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I think your first blue rooster is a blue copper and not a pure blue. If he is leaking copper then it is likely he has a blue or black copper in his genetics. Sometimes the blue birds (not just the Marans but any breed) can get some gold tones from running around in the sun freeranging during the summer but his does look like true copper. The middle toe feathers should not be present. Leg feathering is dominant so harder to get rid of than some things.
I have had some limited success in breeding to a clean legged marans to loose the middle feathering. Some of the babies will have it and some won't but it can show up in the next generation from the clean middle toe feathered one soooo...
I have some good dark laying blue coppers that I have been working with that, a few had feathers on thier middle toe, kinda a pain.
Your darker blue boy looks really nice. His tail may turn out to be a little high when it fills out. Thier tail angle is supposed to be around 45 degrees. If his tail turns out to be high, you could mate him to a female with a low tail to help improve this. If he is brothers with the other blue/copper boy you may get copper leakage in his offspring.
I like your first splash boy. He looks chunkier than the second splash guy so I'd probably keep him. I have had a few grow out of the comb wrinkle so he might.
Your second splash guy is smaller looking but he just might have a nice tail angle. It is very hard to tell how they will fill out once fully mature. You will have to decide if you want to work on getting rid of the middle toe feathering.
We all are pretty much working with what we have. It is really hard to find even close to perfect roos lol. I would keep the second and the third ones for sure.
I think your first blue rooster is a blue copper and not a pure blue. If he is leaking copper then it is likely he has a blue or black copper in his genetics. Sometimes the blue birds (not just the Marans but any breed) can get some gold tones from running around in the sun freeranging during the summer but his does look like true copper. The middle toe feathers should not be present. Leg feathering is dominant so harder to get rid of than some things.
I have had some limited success in breeding to a clean legged marans to loose the middle feathering. Some of the babies will have it and some won't but it can show up in the next generation from the clean middle toe feathered one soooo...
I have some good dark laying blue coppers that I have been working with that, a few had feathers on thier middle toe, kinda a pain.
Your darker blue boy looks really nice. His tail may turn out to be a little high when it fills out. Thier tail angle is supposed to be around 45 degrees. If his tail turns out to be high, you could mate him to a female with a low tail to help improve this. If he is brothers with the other blue/copper boy you may get copper leakage in his offspring.
I like your first splash boy. He looks chunkier than the second splash guy so I'd probably keep him. I have had a few grow out of the comb wrinkle so he might.
Your second splash guy is smaller looking but he just might have a nice tail angle. It is very hard to tell how they will fill out once fully mature. You will have to decide if you want to work on getting rid of the middle toe feathering.
We all are pretty much working with what we have. It is really hard to find even close to perfect roos lol. I would keep the second and the third ones for sure.
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