International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[littlepeeps81]

Here are the eggs from my first LA pullet of this year to lay. I had actually given her to my neighbor as a layer because she has a horrible high tail, lo and behold she was the first of all of them to lay. My neighbor took pics to document her egg color for me. The pic with the egg card I took today. She went out of town and we are taking care of her chickens while they are away.

These are her first eggs, not in order of how they were laid. The first egg on the right was the first egg, the egg on the farthest left was the second egg, and the egg in the middle was the third.

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Then here are more eggs from her..
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Very pretty!

 

[littlepeeps81]

my new breeder coop design . 4 X 4 . is going to be finished by cladding it with zinc sheets to protect it from the aliment .
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the Wheaten hens are well pleased .

chooks man

This coop makes me want to build stuff! Very nice. I love looking at all of your coops, runs ect!

 

[KF0002]

STUNNING .look at the size of his rear and the thickness of his shanks .
I love his wide shoulder ,the width of his thigh area ( sign of his daughters will lay large egg and good layers too )
his tail forming a nice ,well shaped pyramid . wider at the bottom and close at the top

Gorgeous specimen . well built and well put together .

Ah the white fluff ?
he is loaded of it I can tell from his fluff at the rear NOT pure black is more of dark grey

he need to be mated to a pure black pullet ( under fluff ) to correct it. only the cockerel progeny . the daughter will take colors from him along .

chooks man

Thank you Chooks man! As always, I appreciate your wisdom and your assessment of my cockerel. He will get to hang around to help out with my breeding program.

 

[KF0002]

Hope everyone is doing well, sorry I have been gone for a few weeks. Been sick, and really busy. I have several post to catch up on. Hope everyone and their chooks are well. Just wanted to introduce Jazz. My very first F1 generation chick. Hatched this morning. I threw this egg in with some wheaten maran eggs I ordered. Got one little wheaten so far. Hopeful that two more will make it. Jazz is Onyx x Zorro mating. Can't wait to catch up on what I have missed. Very happy with this babies feathered shanks. Not covered up in parasitic white on the face. Onyx was free of parasitic white, so I was hopeful this would help her progeny. Zorro has good color, and Onyx doesn't have enough copper in her hackle. Zorro needs work with his comb, and Onyx has a fairly descent comb, and a very good tail. Zorro does not have much of a tail. Excited to see what this little fella turns into.

Gorgeous chick! Set as many eggs from your pair and hatch more chicks just like this one.

 

[KF0002]

I think you have all the ingredients to breed your own BCM /BLCM line s .
all the great genes to make a great marans chooks are there ,you need to pair them specifically to get the best of what you got.Example Short back X long back . bad tail X good tail etc.......... we call this method .Breeding the extreme s ( the opposite ).
breed from as many combination you thinks they are going to work as you can and you ll see wonders .
don t forget ,we are not working with a stable strain ( except few of us ,not me any way )so they ll throw a lot variation .
we are working with a lot hidden recessive genes .and we don t know who is carrying what .
select well .work pen by pen NOT chooks by chooks .
let say select cockerel/Rooster for pen 1 and select few girls to compliment him .
go to pen 2 .cockerel /rooster and select few girls to compliment him .
keep going like this tell all your breeding pens are full .
you need a lot pens for this method to work , you know that .but will get quicker to your goal .

I selected 1 cockerel for 2 pullet this year . total of 100 pullets and 50 cockerels . that will give me 50 trios for one breeding season and 100 pairs for other breeding season .

next year I ll to keep more cockerels .I like 1/1 ratio ,less chicks to hatch and more feed to the breeders but better genetic diversity and expression .better progeny
this ways to good can be fixed quickly and the fault can be bred out as fast as well .

chooks man

Great advice! I am working on getting all my breeding pens set up now. I will take pics once I get everybody situated to see what you think.

 

[KF0002]

Very pretty!

Thank you! Now I just pray her sisters lay as dark, or darker!

 

[chickengr]

Here is Jazz front facing.Just love my little Jazz.

congrats! perfect so far.

 

[littlepeeps81]

Gorgeous chick! Set as many eggs from your pair and hatch more chicks just like this one.

kfelton0002, thank you! I will defiantly set more eggs from this paring. Was very happy with this little guy.

 

[littlepeeps81]

@littlepeeps81

you have one of the purest and true BCM chick there .Jazz
true marans hatch down
free from any parasitic white
lovely blue eyes
lighter colored shanks and well feathered

Zorro and Onyx did very well .
hatch more chicks from them as many as you can .

BRAVO

chooks man

Thank you chooks man! I will set more eggs from this paring.

 

[Chooks man]

This coop makes me want to build stuff! Very nice. I love looking at all of your coops, runs ect!

marans chooks are treated like royalty in my farm .
now i have a handy man working a full time to finish building all the coop s and runs .a lot to go .

chooksman