International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[craychixlay]

#1 is your best one if you are going to use him over the BCM hens you posted with the other cockerel#2 .
his back is bothering me .not flat and tilted toward a back . the white on his down is bad if is there after 18 months of age his final molt ( adult molt )

better photo of him standing will help.

chooks man

Thank you so much for your input. I really appreciate it! I'll try and get a better shot of my high tail boy. He's always in crow mode, lol! All the birds except 3 hens (not shown in pic) came from the same breeder who got the breeding birds from an animal auction. They are all only 5.5 months old. So they are possibly siblings? They had several hens in the program. Newbie me didn't ask questions. Nor really did I care at the time. I just wanted pretty eggs and breed for pretty eggs. But now that I've been dabbling, I want to breed the good traits and produce quality birds as well as dark eggs.

 

[craychixlay]

Dang bird is either photo shy or in crow mode! I see what you are saying on the high tail now. Here are the first couple of eggs my girls just started laying the last couple days. One was darker but cracked. I wish I would have snapped a pic before I disposed of it.

 

[snowbird]

View attachment 1123946 View attachment 1123947 Dang bird is either photo shy or in crow mode! I see what you are saying on the high tail now. Here are the first couple of eggs my girls just started laying the last couple days. One was darker but cracked. I wish I would have snapped a pic before I disposed of it.

The high tail usually is correlated to the back being too short. always select your breeders from fowl that have the good type and balance. Check the angle of the back and then look at where the legs come out of the Body carcass. If they are too far to the front the front body will be high. If they are too much to the rear end the front will drop down messing up the overall Type.

 

[NTBugtraq]

Its been almost a year since ITL decimated my flock. I have since decontaminated and waited almost 4 months and am about to refurbish my coops. So, I am trying to decide how to repopulate. My goal is to have a BCM flock of between 100 and 200 for eggs and meat.

I have an OVA 100 and so I thought I should just purchase 8 dozen (hopefully) fertile eggs and start from scratch.

Questions:

1. Can anyone recommend a BCM breeder in Ontario, Canada?
2. Would I do better getting eggs from several breeders, or just from one?
3. Should I consider having an older group of roosters in the coop before the new hatchlings are introduced (at an appropriate age, of course), or just rely on cockerels from the eggs for future fertilization?
4. Ideally I'd like to get eggs from a breeder who has an ITL certificate, is that realistic?
5. If I can't get an ITL certificate, is it ok to just inoculate this first group (at the appropriate age), or would that introduce ITL into the coops again? (meaning I'd have to go through the whole decontamination procedure again)

I'm open to any and all suggestions, including "post question 2-4 in this other forum"...

 

[Bantambird]

I'm a newbie but I'm not seeing the wry tail?
View attachment 1123810

I'm not really seeing wry tail either.

 

[snowbird]

View attachment 1123946 View attachment 1123947 Dang bird is either photo shy or in crow mode! I see what you are saying on the high tail now. Here are the first couple of eggs my girls just started laying the last couple days. One was darker but cracked. I wish I would have snapped a pic before I disposed of it.

I have a question for all that would like to respond. What do you think about this male having the lower body feathers that have a brown tint ?

 

[craychixlay]

I have a question for all that would like to respond. What do you think about this male having the lower body feathers that have a brown tint ?

I'm thinking that's just full sun, poor lighting? I just went out to look at him and he doesn't have a brown tint. He doesn't have much tail left so too tall tail problem solve aaaand he also doesn't have his too dark colored,

feather picking brother anymore either. Hahaha!

 

[KF0002]

@kfelton0002
Thanks for adding that pic of the wing tag...I was wondering what they looked like

You're welcome! Glad I could help. We like the Zip wing bands because they stay put. You have to buy the pliers that clamp the band to apply them but they arent too pricey. Youtube has how-to videos on applying them. You can get them on ebay or Woods Enterprise online. You can also get them personalized with your name or Farm name.

 

[KF0002]

Hatched 3 more BCM chicks from Apollo and #60. One more is trying to hatch. I snapped a few quick pics when I got home so they hadn't gotten good and fluffed up. These have a lot less white on their face.

Chick #1

Chick #2

Chick #3

 

[KF0002]

Here is chick #1 after she fluffed up a little more.