International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

Welp, i drove the 4 hours each way to get the eggs.

I have mixed feelings about this trip. I bought 15 eggs. They look lighter in person so im not sure how i feel.

When you travel a good distance, its hard not to come home with something.

View attachment 2483995View attachment 2483997

She was a wonderful woman who loves her marans.

I saw 3 different batches of chicks and their hatch down is beautiful.
Many chicks have that sooty chest down. None of them had too much white. I was very impressed. Nice feathering on the outer toe only.



The adult hens are beautiful,
correct with nice mass,
Nice tails,
Long backs,
many with complete copper hackle.
Very friendly.

Now the roosters...
Friendly,
Long backs,
beautiful small, low tails,
nice full copper markings,
nice shoulder color,
eyes a little lighter as been observed by some of you folks....

And all of the roosters have white underfluff.
Every.one.

And yet everything else about them was nice. Really nice. They are huge.

I am at a loss of what to do.
I put them in the incubator with a bunch of ccl eggs.

what did she say about the eggs are lighter in color ?
how long they have been laying ?
is she using the artificial light to boost the eggs production like a lot peoples do ?

you seem very happy about they body type . body color and the look of they progeny .
what you are not happy about is the eggs color and white underfuff.

hatch them and only see how they turn up . if they have a white than we only keep the best pullets to cross to line #2 cockerels .

refresh my mind .line #2 cockerels don t have any parasitic white ?
chooks man
 
I am tempted to see how they grow out but my gut tells me to sell them as day olds.
"Pet quality".

hold your horse my friend . there is reason all this things happen . let it evolve ,give it a time .

I do like those marans ,yes we realize they have faults . but they truck load of other great quality .

breeding your own line from scratch is rewarding . better than getting some line and keeping it going .what a point .

let them hatch and see how they turn up .
chooks man
 
They are adult hens not pullets. Over a year old at least.
She said she does get darker eggs and she is using artificial light.

@Chooks man, i am looking with a novice eye and trying to apply everything i have learned here but i dont think i did a very good job of it if im getting a bad vibe about the whole thing.

I THINK the body type and color are correct. I THINK the chicks looked good.
That doesnt mean they are. Ya know?

But im so unsure.
I do know that the white underfluff is awful to breed out and that would be adding a bad fault to my line.

Line #2 has no parasitic white so far.

I am so embarassed and mad at myself.
But humble enough to show you all the dumb mistake ive made.

When i make an ass of myself, its always nice to share the experience.
 
And this is an offspring hatched 6-7 months ago.

View attachment 2484052

I really like this guy . I like what they are throwing .priceless copper . correct body type .priceless tail and complete body pattern .
yes they have some faults .it is not the end of the world . will take some body years of breeding to produce a specimen like this one .

you need another line to complement line #2 . I think this line will do just that .
remember your line #2 as chicks they did not have a god chunky type .they where stretchy and leggy .
this line chicks ,you said are very chunky with great hatch down .
formula for success . will take time for sure .

chooks man
 
They are adult hens not pullets. Over a year old at least.
She said she does get darker eggs and she is using artificial light.

@Chooks man, i am looking with a novice eye and trying to apply everything i have learned here but i dont think i did a very good job of it if im getting a bad vibe about the whole thing.

I THINK the body type and color are correct. I THINK the chicks looked good.
That doesnt mean they are. Ya know?

But im so unsure.
I do know that the white underfluff is awful to breed out and that would be adding a bad fault to my line.

Line #2 has no parasitic white so far.

I am so embarassed and mad at myself.
But humble enough to show you all the dumb mistake ive made.

When i make an ass of myself, its always nice to share the experience.

chill out my friend .don t give your self hard time .
if you did come back without the eggs .I will say you didn t do well . but you come back with 15 eggs .
if she said she is using artificial light .than the eggs are not expressing they true genetic make up .
don t blame the chooks .they are doing they best .

if some one in OZ had BCM line like that . I will drove 10 hours each way to get some fertile eggs from them ,just for body type and copper quality .
all work in progress . every thing will take time . and every thing is better when done my a self . not bought from others .
we are dealing with rare breed in here .

line #2 can not be bred by it self need support the widen the genetic gene pool for the future breeding .

chookd man
 
This experience shows me a few things.

This lady is very nice and she really loves the marans breed.
She is a very dedicated woman.

Over the years, she has collected from the best marans lines with the best intentions of having beautiful correct birds.

She bred them with no knowlege, thinking they are from the best breeders so their marans must be faultless. Not having enough knowlege, she just made more chicks without understanding genetics, flaws, test mating properly or how to get rid of flaws.

This just reenforced the bad and made a mess.

I can honestly say, this would have been me if i did not find all of you.
All with the best intentions.

There is so much bad breeding information out there on the internet regarding marans. It would not be hard to muck it up.

But im still stuck with marans with the probability of having white underfluff because i dont know how to walk away.
 
This experience shows me a few things.

This lady is very nice and she really loves the marans breed.
She is a very dedicated woman.

Over the years, she has collected from the best marans lines with the best intentions of having beautiful correct birds.

She bred them with no knowlege, thinking they are from the best breeders so their marans must be faultless. Not having enough knowlege, she just made more chicks without understanding genetics, flaws, test mating properly or how to get rid of flaws.

This just reenforced the bad and made a mess.

I can honestly say, this would have been me if i did not find all of you.
All with the best intentions.

There is so much bad breeding information out there on the internet regarding marans. It would not be hard to muck it up.

But im still stuck with marans with the probability of having white underfluff because i dont know how to walk away.
Isn’t the chase part of the fun ?? Sit back have a beer and watch them grow. If nothing else eat them. :highfive:
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom