Debbi, I rest my case on one statement, do you know of anything that has not been mixed into the Marans breed in general ?Marcy ~ I have been trying to upload a pic of what the hackles will look like on your #37 cockerel when he gets older. Not having much luck this afternoon, everyone must be loading pics. I will try again later.
Don ~ I think those two tone hackles do represent a Wheaten influence, as in maybe a cross somewhere along the line. Pip is the only roo that has had the two tone hackle color, and he is the one now sprouting the cinnamon wing feathers. Now I know you have raised numerous birds at a time, and for much longer than I have, or ever will, but I think there was some Wheaten confusion within the Jeane line; Pip is supposedly from Jesse Bryant birds, so basically Jeane. I have as yet not hatched any roo or pullet with the straw coloring, Pip being the only one to have the two tone coloring, and the others are mahogany, with the exception of the original birds here in the sibling x sibling test hatch, all with carnation combs, that had exquisite coloring!!There also was a brother in with the mahogany boy's hatch that had awesome coloring too. He had a wry and squirrel tail and was culled out. That's all I can go by is what I have here, but it seems even with my very limited hatching, there seems to be a pattern. Did you ever have any hatches where the color all came in as it should with the cockerels? Not counting other faults, just the color? It is hard to say when you are hatching that many birds, and cull early I would imagine. Here, I tend to hold onto the roos longer than I should, but they can change so much, and there are things I have seen that I might not have, had I culled earlier. It's all so interesting, and the roos fascinate me the most!
To answer your question about whether I ever had a batch hatch where all the males were colored just alike. From my experience no. From all the research I have done over the years we are supposed to get males of all three Copper, straw and Mahogany.
The Black Copper are just like any other breed, do not expect to breed two SOP type fowl together and expect to get all SOP type young. As with all Parti-colored fowl breeding them is all about averages.
