International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[marchick]

I have other hens that are nicer but may not be pure Bev. I need to take more pictures of the rest but this will give you a little bit of a idea of what I have to work with.

 

[shepherd6567]

View attachment 1213592 View attachment 1213593 View attachment 1213594 View attachment 1213592 My Marans pullets are 28 weeks old tomorrow. First pullet egg today!!! 50 grams!!! TomorroView attachment 1213592 w is the first day of winter. One of my pullets from last year was laying at below zero temp. No heat in coup. These are one tough breed. 7 one year old hens have not started laying after there molt. A lot of plans for this spring. TOM

Great looking girls. Big bodied too.

 

[Chooks man]

Thank you! I'm glad everything is starting to click and make sense. I have studied and studied the standard so that I can fine tune my "eye" when I am looking through my birds. I have a lot of work to do, but they'll get there. I appreciate you explaining that excess autosomal red of the hen can be hidden and hard to see. That really helped me to understand why Apollo was throwing such a high number of overcolored cockerels when #60 doesn't outwardly look "overcolored" and she certainly isn't mossy.

one thing is causing this is the instability of the strain you are working with .
like I said it many times before .we are working with unstable out cross lines .that all .the alignment of the genes is not bred true .
the second thing involved is the Birchen nature of the variety . the ER/ER family genetic is a Birchen ( not a Birchen marans) ,so they should have ( genetically speaking ) a well laced chest on the male and a female .
Ah the problem is .a French decided long time ago to breed a Birchen family genetic ( BCM /BLCM and a BRM) without a chest marking .against the low of genetic .That is a real problem . they selected for a colorful Solid black phenotype almost a hybrid between the E/E bird and the ER/ER bird, some thing in between , very hard to breed .
the marans family genetic ER/ER will never produce a 100% correct colored progeny , Culling is always going to be apply for sure .because we are working against the genetic low of the Birchen variety we can not apply it in our ER marans breeding program .
in other world the Marans ER family genetic chooks are a bad bred Birchen chooks( genetically speaking).
So it is impossible to breed a line of BCM/BLCM and Birchen marans who be able to throw 100% well colored progeny .

it is our job to find this breeders ,who ll be able to produce for us what we are looking for . not how they look them selves .it is not important .what they produce for us is more important ,because we are marans chooks breeders .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

@Old Man Tom .you BCM pullets are all CLASS and ELEGANCE
great type .
great hackle marking
great long back
great small thin tail
great shanks feathering
great comb not too large and floppy
pure black plumage and under fluff
great uniformity and balance

you should be very proud of your self ,you done great .BRAVO

Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I have other hens that are nicer but may not be pure Bev. I need to take more pictures of the rest but this will give you a little bit of a idea of what I have to work with.

you have good type marans chooks .
if you are interested in breeding just a BLCM than you need to keep a BCM too .
breeding a blue over a blue will give you a lot blue variation plus a BC and and the Splash Copper to .

if you mate you BC rooster to all your Blue copper hens/pullets .you ll get 50% each .
mate your Blue copper rooster to a Black copper hens/pullets = you ll get 50% each

this way you end up with 2 different lines to work with and a lot of blues to select for .there is so many shade of blue .

chooks man

 

[Old Man Tom]

@Old Man Tom .you BCM pullets are all CLASS and ELEGANCE
great type .
great hackle marking
great long back
great small thin tail
great shanks feathering
great comb not too large and floppy
pure black plumage and under fluff
great uniformity and balance

you should be very proud of your self ,you done great .BRAVO

Chooks man

 

[marchick]

you have good type marans chooks .
if you are interested in breeding just a BLCM than you need to keep a BCM too .
breeding a blue over a blue will give you a lot blue variation plus a BC and and the Splash Copper to .

if you mate you BC rooster to all your Blue copper hens/pullets .you ll get 50% each .
mate your Blue copper rooster to a Black copper hens/pullets = you ll get 50% each

this way you end up with 2 different lines to work with and a lot of blues to select for .there is so many shade of blue .

chooks man

Thank you, chooks man I will have three pens and a grow out pen. I will have one to hold my main flock and two to test breed. It will be a slower process. What do you think would be the best roo to put with the two light hens with the saddles on them?

 

[Chooks man]

@marchick
I like this BC young rooster . need more photos of him from different angles ?

if we mate him to your Blue copper pullets .he ll throw some well marked pullets Black and Blue

chooks man

 

[Old Man Tom]

Thank you Chooks Man for your positive comments. I thank you soo much for sharing you knowledge. I want to work on combs and only combs. I kept three cocks this year that have not so good combs. I have 21 hens to choose from to improve combs. Thanks for the help.

 

[Chooks man]

@marchick .
love the body color of this young rooster ..
the back of his comb doesn t look great from this angle

more photos of him please?

he could be mated to your black copper pullets . will produce nice and well colored progeny . I need to see his comb first

chooks man