International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

@Chooks man , thank you for your assessment of my birds! One thing I tried to get a good picture of was the legs. In my opinion the legs are very straight. I'll try to get a pic to show you what I see.

I may end up culling one of them in the future, and your comments are great for helping me decide which one to keep. I think with just eight hens, two cockerels puts a little too much pressure on them.

Thanks again!

Your new place looks wonderful! Beautiful views. Do you have predators to be concerned of?

you welcome we are here to help each other to breed good marans
legs are very important when selecting .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

My marans are now one month old. It’s been a little over a week since I posted pictures. I’m not going to try to hide it, mistakes were made. I didn’t move them out of the brooder soon enough and what I assumed was just normal pecking order stuff quickly escalated into pretty serious feather picking all the birds ended up missing feathers. So the birds are looking pretty shaggy compared to last week.

I did move them out to a small coop where they have some more room for now and the pecking looks to have stopped all open sores were treated and have scabbed over I think everyone is on the mend. I realize that they will quickly grow to the point where this coop will be too small so I have decided to re home 4 of the marans and 2 Brahma that are currently being housed with the marans.

I would like to keep 2-3 pullets and 1-2 cockerels. Attached are pictures of the birds I would appreciate any advice on what one you think are the best candidates for keepers. No effort was made to match the same bird with the same number it had during last week’s photo shoot. I did take more pictures than I uploaded so if you want to see a different angle of any of these birds I do have more pictures.

Thanks

they are too young to select from .
can you keep them a little loger ?
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Wow! What beautiful views!
Lucky you and chooks!

thank you my friend .sure I m lucky person .a problem I have to build more coop and runs .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

View attachment 3590696My dad’s friend took some silkie eggs from me to hatch but I sent him some Marans and Wellies too for myself. Three Marans so far, two black and a blue. Unfortunately I won’t know if they’re pure marans until their copper comes in, they should be silver/split if they are from another roo. Still working on a proper breeding pen for them. I’ll post better pics of the marans when I get my hands on them.

very nice ,lovely to see hatching chicks ,can t wait to start hatching some eggs .few more months for sure with all the work I have for the4 moment
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

It is. The legbars here lay very pale blue eggs which tend to go to off white as they get older. I would have thought green eggs as well for a Marans Crested Cream Legbar cross. I don't know the provenance of either parent and the French Marans I've seen here are pretty indifferent regarding quality for the breed. The British Marans are barred and tend to be better examples of the breed.
The strangest thing is neither the CCLs or the Marans are noted for broodiness. They will go broody but for the Marans it's often later in life and for the CCls, I don't really know.
Fret, the hen in the picture has turned into a broody monster.

some marans strains go more broody than others .
my crested legbar never went broody
chooks man

 

[chickengr]

yeah agree with you my friend in love with this place .
yesterday i harvest banana , oranges ,mandarin , avocados great feeling to have access to this mature trees . gift realy . I m greatfull and lucky person .
View attachment 3591431


soon I ll start harvesting bambo for constrction oof the chooks pens and coops ,
chooks man

as a latin proverb says: post nubila pheobus - after the clouds, the sun. you finally got what you deserve.

 

[Chooks man]

as a latin proverb says: post nubila pheobus - after the clouds, the sun. you finally got what you deserve.

I like that hope the sun will shane on me for a long time ,I had enough of moving around and building chooks pens ,I need to have time to breed my marans ,my breeders flock are getting older .
how you going with your own place ? at what stage are you now /
chooks man

 

[Tstraub]

they are too young to select from .
can you keep them a little loger ?
chooks man

I did re home 4 of the marans last night. The weather has turned really hot and I didn’t want to risk having them too crowded. I figured for the overall health of the birds giving them more room would be best.
My overall goal is probably more towards egg color than the birds conforming to the standard. Since they are still several months away from laying and I really don’t have the space to grow them all out it just felt like the right time. The extra birds went to a coworker/ friend of my wife.

I kept the two that looked most like pullets to me. No wattle growth, thin legs, smaller head and comb. I also kept the one that looked most like a cockerel. It had big thick red ish comb and wattle,and thick legs. I also kept one that is sort of in between but leaning more towards cockerel in my opinion.

I sent he home with what I guess to be 2 cockerels one pullet and one wait and see. She also got 2 light Brahma that I believe to be pullets at this point. Anyway that took my little grow out pin from 14 to 8 chicks and they look like the are happier for it.

 

[chickengr]

I like that hope the sun will shane on me for a long time ,I had enough of moving around and building chooks pens ,I need to have time to breed my marans ,my breeders flock are getting older .
how you going with your own place ? at what stage are you now /
chooks man

I am still in the middle of nowhere. fighting with heat to save chickens and house is still waiting to be finished. I don't care much as long as my poultry is fine. I need to make housing for my ducks (muscovy, pekin, indian runner and carolina) and geese (african and toulouse). garden is stunted due to heat. I hope to have more luck with winter crops. at least my photovoltaic system works perfectly well so I have less expenses. electricity bills here are killing plus they burden them with different extra taxes. I escaped that.

 

[Bantambird]

I am still in the middle of nowhere. fighting with heat to save chickens and house is still waiting to be finished. I don't care much as long as my poultry is fine. I need to make housing for my ducks (muscovy, pekin, indian runner and carolina) and geese (african and toulouse). garden is stunted due to heat. I hope to have more luck with winter crops. at least my photovoltaic system works perfectly well so I have less expenses. electricity bills here are killing plus they burden them with different extra taxes. I escaped that.

I hear Europe is crazy with energy taxes this year. It feels like everyone's taxes for energy everywhere are going up!