International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

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I just love the shape of this year old hen. Opinions? She's supposed to be a birchen(black silver) Marans, but she is quite melanized. She looks like a box with a head and tail!

agree with you 100%.her body shape and body carriage will score her 10/10

love her thin pointed tail .plus plus

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I got my 2 remaining black copper girls moved in with my cream legbars today. They are a little more aggressive than the CLs. I hope they settle in ok.
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the black copper hen has a great comb .a little large but that is ok .

by the way the Cream legbar rooster you have is from a pullets line ,he has a well bent comb .
the hen in the far back facing out has a great standing comb . she ll produce a cockerel line cockerels . straight comb a little twisted but not floppy .
your CLB hens are very nice.

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

View attachment 1523481 Question on breeding my new cockerel- do I want to? He's feathered on his middle toe and has white tips on some of those toe feathers. His copper is nice and dark, no halo at all and I love his shape. And he has a great temperament. He's a little over colored but the 2 pullets I will breed are very dark with low tails. The other pullet had white tips on her feathers and and also feathered on her middle toe so she goes to the laying flock.

Will those white feathers go away or will I battle that middle toe feathering too much? He has such good qualities. My blue copper roo has a slight halo and his coppner is more straw like coloring. Both have high tails.

breeding him to the black pullets without any white feathers will help you get ready of the parasitic white .
he has enough copper to throw well colored pullets ..cockerels will need more than 1 generation to add color to them .
you have to watch his comb too .too arched and the lobe { back of the comb} is touching the neck .should be well lifted . the points of the comb are good .

to correct the middle toe s feathers you need to breed him to a pullet or hen with a minimum feathers on her shanks

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I really like this Blue Copper pullet. What do you all think? She is my favorite so far. She has more copper than you can see in the picture. I can't wait to get my first egg from her just to see what color she lays.

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she is very nice. great body type and hackle marking .
her blue color is good too not too dark .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Here are a couple cockerels I have free ranging. Pardon the purple on the larger cockerel. The young Games like to feather pick tails so I had to spray him with blue kote. He has a white juvenile wing feather that the blue kote got on and that is what the purple is. He is the offspring of Max and #8 (line C) and carries her dark egg genes.

The darker cockerel (green leg band) is from Mashburn x Sheraz. All of the chicks from the Mashburn rooster have good straight keels despite the Mashburn rooster having a crooked keel. They are a separate project line and will be watched closely for crooked keels in the future. His offspring are going to have a good deep copper shade, so that is the goal to darken underfluff under the hackles.

I have several cockerels this size, and a few more younger ones still in the brooders so fingers crossed for a couple good ones.

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what a lovely cockerel .what happen to him?
great body type .thick and chunky . gorgeous copper /head and comb

chooks man

 

[KF0002]

what a lovely cockerel .what happen to him?
great body type .thick and chunky . gorgeous copper /head and comb

chooks man

He's that same cockerel you liked a few days ago. Wish I still had him.

 

[chickengr]

It means reserve of variety.

The judging score abbreviations are:
Best of breed = BB
Reserve of breed = RB
Best of variety = BV
Reserve of variety = RV

Next year I hope to produce a Marans that wins best of breed or best of variety. Gotta have goals!

I don't doubt it at all!

 

[WVduckchick]

the black copper hen has a great comb .a little large but that is ok .

by the way the Cream legbar rooster you have is from a pullets line ,he has a well bent comb .
the hen in the far back facing out has a great standing comb . she ll produce a cockerel line cockerels . straight comb a little twisted but not floppy .
your CLB hens are very nice.

chooks man

Thank you. I just tested a few CL eggs with a couple of broody hens and got a couple males, maybe daddy replacement.

 

[Chooks man]

He's that same cockerel you liked a few days ago. Wish I still had him.

you still have his parent ? if yes just hatch great number of chicks from them , they ll throw type like that again.

chooks man

 

[KF0002]

you still have his parent ? if yes just hatch great number of chicks from them , they ll throw type like that again.

chooks man

A lot has happened while you were away. I lost a lot of birds this summer to varmints. I had Maximus (the sire) and several hens including all of my FRF hens, #8 (the cockerel's dam), and my pullet from Redbanks all in the same pen and a varmint got all of them in one night. My husband thinks it was coyotes because all of the birds were gone. All that was left was feathers. I lost my best blue copper hen to a varmint as well this past summer.

I have a few young cockerels left from Maximus and Queen but that cockerel you like was literally the only cockerel I had from Maximus and #8. So more birds like him are not possible.