Vicki, I like my BC to be on leg color mid-slate to dark slate. Mid- slate preferred.
This also helps explain why you are not bothered with the white feathers, Maybe I might not be crazy afterallOk, without taking all day to sort out for the perfect photo, I grabbed a couple of reject shots of birds at odd angles when they were young and cropped them in. I try to stay at this range most of the time as I get the best results and do notice as the birds get more size (these about about 8 weeks old) the scales become that nice even slate. If I select chicks with the light slate at this age, they end up too light in the legs for my liking when they get older.
I don't think you are crazy at all. I noticed when I first started getting the hang of breeding the Marans, that I found the ones that looked the best to me, overall, always had this color of legs with the light pads and white toenails. This is what I've stuck with and found more and more consistency in my stock. When I see that I'm not getting this coloring out of a mating, I test mate to another bird to determine where its coming from. I've since culled down to just birds like this, minus the blue legs on the splash birds.
Mary, Yes I do and have posted several times on it and will post again in a little while. This would be on the Blue Copper and the Black Copper. I did a lot of test mating the past two years and believe this to be true. I have some others opinions on it also. I also believe it could all go back to the Wheaten Marans. We know that virtually all the lines of BC have wheaten in the lineage.
How about a picture of the egg.
