International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[KF0002]

View attachment 1252964 N4 Wheaten
Elvis over Mory .true brother of cockerel 2

love his type

chooks man

I love Wheatens! Can't wait to get my hands on some nice Wheaten stock. Your cockerels are beautiful!

 

[chickengr]

if the Roo is 3.2Kg than he need to be mated to a larger big hen over 3.5 Kg .
what it a reason to use this small cockerel? is he well colored or what do he has goo on him .

I used Charlie my original silver cuckoo rooster from the UK ,he was just 3 Kg .so I matted him to Cleo and ET both hen where too large and heavy 4Kg . all they F1 progeny where super big .the F2 few of them where small ( throw back ) .the F3 generation ( nothing has been added to them .line breeding) all the cockerels where small except one .and all the pullets where large .
it is a reason why I end up crossing Charlie2 to a Blue copper hens ,because they where large and heavy 3.8 and 4 Kg . I wanted to reinforce the large size genes . Now all my cockerels and pullets are super large and heavy .
I bred a small type out . 4 years of selective breeding .

chooks man

we don't have big marans here.

 

[chickengr]

it seems I have a lot of parasitic white in my flock. they had correct hatch down but they have some white feathers now.

should I start over?

 

[Red Banks]

Yeah the younger birds are a little stupid when it comes to self-preservation. The older grow outs see as much as a Blue Jay in the sky and head for cover. The younger birds won't get out of the rain, they won't go back into their pens to roost.. it's like having to lead a blind donkey to water.

A little off subject, but a funny thing my free ranging chickens do is when they hear me opening the feed barrel they circle the feed barrel around and around and around. Like they will eventually find the feed inside the barrel if they keep circling. They keep circling until I throw some feed out!

But I still have a trio left of the chicks I hatched from your eggs. One cockerel and two pullets. I'm going to keep them penned up so I don't lose them.

I knew you have the same warped sense of humor that I do and you wouldn't be offended by my Spartacus joke. I could see them saying...... No.... I am Spartacus. Remember there is always the mail. I do find that the flock of young ones have more savvy than one or two. Poor Tony2 by himself couldn't find his way out of a wet paper bag.

 

[Red Banks]

Try youtube.. I learn to do all kinds of things from youtube. Hope u get it fixed.

I concur. I fixed my washer all by myself watching a youtube video!

 

[Red Banks]

Wheaten was crossed into the line at some point and the genes have surfaced to show up in the bird. A brown/red wing triangle is an indicator of wheaten.

Marans folks Im friends with in a facebook group say that excessive chest color is a possible indicator of wheaten hidden in a line of black coppers also. If that is the case, my line B birds may have wheaten in them also. I was told that the only way to tell when you are unsure is to test mate to a bird like a rhode island red. If the chicks are black, no wheaten in the line. If the chicks are light or red there is wheaten in the line. I plan on test mating an overcolored cockerel to a wheaten based hen soon to see just out of curiosity.

I am still confused about the term overcolored. A smattering of color? Color that comes down the throat and stops around the same place as the hackle? It will be interesting to see if Marcus loses most of that color. I hope so. Tony2 did. @Chooks man I can't do pics for a couple of days.

 

[Chooks man]

it seems I have a lot of parasitic white in my flock. they had correct hatch down but they have some white feathers now.

should I start over?

you don t need to start all over again .we never restart again .we just continue fixing the fault one step at the time .
if they had a proper hatch down ,than the white feathers they are showing now is due to the environment and the health of the chooks .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

we don't have big marans here.

how big is your biggest hen/Rooster ?
to fix this problem you need a bigger hen .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

it seems I have a lot of parasitic white in my flock. they had correct hatch down but they have some white feathers now.

should I start over?

my dear friend we can t fix every thing in one breeding season .
you have done well and your flock too .don t forget your pullets lay dark eggs .it is the most important thing to breed when working with a marans chooks .
plus they have nice body color too .

you need to focus to multiply your flock first .we need to have a good /large number of chooks .so when some thing happen ( sick or die chooks) your breeding program is not affected by it .
we need many line to work with to be able to fix all the faults and stabilize the good traits .plus many years of selective breeding .

chooks man

 

[KF0002]

I am still confused about the term overcolored. A smattering of color? Color that comes down the throat and stops around the same place as the hackle? It will be interesting to see if Marcus loses most of that color. I hope so. Tony2 did. @Chooks man I can't do pics for a couple of days.

Overcolored means leakage that extends onto the breast where the feathers should be black. Some leakage is fine as long as the majority of the breast is black. Show birds are also judged on the presence amount of light colored shafting on the feathers also. The birds I have with leakage, have a lot of shafting also. A very minor number of points are lost for shafting, so in an otherwise nice speciman it isnt a big deal in my opinion. Overcolored males still have their place in the brood pens to produce well colored pullets. I do plan to try and breed away from shafting but Ive heard it can be difficult to eliminate.

I got this picture off facebook. I know the owner of the pics wont mind me sharing it. The male on the left has acceptable leakage by most breeders' standards. The male on the right has too much leakage in regards to show standards, and he also has shafting and that is considered a defect.

Here is a pic from the SOP book that illustrates shafting.