International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[littlepeeps81]

This is a photo of the opposite side of Zorro's comb/head.

 

[littlepeeps81]

Here are some full body shots of Zorro. Please let me know the good and bad. I hope there is at least some good. My questions are; is he to triangular? Are his legs to long, or not straight enough? He does have an ugly tail, I know Is the copper to straw colored in his hackle? He does have some middle toe feathering, but I do have two pullets with not enough feathering on the legs, so he may complement them. Is there not enough flame in his hackle? I want to learn how to choose a good cockerel, I hope maybe he will have something to offer his progeny, and what he lacks maybe my pullets can help with. All comments will be greatly appreciated. I know he has faults. I also know he has some maturing to do, and I am looking forward to watching him grow.

 

[Chooks man]

This is a photo of the opposite side of Zorro's comb/head.

no much wrong with his comb except the back is touching the head . like you said only loosing point .
his comb is nice shape ,has the correct number of point .nice texture .

any way his head and face are stunning . true marans head . I ll give him 9 out 10 .
love his eyes too

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Here are some full body shots of Zorro. Please let me know the good and bad. I hope there is at least some good. My questions are; is he to triangular? Are his legs to long, or not straight enough? He does have an ugly tail, I know Is the copper to straw colored in his hackle? He does have some middle toe feathering, but I do have two pullets with not enough feathering on the legs, so he may complement them. Is there not enough flame in his hackle? I want to learn how to choose a good cockerel, I hope maybe he will have something to offer his progeny, and what he lacks maybe my pullets can help with. All comments will be greatly appreciated. I know he has faults. I also know he has some maturing to do, and I am looking forward to watching him grow.

Ah Zoro . love the name .I have been using this names . Black line.
any way .
here what I see from this few photos .
hackle color good except .the bottom is a little lighter ( straw colored) ,nice flame ,just enough. we don t want the flame to be too wide neither cutting all the way through the copper . thin flamed bordered with copper .
shoulder .well colored
chest well marked with copper ,just enough ,it is a god sign ,his progeny will be colorful .
back .long ,flat and tilted toward the back ,good.
tail ,no much there .
feet .well feathered, colored and well spaced plus they are straight . good
Black plumage is pure

I can not comment on the body type ,he is confined not relaxed . need to catch him when he is chilled .so we can see if he is rectangular or triangular
body type should be like a brick ( boat shape ,how the French describe it

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Thanks @Chooks man.
Might just be the stance?
Hard to catch a pic in a relaxed posture....Zeus was in mid motion, Luke was standing relaxed.

What about the copper in the body/wings?

it is always hard to tell from photos .
Zues seem to have a thicker head .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Here are some full body shots of Zorro. Please let me know the good and bad. I hope there is at least some good. My questions are; is he to triangular? Are his legs to long, or not straight enough? He does have an ugly tail, I know Is the copper to straw colored in his hackle? He does have some middle toe feathering, but I do have two pullets with not enough feathering on the legs, so he may complement them. Is there not enough flame in his hackle? I want to learn how to choose a good cockerel, I hope maybe he will have something to offer his progeny, and what he lacks maybe my pullets can help with. All comments will be greatly appreciated. I know he has faults. I also know he has some maturing to do, and I am looking forward to watching him grow.[/QUOTE

here what to look for if you are selecting a marans cockerel
body type .long and wide . rectangular type like a brick .
mass ; he must be heavy and chunky
head strong ,thick
face ; lightly feathered and red
eyes vibrant and orange red
comb ' midium size . well balanced point not too many neither not enough .rough texture, straight and lifted from the back ,no touching the head neither the neck
wattle .midiun size. round red .
neck .strong .long and arched at the top where meat the head. rid coppery colored with minimum flame at the bottom end . the flames should be long ,thin and bordered with copper ,they should not split the copper in 2 .( mean they should not come all the way to the end of the feather.
Back , long ,flat and tilted at the back not too much
Tail .short and wide at the bottom thin at the top NOT open
shoulder ,wide well colored rich red
lancet .long copper color like the hackle
Wings .held close to the body ,Horizontal to the ground
Legs .medium in length . lightly feathered from the outside only and the outer toes.
slate colored with a pinkish hues and bottom .they should be straight.

over all the body type could be selected from the mama hen ,she is the one who lay the eggs and dictate the size of the chicks

I select the cockerel only for his body color ,eyes color and dark egg gene ( his mama should lay dark egg ,his aunts and his sister all should lay dark egg )

cockerel has to well colored .handsome and well put together

chooks man

 

[littlepeeps81]

chooks man, I wholeheartedly appreciate your assessment of Zorro, and the time you took to compose all of the details. I have written everything down, and will try to learn from what you have taught me. I understand it takes years of hard work breeding and culling to come up with chooks that represent the proper character you want in a BCM. I am looking forward to working with them, and I hope that I can learn enough to breed chooks that will represent this particular breed well. Thank you again for the time you took to explain everything and what to look for/breed for.

 

[pioneerchick816]

Here are a couple better picks of #1. He's my only Roo now. You can't see but he has quite a few white feathers on his feet

 

[Fanci Feathers Marans]

Subscribing.

 

[chickengr]

So glad to see a response from you Chooks man. You are truly an old dear friend in my heart. Antonio and a nice hen #4. I will post pics. Antonio actually grew into his comb and it is not overdone like the other roosters you saw last year. I don't have Claude anymore so I am really lucky this chick is a cockerel. I have Antonio and 9 hens. I haven't had time to do anything with my chickens. Only a couple eggs each day. They are all molting. No more layers feed.

welcome back!

I feed some whole oats for calcium and they lay eggs with the strong shells. all natural. I ferment the whole grains and they finally put some weight on and are healthy even with this hell of heat and strong winds from time to time. as they never stopped laying I break a few eggs and mix with the grains and put little corn flour in it. no whole corn in the summer, just wheat, barley and oats.