International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[TwoChicksChix]

This post is so informative! I just got into BCM and think they are just exceptional birds. I've had a cross for quite sometime but recently rescued a nice bcm rooster from some folks in the city who bought some chicks from a local breeder. Thought they were all hens but he started crowing. They did show me his sister's eggs and they are an exceptionally dark and large for young pullets. He is hands down the sweetest roo but I'm curious to get input on him from folks who know the breed more. I had purchased some other BCM to hatch and now have 3 more who are 2 month old (2 hens and another roo).

Here are some photos of the rescue roo (Papa Roo) at 7 month old. He has filled out a bit more feather wise as he is now 9 month old. He does have a couple stray white feathers on his legs. Is there anything I should be extra mindful about regarding breeding him to my future hens?

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He looks like he has really good color in his hackles. I can post a picture of the SOP description for bcm in a minute.

 

[BenTN]

This post is so informative! I just got into BCM and think they are just exceptional birds. I've had a cross for quite sometime but recently rescued a nice bcm rooster from some folks in the city who bought some chicks from a local breeder. Thought they were all hens but he started crowing. They did show me his sister's eggs and they are an exceptionally dark and large for young pullets. He is hands down the sweetest roo but I'm curious to get input on him from folks who know the breed more. I had purchased some other BCM to hatch and now have 3 more who are 2 month old (2 hens and another roo).

Here are some photos of the rescue roo (Papa Roo) at 7 month old. He has filled out a bit more feather wise as he is now 9 month old. He does have a couple stray white feathers on his legs. Is there anything I should be extra mindful about regarding breeding him to my future hens?

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he’s a good looking fella. great copper coloring.

 

[kfelton0002]

This post is so informative! I just got into BCM and think they are just exceptional birds. I've had a cross for quite sometime but recently rescued a nice bcm rooster from some folks in the city who bought some chicks from a local breeder. Thought they were all hens but he started crowing. They did show me his sister's eggs and they are an exceptionally dark and large for young pullets. He is hands down the sweetest roo but I'm curious to get input on him from folks who know the breed more. I had purchased some other BCM to hatch and now have 3 more who are 2 month old (2 hens and another roo).

Here are some photos of the rescue roo (Papa Roo) at 7 month old. He has filled out a bit more feather wise as he is now 9 month old. He does have a couple stray white feathers on his legs. Is there anything I should be extra mindful about regarding breeding him to my future hens?

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Honestly from what I can see from the pictures, he looks like a fantastic bird. If you could post a better side view (the picture you posted is kind of taken at an angle), top view (looking straight down at his back), and rear view we could get a better look at him. From what I can see of him right now though, if the eggs he hatched from are dark I wouldnt hesitate to breed him.

Look under his hackles and see if there is white fluff there. Open his wings and see if he has any white there as well.

His color is devine, better than color in my birds and I've been working with the breed since 2014. Beautiful mass and type. Great topline and tail angle, nice depth to the breast. His eye color is good and clear, no marbleling which is good. The eyes are a bit light but are fine to work with. The blade of his comb should be lifted off the nape of his neck more but overall the comb isnt too bad. In some of the pictures he looks like his hackle has the ever so slightest halo to it but that could be balanced out in the breeding pen when you select females for him.

His flaws I can see are very minor in my opinion and if he were mine, he would be in a breeding pen tout suite. Congratulations on finding such a gem!

 

[kfelton0002]

I was looking at pictures on my phone of Dark Halo and in some of them he looked like his legs were set too far back. I had to go back out to get a few more pictures to make sure they were okay. The way he was posing in one of the previous pictures looked like he was front heavy. They are fine though.. what a relief!

His tail needs to be fuller so that is something to be improved upon.

 

[kfelton0002]

Finally got a better up close picture of Dark Angel.

 

[BenTN]

Got started last weekend on the bachelor pad and almost finished. The girls are hanging on the fence line and can’t wait for move in day. Haha. They need a break...

anyone ever try red pepper to boost or encourage egg laying. My girls have all but quit for the last month and I fed them a couple tablespoons of red pepper flakes today. We shall see if the myth holds true.

 

[kfelton0002]

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Got started last weekend on the bachelor pad and almost finished. The girls are hanging on the fence line and can’t wait for move in day. Haha. They need a break...

anyone ever try red pepper to boost or encourage egg laying. My girls have all but quit for the last month and I fed them a couple tablespoons of red pepper flakes today. We shall see if the myth holds true.

The majority of my hens have stopped laying as winter is moving in. As the days get shorter, that is to be expected as their natural reproductive cycle revolves around how much daylight they receive. As spring nears again and the days start getting longer, they will start up again. Give them this time to rest up and recharge, as well as replenish their nutritional stores that rigorous egg laying can deplete.

The bachelor pad looks great! Hope the cockerels and cock bird are doing well in their new home!

 

[Old Man Tom]

The majority of my hens have stopped laying as winter is moving in. As the days get shorter, that is to be expected as their natural reproductive cycle revolves around how much daylight they receive. As spring nears again and the days start getting longer, they will start up again. Give them this time to rest up and recharge, as well as replenish their nutritional stores that rigorous egg laying can deplete.

The bachelor pad looks great! Hope the cockerels and cock bird are doing well in their new home!

My hens quit laying in Sept. Do not expect them to start laying until Feb. March 2020 I have 2 new pullets laying every 2,3 days. The laying cycle follows the solstice and hours of daylight in 24 hours. I do not know why my pullets are laying. Last years pullets were laying in Dec. I'm thinking it has to do when the chics were hatched? TOM

 

[kfelton0002]

My hens quit laying in Sept. Do not expect them to start laying until Feb. March 2020 I have 2 new pullets laying every 2,3 days. The laying cycle follows the solstice and hours of daylight in 24 hours. I do not know why my pullets are laying. Last years pullets were laying in Dec. I'm thinking it has to do when the chics were hatched? TOM

Yes this years pullets started laying at around 7 months old but the hens have closed up shop for the most part. There is a couple Marans pullets laying but most are still maturing. Chicks hatched early in the year will lay in the fall. Chicks hatched later likely wont lay until late winter to early spring. That has been my experience anyway. I wont be hatching any pullet eggs until they are at least 9 months or their eggs are large enough. I am not getting in any hurry to start hatching. Chicks are too hard to brood in the dead of winter when power outages can do them in quickly. It is easier to start around March when the weather is warming, it is for me anyway. I may have to suck it up and hatch a few Old English earlier though so the cockerels are old enough to be dubbed by early fall for show.

 

[kfelton0002]

@BenTN I've never heard about the red pepper flakes, but if your girls have decided to take a break for winter there is little you can do aside from using artificial lighting on timers in their coop/pen from my own experience. I will have to put lights on my OEGs this year and hatch them early. My OEG cockerel was DQ for not being dubbed. Apparently, it is a DQ for cockerels to be undubbed after Nov 1st. I thought showing an undubbed cockerel was fine as long as they were under a year old, but that is not the case. He wasn't old enough to dub prior to putting him up for show, and they need at least a month to heal, so I must hatch them earlier if I'm going to show in the fall.