International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Red Banks]

@kfelton0002 Antonio is destroying my cockerels! Are you sure this is going to work? The hen made it thru the night, do you have any suggestions to make the move successful. Will she get right back on the eggs in a new place? Should I just move them to an incubator? I have three broody hens. It has been my experience that my Marans are not good mothers.

 

[Hensndoes]

@kfelton0002 Antonio is destroying my cockerels! Are you sure this is going to work? The hen made it thru the night, do you have any suggestions to make the move successful. Will she get right back on the eggs in a new place? Should I just move them to an incubator? I have three broody hens. It has been my experience that my Marans are not good mothers.

My cuckoo was an excellent mama. I hope you're wrong!

 

[Magnolia Hill]

@Magnolia Hill

This was written by Curtis Hale and is on the MOAC website. Excellent information.

Some of my tips that I have collected over the years are:
1) a high tail on a cockerel can see improvements in his sons if the hens has a low tail.
2) if you want larger hens breeding a your largest cockerel to average sized hens won't work and will produce average sized hens, but breeding your largest hen will make for larger hens (even if not breed to your largest cockerel).
3) In a pairing it is more important that the cockerel's color be perfect than for the hen's color to be perfect
4) in a pairing it is more important for a hen's type to be perfect than for a cockerel's type to be perfect
5) combs tend to be passed from the hen in a pairing
6) A short shanked hen and a long shanked cockerel produce correct proportions while two short shanked birds will
have offspring that are dumpy and two long shanked birds will have offspring that are too lanky and upright (even if
the parent are with in what is acceptable just on the bottom or top of the spectrum)
7) White under coats on the BCM can be carried by the hen, but only show up in the cockerel
8) Dark Egg color can be restored successful in a line that has lost it with use of either a cockerel or a hen (both
carry all the genes).
Well that is a start for discussion. The best thing really to do is to pedigree your flock and keep good notes. Your
Marans may be built on a different portion of the available gene pool than someone else's flock and what they find in
their flock may not hold true for your flock.
Curtis Hale

Thank you

 

[marchick]

I hope to have my new chicks in about 3 to 4 weeks.

 

[Song girl 11]

Not that there is anything wrong with that.

I'd be fine with it if he/she could give me some eggs!

 

[Red Banks]

My cuckoo was an excellent mama. I hope you're wrong!

I had a blue that was excellent. I had two BC that were awful. They usually lose interest or kill the day old chicks. Could just be MY marans.

 

[Red Banks]

I'd be fine with it if he/she could give me some eggs!

 

[Red Banks]

I took Antonio out of the bachelor coop. I think he blinded one of the cockerels, just one eye. He never let the bird get off the ground, all day. He won't kill him outright but he could torture him to death. Luckily he left the pretty cockerel alone, Pretty Boy never challenged him. No dummy! Brains and looks.

 

[KF0002]

@kfelton0002 Antonio is destroying my cockerels! Are you sure this is going to work? The hen made it thru the night, do you have any suggestions to make the move successful. Will she get right back on the eggs in a new place? Should I just move them to an incubator? I have three broody hens. It has been my experience that my Marans are not good mothers.

It works for me but Antonio may not be willing to tolerate the cockerels like my Marans cock birds do. He has been the head honcho for so long without much competition and each rooster is an individual and can differ from one to the next in personality. If the fighting results in too much bloodshed and goes on for longer than a day or so, you may have to break them up and separate them. You have all sorts of chicken drama going on. Lol

I rarely have had good experiences moving broody hens and their eggs. Usually what happens when I move them is they freak out and wont accept the new location of the eggs and pace the pen trying to get out to go back to the original location they were sitting. Since she is sitting on the ground you would have to move her in stages probably and even then it may not work. You can take a nest box (or 5 gallon bucket, milk crate nest, etc) and put her eggs in it in the spot where she is sitting. Once she has settled into the nest, wait until after dark and move her and the nest to the pen you want her in. I have never had success moving a broody during the day unless of course her eggs have already hatched. By morning if she is still on the nest she may be okay. If she gets off the nest and wont go back to it because she is freaking out and pacing the wire trying go go back to "her" nest you might as well put the eggs in the incubator or scrap the whole clutch and break her up.

I have had a couple good Marans broodies and some bad. Mostly I break them up when they go broody because one broody makes them all seem to want to go broody. Its contagious. Lucille lost all of her chicks, but I think my son's cat may have been responsible for that. Lucille had accidently killed one of them herself and then something got the other 4. Hens usually get better at being mommies with every clutch. I have rarely ever had a 1st time mom do a good job at keeping her chicks alive. Its something they get better at with each clutch. Not all hens make good moms though. If a hen eats the eggs she is sitting on or kills her chicks as they hatch I dont let them try to hatch again.

Good luck with all your chicken drama! I hope it all settles down and works out.

Sometimes they just make you want to .

 

[KF0002]

I took Antonio out of the bachelor coop. I think he blinded one of the cockerels, just one eye. He never let the bird get off the ground, all day. He won't kill him outright but he could torture him to death. Luckily he left the pretty cockerel alone, Pretty Boy never challenged him. No dummy! Brains and looks.

Wow Antonio really doesn't mess around. Mine get some beat up combs and they rough up each others feathers but no serious injuries. The bachelor pen they are in is big enough for them to get away from each other and get some space during a tussle though. The cockerel's eye is hopefully not completely blind and may just be hurt causing him to keep it closed.. poor fella. I've had gamecocks get their faces beat up in a fight and their eyes swell shut but they were not blinded. I have also had them get their eyes knocked out fighting so it could go either way. Its good he's leaving Pretty Boy alone though.