International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[marchick]

Here is my advice to you, disregard the "names" of the lines your birds come from. Look at them in regards to their qualities only and select your breeders accordingly. Balance faults of this bird, with good qualities of that bird when you set up your breeding pens. Hatch a bunch of chicks and cull hard. Once you make that first choice as to which birds you select as breeders, they are from then on your line.

We will see what Thor and his 3 hens produce. I think he is my best rooster and 16 of my chicks come from them.
Thank you for your advice!

 

[marchick]

I always enjoy getting eggs from #8.

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Beautiful!

 

[KF0002]

I have a few typey looking black coppers running around from my blue copper line (Maximus x Lucille). We'll see if their tails look that good in a few months.

Bigger cockerel

Pullet

 

[KF0002]

Here is my pullet from @RedBanks. She is a lovely girl, all class as Chooks man says. I think I will call her Patty.

 

[KF0002]

We will see what Thor and his 3 hens produce. I think he is my best rooster and 16 of my chicks come from them.
Thank you for your advice!

You're welcome! Bev Davis is a great breeder of some very fine Marans. My line A is a blend of her line and LP, and my original splash coppers that began my blue copper line were from her line. You are very lucky to have them! Hold them dear!

 

[KF0002]

Beautiful!

Thank you!

 

[marchick]

You're welcome! Bev Davis is a great breeder of some very fine Marans. My line A is a blend of her line and LP, and my original splash coppers that began my blue copper line were from her line. You are very lucky to have them! Hold them dear!

I just went out and looked. I realize that I only have one hen left that could or could not be pure Bev. I have 5 chicks out of eggs from that pen. I think I will decide when they get older if I should rehome them. I will take a picture of the hen and see what you all think.

 

[marchick]

This is her but not the best pictures. What do you all think? Roosters have been hard on them so feathers are ruff. Same hen in all pictures. She is the one in the front in second picture.

 

[KF0002]

This is her but not the best pictures. What do you all think? Roosters have been hard on them so feathers are ruff. She is the one in the front in second picture.


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It's hard to tell much about them from those pictures but from what I can see they have lovely color to their hackles and look to be big heavy girls. I can also see they don't have that beetle green sheen. I think that is good, if I remember correctly Chooks man says you don't want too much of the beetle green in the black. I can't wait to see what their chicks grow up to look like.

 

[chickengr]

Lucille is a mama! I gave her 5 chicks out of the incubator, 3 BCM chicks and 2 Legbar cockeral chicks. She is taking good care of them so far. Pardon how rough her feathers are. She was Maximus's favorite lady.

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congrats!

don't keep legbars more than a month with marans chicks. I had marans and araucanas together. marans grow fast while araucanas (and legbars) stay small for a long time. my marans chicks were pecking araucanas, mostly in the eyes. they damaged the eye of the cockerel.