past season which was my first, but I'm prepared to do that this fall when I start breeding again. Once they hatch I've been toe punching them according to the hen they came from, and then at about six weeks I wing band them using Jiffy 890 aluminum bands. After that I enter them in the breeding database Zoo Easy which is an outstanding program for tracking your birds. With this system I've been able to keep extremely accurate records during this first breeding season and I'm sure it'll come in handy as I learn what I'm doing. At least I'll be able to make decisions based on accurate info, even if I make the wrong breeding decisions I should be able to track back and figure out where I went wrong. Sorry for the long-winded response but I know some of those issues like how to identify the laying hens' eggs really kept me up most nights so I wanted to pass that this stuff along in case it'll help.

nesting boxes are great thing if the person is around all the time like my self .
too risky to keep the hen locked in the nest box for long .especially in a hot climate .

I like the way you approach your breeding program .you seem to know how to get around it .

you only need to pen the pullets the first 30 /40 days of they laying cycle to see exactly what they are doing , from there you decide and select your future breeders .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Chooks man, I have heard both sides of not eating eggs while taking and some eating while on triple C. What are you thoughts on this?

yeah .eggs and meat from this chooks is not to be consumed . it is written in the tub .

me I do give them to my dogs ( hard boiled ) they love them .

any way we can not eat eggs coming from sick hens either .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Well, I was still looking for lines to bring in to augment my group, when my husband went ahead and won one of the auctions for the blue Birchen Marans. They came in yesterday! Plus, they sent 2 extras, so there are 17 chicks! Ended up being about 20 dollars a chick that way, which is actually pretty reasonable. I've had enough personal experiences now, I can definitely live with that. So they sent a lovely mix of blues, splash, and black Birchen chicks! Some even have very nice coloration on the faces! There are about a third to half with some middle toe feathering, but most that have it aren't excessively so but one or two. There are no clean legged birds, however, so that's alright.
Sorry about the lighting, it's raining outside today.

I'll get better pics when it stops raining and I can get natural sun. Really show off the blue!

you ve done well .
they are lovely and they have a correct hatch down .less white possible .

post photos when the weather is nicer .

Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I am not chooks man but I will tell you what my vet told me. if an adult with 60+ kg body weight eats eggs while chickens are taking antibiotics or anything else, no problem. but if a baby or toddler eat them - big problem. I personally eat them but I never take antibiotics for any reason so it is not problem for me anyway. but I never sell the eggs if chickens are on antibiotics as I don't know who is going to eat them.

very interesting Chickengr. I did not know that .

thanks

chooks man