International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

Ahhhh. Yes. I get it.

You are right.
Body type and egg color first.


I will keep this information though because while breeding what i have, i may just get the opportunity to do it.

you have the FFT trait in your line #1 and you has as well SFT in you line #2 . so the genes are not going any where ,we are going a make sure to keep all the good genes your have in you flock , we are going to do first is to breed a body type and dark eggs color , than we move on to the rest .body color ,nice comb ,no parasitic white etc.......................
by pairing Negan to line #2 pullets and pairing cockerels line #2 to line #1 pullets .we are preserving both FFT /SFT genes in the flock . when time is alright we can breed the pattern properly . for now we just preserving it . we make sure we don t loose the genes we like in the way .

chooks man.

 

[Minky]

Not everyone wants to sex them to select breeding stock at an early age.... most of what I see would be to be able to sell as female at an early age.... I may be wrong?

Here we just sell them straight run, especially during the pandemic. so hard to get chicks. but I dont care either way- Im happy to have roosters too. I sort of love them.
And of course I love rooster chilli. ;-). But I'm not selling these, this was very much an experiment for me to do some learning. Hatch out olive Eggers from 2 different roosters (Marans roo with CLB hen and CLB roo with welsummers hens.)

Two of my 3 marans pullets (6 mo) are broody! Is this common for marans?

 

[Minky]

I marked pullets who were fast feathering in my line #2 birds. The 2 cockerels were slow feathering.

Line #1, Negan, is fast feathering.

When the time comes to breed, my plan is to eventually produce this trait for sexing.

When do you do this? Check your chick for fast or slow feathering?

 

[kcrandall]

When do you do this? Check your chick for fast or slow feathering?

From hatch until each chick is fully feathered. Some chicks are fully feathered by 4 weeks old (Fast Feathering Type) and other may take as long as 8 weeks (Slow Feathering Type) and some fall in the middle (Moderate Feathering Type).

 

[Punkybrewster]

This line #2 has obvious slow feathering birds.

I had never experienced slow feathering in all my years of raising chickens until now.
Or maybe i just never paid attention because Chickens were chickens.

Now that i am paying attention, i cant help but notice when some chicks are fully feathered out and the others are still naked and dinosaur looking.

 

[Chooks man]

Here we just sell them straight run, especially during the pandemic. so hard to get chicks. but I dont care either way- Im happy to have roosters too. I sort of love them.
And of course I love rooster chilli. ;-). But I'm not selling these, this was very much an experiment for me to do some learning. Hatch out olive Eggers from 2 different roosters (Marans roo with CLB hen and CLB roo with welsummers hens.)

Two of my 3 marans pullets (6 mo) are broody! Is this common for marans?

marans can go broody .how much depend on the line .most marans are poorly bred . peoples focus on dark eggs color and they forget about the other marans traits .

6 month old pullets goes broody ,that tell us some thing is wrong . they hardly start laying at 6 months old . how she become broody at that young age . not selectively bred for sure .

chooks man

 

[Minky]

marans can go broody .how much depend on the line .most marans are poorly bred . peoples focus on dark eggs color and they forget about the other marans traits .

6 month old pullets goes broody ,that tell us some thing is wrong . they hardly start laying at 6 months old . how she become broody at that young age . not selectively bred for sure .

chooks man

unless they were selectively bred for going broody

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

I'm sure this has been asked a million times, but when will my hen start to lay? She was born at the end of June.

 

[ChloeSilkie08]

I also forgot to ask but what do you (or what would you) charge for Black Copper Maran chicks unsexed?

 

[Minky]

I'm sure this has been asked a million times, but when will my hen start to lay? She was born at the end of June.

Hi there. Mine were born May 1 and started laying late September, but I think that was pretty early for marans. I think 6-7 months is normal? Maybe someone else can chime in. She likely won't lay now til spring, if she hasn't already started.... and to answer your next question- I would say it would depend where you are- here, in Ontario- they go for $14 unsexed day old, less from a hatchery (about $10-11) but then there is a 6 chick minimum.... and they sell out fast.