Marans nightmare

[Cribbs74]

Hello all,

I am new to Marans and have had a heck of a time with them thus far.

About a year ago I purchased about 20 Marans of various varieties and practically lost the entire flock to a mystery disease at about 3 weeks of age. I ended up with a Blue, Splash and Cuckoo Marans when it was all said and done.

My main interest was Black Coppers and seeing as they all died on my first go around I decided to purchase some from a reputable breeder.

Well, after waiting 6 long months my number came up and they shipped out and were promptly lost by USPS. So they arrived 2 days late and 4 had died. This left me with 5 Black coppers and 2 Blue splash.

All was going well until 2 Months ago when Mareks decided to pay a visit. One after another they started to become paralyzed. Through some quick thinking and Isolation I was able to save all the birds and in the end only 3 of the 7 came down with Mareks.

Again all went well until round 2 of Mareks and I had to cull a Roo due to it not rebounding and having full on paralysis. That was 2 weeks ago and I was left with 6 birds.

Of the six 3 were Roos and 3 were hens. Last night out of the blue another Hen passed away during the night and she had no symptoms of anything the day before.

Long story short I now have 2 Blue splash (1 hen and 1 Roo) 3 Black coppers (2 Roo's and 1 hen)

I was wanting to breed Black Coppers, but I have only 1 hen left and she is a Mareks survivor so I am not expecting much from her as her health has been severely compromised.

Here is what I have to work with:

2 Black Copper Roosters
1 Black Copper Hen
1 Blue Splash Rooster
2 Blue Splash Hens
1 Blue Hen


My question is will any breeding of these (besides the black Copper Hen and Roo) produce a Black Copper? Or do I need to find some more Black Copper Hens?

Thanks for any help you could provide.

Ron

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

If your blue hen is anything like most blue marans I have seen, she probably has copper in her background. Mate her to the black copper and you should get 50/50 black/blue chicks that should show copper if the rooster is good color. If you breed the splash to the blacks, all offspring will be blue but, as with the blue hen, they should throw copper at least in the hackle.

I hear your pain on the marans issue. What is almost just as bad with them is raising up loads of birds from a different line and finding out that the hens lay light brown eggs. I am dealing with that right now. We have black copper and blue copper and one of the new pullets is laying an egg that is lighter than my wyandottes...

 

[ramirezframing]

Yup as FMP said, a blue to black should kick out blues and black. I haven't seen a just blue marans, all have had copper in them. But that's probably just what's in my area. And I have seen plenty that lay a light egg also.

 

[Cribbs74]

Thank you for the responses and sorry to hear about your egg color FMP.

My Blue lays a middle of the road color of egg it's not the best nor the worst, I have one BC that has a ton of copper so I will use him most likely.

 

[Cribbs74]

Here is the picture of my Blue Pullet and 3 month old BC cockerel