Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[gilavina]

Marcy~ I myself culled my breeders down again this morning. I now only have 3 hens and 2 roosters in the copper variety and 2 pullets and 1 cockerel in the Birchen variety. It was a very tough choice to make and I hated leaving myself with such small numbers, but upon my recent hatch of single test matings on Monday....the chicks that hatched from one of the females that I culled this morning sealed the deal. I told myself I would rather have 8 good birds to rebuild from vs. having several mediocre or bad birds to breed from.
Now if only the remaining girls would get their rears in gear and give me some eggs again I can start to rebuild. Stingy girls laid non-stop for just over a month and now.....NADA.....ZIP.....ZERO.......Zilch! Bunch of freeloadin' squawk boxes!

I 100% agree with this post and will be doing the same on Saturday. Although, I will be keeping larger numbers because of the other breeds and varieties I have. I hope to cull down to about a dozen of each in the Coppers and the Birchens. I'll re-evaluate after that as well once I see how they are looking as a whole without the others mixed in. Numbers need to start droppin more for the sheer price of feed and the ease of making chores quicker in the winter. I can't talk a whole lot for today's progress on dropping numbers....I gained one. My uncle brought down a beefcake of a black ameraucana pullet to replace a smaller narrower one I have here.

 

[desertmarcy]

Oh and MARCY....good on you girl!!!!! It is hard to cull, but often a very necessary evil to keep us from temptation.

Thank you all! Yes it is hard to cull, especially when there are some good things about the birds, but in my case the bad outweighed the good. It took me FOREVER to gut out those older cockerels! I just couldn't fit my hand inside to loosen the innards the get the parts out. Especially way back to reach the heart and lungs. My hands ache now! I had to resort to a long reach curved-ended narrow tongs to pick the lungs out on a couple of them. I tried using a wooden chop stick to break off the ligaments holding everything in and ended up breaking the gallbladder on one

. I hate processing older cockerels. Hens are so much easier!

 

[pinkchick]

Pink, what do you plan on breeding this splash female with / go to post 41983 and look at the Blue Copper young male. This is what you will eventually get if you breed too much Black Copper into the Blue Copper and Splash.

I believe that the black male might have some Blue in him, is that possible ?

Sorry Don...can't find that post, do you have a link?

 

[pinkchick]

Vicki~ Thank you very much for your answer, I appreciate you more than you know girl! He is here strictly for sh$@'! and giggles, basically if something happens to any of the remaining females I have. As you know, he is a product of a couple of gen's ago backcross to the BCM, so your answer explains TONS! eta: I only keep him just in case.....as he is the sibling to the Birchen females I have, I won't breed him unless absolutely necessary. I'm on the lookout for another non- directly related male to kick off this Birchen project.

 

[desertmarcy]

Actually I was responding to the original poster but hope it gives you some good information too

As far as egg color- each color- cuckoo etc is still a work in progress, different breeders talk about picking the darkest eggs from their groups to hatch from hopefully improving the next generation of egg color. I have some blue cuckoo's that are just project and they lay maybe a 5 on the Marans chart. Having a Marans egg chart helps show the different shades- it is hard to take a picture and get an accurate color for others to see.

If you can go to shows that have an egg contest as well for Marans, that would give you a good visual of what other breeders are producing- it is also very neat to see all the eggs side by side.

When I look at my egg color chart, I can hardly tell the difference between 3 and 4, then 5 seems like a big step darker. I have yet to get anything that I would call a 5 from my birds. I sure would like to see one appear some day. Maybe I'll get lucky--I still have 2 pullets that came from the darker eggs that haven't started to lay yet.

 

[gilavina]

Thanks everyone! I am very satified with the decisions I have made and look forward to seeing what I will get out of the few selected birds that I have left this upcoming hatching season....if they ever give me any stinkin' eggs again, ARGH! Whats up with this weird laying pattern that is going around with the birds?
Don~ To answer your question..........
I plan on test mating the Black Copper male back to his Aunt, my original Splash Copper hen, Darryl (the egg show winner) and seeing what I can get by way of Blue Coppers. Is this what you meant or were you looking for more?
I base my matings on type and egg color first and foremost, this is paramount to me. Obvious DQ's will not be bred and workable less offensive faults, such as the slight twist in the front of the Black Copper males' comb will be worked on later, as well as the thumbprint, which I have been battling for years, but until I can get the other things right the comb will have to wait (unless it is the dreaded carnation comb or sprigs.....no mercy here for that offense) for now, I will work with what I've got in the cupboard.
What are your thoughts on this and that Black Copper male. BTW, he is the product of Blue Cpr x Blue Cpr. He is wonderfully dark rich black with absolutely no brown tinges or white anywhere.
I would love to have a Blue Copper male like the one that Vicki posted a pic of a couple days ago and man o man, could I tear it up with that Luella girl of hers. I would say those 2 birds are the best example of Blue Coppers I have ever seen! Period!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks Kim, thats very kind of you. I'm very much looking forward to the next two year's worth of progress. It should be very good I believe.

 

[DMRippy]

Since I lost my roo I decided to find out WHO was laying what eggs. I have a nice black copper (solid BLACK) with nice EVERYTHING. NOTHING I would cull her for.... NOTHING.... BUT she lays a really light egg. It is nice SPHERICAL shaped egg just light, like a 4 maybe. She has a nice comb, nice light eyes, nice leg feathering, nice type too... Cull or keep? I am thinking her offspring will lay darker since the roo she will be mated with came from a darker egg. She may be the only one I have laying an unacceptable egg. BTW I am not really working on egg color.... it is, for the most part, just getting darker this generation.

What would you do?

 

[Hens and Roos]

When I look at my egg color chart, I can hardly tell the difference between 3 and 4, then 5 seems like a big step darker. I have yet to get anything that I would call a 5 from my birds. I sure would like to see one appear some day. Maybe I'll get lucky--I still have 2 pullets that came from the darker eggs that haven't started to lay yet.

Good Luck- mine are on strike- in fact 1 hen seems to have decided to molt now so it will be interesting to see what the egg color is after the molt. Lost the 1 pullet last night that was hatched from this group of hens and will be starting over with young cockerals as our rooster died at the end of summer.

 

[pinkchick]

Don~ Yes, It is VERY possible since he comes from Bill lineage.

EDUCATE ME PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *still searching for that post you mentioned*

 

[Debbi]

Since I lost my roo I decided to find out WHO was laying what eggs. I have a nice black copper (solid BLACK) with nice EVERYTHING. NOTHING I would cull her for.... NOTHING.... BUT she lays a really light egg. It is nice SPHERICAL shaped egg just light, like a 4 maybe. She has a nice comb, nice light eyes, nice leg feathering, nice type too... Cull or keep? I am thinking her offspring will lay darker since the roo she will be mated with came from a darker egg. She may be the only one I have laying an unacceptable egg. BTW I am not really working on egg color.... it is, for the most part, just getting darker this generation.

What would you do?

Keep her, test mate her, and wait to see what the offsprings' eggs look like? Light egg and solid black would be two strikes in my book, that said I do have black hens, but they lay at least a 5. What do you mean when you say "light eyes"?