International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Red Banks]

As a matter of fact, you're right. My longest tailed cockerel, Apollo, has the highest tail of my boys. And his brother, Griffin, has the shortest tail and the lowest tail angle. Maximus falls in the middle of the spectrum.

Apollo
View attachment 1168809

Griffin
View attachment 1168810
Maximus
View attachment 1168811

I like all of these cockerels each for a different reason. I really like Griffin's body.

 

[KF0002]

I like all of these cockerels each for a different reason. I really like Griffin's body.

Thank you, me too. That was his saving grace. He is eat up with parasitic white underfluff so I am going to breed him to the darkest female I can come up with and hope he throws some nice tailed birds. Right now he is enjoying being big man on campus for the first time in his life. He is now the only cockerel free ranging with the yard girls. Lol

 

[Red Banks]

Griffin reminds me of a young Antonio.

 

[Chooks man]

He may not Chooks man..... that is my concern. We will give him some time to mature.

depend on what you are expecting from him .
what area you are trying to improve or to breed back ( true).

chooks man

 

[Red Banks]

depend on what you are expecting from him .
what area you are trying to improve or to breed back ( true).

chooks man

I want to keep everything about Antonio except his tail and this young cockerel is all tail I guess I would also like a better comb and wattle!

 

[Chooks man]

Has anyone noticed that the Marans with shorter tails tend to have better tail angle ? Seems as though the longer tail Marans have a more tight tail without the openness we are looking for. Seems as though the longer tail Marans have more problems with the Tail angle being high.

agree with you the long tail marans have all sort of problems .
marans hen with a short tail opened at the bottom and close at the top ( pointed tail) tend to throw cockerels with a nice short tail forming the desired pyramid shape tail . open at the base but at the top .

Marans hen with a long square tail tend to throw cockerel with open tail and too long (squirrel type tail ).

marans hen with a long tail close all the way to the top ( not open at the base) tend to throw cockerel with a wry tail

there is a lot study done regarding the genes responsible for tail ,and what the order of they dominance .
most of them are sex linked any way .
the hen has a lot to do with a tail type we are looking for .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I want to keep everything about Antonio except his tail and this young cockerel is all tail I guess I would also like a better comb and wattle!

GOOD .
all the things you are looking for are from mama hen .
Antonio has nothing to do with that .just a little . richness of the copper and the amount .
Select your best hens in the area you are looking to improve .
all the cockerels sex linked genes come from his mama .
from his father only the Autossome genes .

chooks man

 

[KF0002]

View attachment 1169106 Griffin reminds me of a young Antonio.View attachment 1169116

He kinda does look like him, except Antionio's comb and color were way better than Griffin's. Lol

 

[Chooks man]

here few photos of my BCM this year pullets ,aged between 8 to 10 months .
16 pullets are selected and separated from the rest of the pullets . they are going to be single mated to they half brothers to see which combination work better .
all this 16 pullets are selected for type ,mass ( 2.6 Kg for the youngest one and 3Kg for the oldest and heaviest ) , width of they shoulder and back . length of they back . color of they eggs .angle and shape of they tail.
they all excel in those points .
they weakest point on some of them are .hackle marking ( not enough but not all black)
color of they eyes .some have brown /marble eyes
shank feathers ,some of them don t have them .
all those points could be fix by the Sire any way .the cockerels I selected are good on those point

some people believe if the pullet/hen have a thin pointed tail that will make they back narrower at the end where the tail start .
that is not true .
look at my pullets ,they all are selected for a thin pointed tail but wide at the shoulder all the length of they back
very clear in this last photo
plus they all have a wide rear and most of they are shorter on they feet .

what left to do now is fix the body color . adding a gorgeous hackle to they progeny .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I love his big meaty type. Definitely something I need to improve on in my birds.

he was selected for that reason .and the richness of his copper .
his mama Norway has a true marans type body , and dark oval eggs too .her mama passes 3.6Kg , his grand mama 3,5 Kg and his grand grand mama Scandinavia 4.2Kg
they are not light weight those chooks .but they still have they own faults .
no perfect chooks in my farm yet ,all work in progress .I ll get there one day .

SELECT THE LARGE HEN IF YOU WANT TO INCREASE THE MASS OF YOU CHOOKS

chooks man