looking for a Maran expert... Black Copper to be exact.

[Country Living Farm]

Ok, I hatched out some maran's (Black Copper) and now I have 3.5 months later, they are all differnet sizes??? Also, ended up with 7 roosters and 4 hens. Anyways, three of the roo's are black witht he copper neck. Two or three are just solid black and one is now crowing at 3.5 months old, he also has one black toe the rest are different colors. Also, I have two hens that are very small and not growing. Any suggestions. I take it I should not breed the solid black roosters.

Tks

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
I am NOT an expert, but I'll try to answer some of your questions anyway.

The black cockerels are still babies. It is fairly common for black copper youngsters to not show any coppering for several months. Give them til at least 6 months to develop their color before you give up on them.

Also, it's common for chicks of any breed to grow at different rates. This can be genetic, environmental, or disease related. It's impossible for us to guess which is the cause in your case, but we might be able to help more if you would give us more info -- symptoms, the conditions they're kept in, anything you can think of that might be relevant.

 

[JewellFarm]

Quote:
If they are not growing at all, maybe I would check for signs of worms. What kind of feed are you giving them? Make sure they aren't being bullied by the others at the feeder.

You still may see copper in the black ones. I see more copper in mine almost everyday. I have some that are about 4 months old now and I just started to see copper in one of my pullets a few weeks ago. They are still very young to try decide who to breed and who not to breed. By the time they are 9 or 10 months old, they will look totally different.

Just give them some time.

 

[Country Living Farm]

They are all housed together with the same food and water. the two small ones look like 4 week old chick. I actually have chicks of another mixed bredd bigger than these at 4 weeks old. I was surprised the one was crowing at 3.5 months old though. No disease or anything

 

[JewellFarm]

In general a pullet is smaller than a roo. If they are that small, I would suspect a problem. Maybe they are not getting enough to eat with all the roos. You may need to observe them over a period of time to see if that is the problem.

One of mine started crowing at about 3 to 3 1/2 months also. Shocked me as well, lol.