International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Punkybrewster]

View attachment 2347319

he is the one out of the 3 with a true marans body type . plus very good bodt type and tail .impressed .
I said it before ,hatch down is not related to body type . this guy is a prove .
hatch down is related to body color .

he is the only keeper for now from line #1 .
chooks man

The other 2 from this line #1 both have vulture hocks then.
You predicted this early on.
So we will eat these two.

I now understand why we should hatch so many eggs from a pair. So few are chosen for breeding purposes.

I will say, im not naming chooks any more until after selections are made. Naming them early really sucks when you are making stew out of them...

So if i use Negan as a breeder, i need to look out for parasitic white because he was so light at hatch and vulture hocks because 2 of his brothers had them.
Is this correct?
These faults are very hard to breed out so cull hard?

 

[Minky]

Chooks man and Kcrandall thank you both for your comments and feedback. I know it will be an uphill climb to make the best marans of what I have....I still cant believe that out of 2 dozen marans eggs I ended up with 3 pullets.

Would a person ever breed a cuckoo marans to to a BCM hen? why would they do that and what would the result be? all cuckoo?

Can someone tell me why single matings are "better" than say, a trio or a quad?
Thanks

 

[Punkybrewster]

If you know for sure which hen is laying which egg then you can trio or quad.

Single mating allows you to be certain which hens egg was fertilized by who so you can document and tag their prodigy.
You can then see if their pairing creates good, proper offspring.

Correct me if im wrong anybody...

 

[kcrandall]

If you know for sure which hen is laying which egg then you can trio or quad.

Single mating allows you to be certain which hens egg was fertilized by who so you can document and tag their prodigy.
You can then see if their pairing creates good, proper offspring.

Correct me if im wrong anybody...

Well said!

 

[kcrandall]

Chooks man and Kcrandall thank you both for your comments and feedback. I know it will be an uphill climb to make the best marans of what I have....I still cant believe that out of 2 dozen marans eggs I ended up with 3 pullets.

Would a person ever breed a cuckoo marans to to a BCM hen? why would they do that and what would the result be? all cuckoo?

Can someone tell me why single matings are "better" than say, a trio or a quad?
Thanks

Experienced breeders with a good understanding of genetics will cross a Cuckoo over a BCM to produce different varieties such as Black Silvers and Golden Cuckoos. It can take several generations of breeding to get to a pure variety plus you have the battle of maintaining egg color. Chooks Man knows all the varieties that can be achieved from this pairing. Some people will cross other Marans Varieties with BCMs to darken the egg color in their lines but then they must breed out all of the undesirable qualities to get back to the pure variety they are wanting in the first place. This type of breeding produces a lot of culls so you need to have the space, time and patience to see it thru. Chooks Man will weigh in on this topic.

 

[kcrandall]

Is anyone using Sage Acres Farm our of California for BCM?

I’m not familar with Sage Acre Farms so I looked them up. IMO they are really expensive @ $40 per day old chick, $150 per 5-7 month old pullet and $200 for a Cock. Also, according to her website, she started her breeding program in 2015 by combining several different lines from reputable breeders. This is a red flag for me because by doing that you have combined faults from multiple lines into now a single line. She provides a lot of pics of her Marans eggs but just a few of her BCM so I would guess she is more focused on egg color over SOP. Not necessarily a bad thing if all you want is dark egg layers but could be a problem if you want to breed to the SOP.

The Marans Club or Marans Chicken Club USA both have breeder directories so you may be able to find someone near you that breeds BCM that has nice birds. You could also join one of the clubs and get know breeders. If you show a genuine interst in the breed there are breeders out there that are more than willing to help someone get a good start. Show breeders will also sell their culls which can be a great start for a beginner. Just a word of caution, Show Quality Marans do not always lay the darkest eggs because Show Breeders are more focused on SOP than really dark eggs. I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any folkow uo questions.

 

[Bantambird]

Holy moly those sound really spendy! Also, there was Newcastle disease in so cal earlier this year so be sure to check out the progress on the quarantine of poultry in cali before ordering chicks. Since I'm the odd duck with the black silvers, I can weigh in on the cuckoo x bmc breeding: if you want to keep cuckoo for some fun color, you can get away with golden cuckoo penned up with your bmc, just like I can get away with keeping cuckoo penned with my black silvers. You will have way fewer culls with that pairing, as you won't be messing with changing the base red/silver, only with the barring, in a manner of speaking.

Also, often cuckoo/gold cuckoo are added to increase the hackle/saddle coloring of the line you are crossing with, so if you have a poorly undercolored boy, bringing in a gold cuckoo to your black copper flock can up your color.

 

[chickengr]

my dogs killed 5 chickens: blue marans cockerel, 2 mutt cockerels and 2 cuckoo legbar pullets.

blue boy was not a breeder. his comb was like leghorn's, his underfluff got white and he had health issues. I have to find good marans to start from scratch.

I still have 3 cuckoo legbar pullets and 1 cockerel.

my dogs are going to be locked up at the storage room at daytime. period.

 

[Chooks man]

my dogs killed 5 chickens: blue marans cockerel, 2 mutt cockerels and 2 cuckoo legbar pullets.

blue boy was not a breeder. his comb was like leghorn's, his underfluff got white and he had health issues. I have to find good marans to start from scratch.

I still have 3 cuckoo legbar pullets and 1 cockerel.

my dogs are going to be locked up at the storage room at daytime. period.

that is bad news .
better lock them up if you want to have chooks . hope you find a good marans to restart with .

my dogs are really good with chooks now .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I do have 3 pullets from this line that are fast feathering. I will plan to breed to them together if they grow out nicely.
That should solve the feather growth problem. Yes?

here the method to breed early feathering type = these genes are Sex linked .
Slow feathering type Cockerel X Early feathering type hen = Early /Medium feathering type cockerels AND Slow feathering pullets. this method is not reliable .

Early Feathering type Cockerel X Late feathering type hen = Late to Medium feathering type cockerels AND Early feathering type pullets.this method is used to produce a sex linked day old chicks .

if your pullets are Early feathering type . hatch cockerels from them , than cross them back to they Dams to produce Early feathering type .

if a cockerel is early feathering type ,hatch pullets from him ,than mate him to his daughter to produce Early feathering type

chooks man