Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[desertmarcy]

Here are the two Blue Copper pullets I have that have the most copper hackles. Still not enough, IMO, and both are too light in color with poor lacing. But both have the correct eye color. I went through all 7 of my Blue Copper pullets a couple of days ago and made undated notes and checked for sprigs again (none found

)

So based on what I have read here, these two would be best bred to a brightly colored Black Copper male to get the lacing in better and hopefully also improve on the copper hackles? Here is #26:









Here is #28:

 

[desertmarcy]

It just depends on the boys and their tone of copper. Do you have pics of potentials? If you do, I can take a peek and see what I can help you with. I've had fantastic luck with breeding BCMs over a either a solid blue girl or a blue copper girl that shows no color. But I have been very careful to pick the middle tone of copper. That is what translates best for me onto the hens.
This is Geronimo, Gigantor's 4 and a half month old son. His tone of copper is just what I like when trying to get color on the girls

Oh he is a handsome devil

You have seen pics of the Black Copper cockerels that I am mulling over. I don't think any have his color. So you think using a Black Copper male works better than a Blue Copper for those? I held back 3 Blue Copper cockerels, 2 are immature yet, but I will get some pics of all of them shortly. I am waiting until that gal gets back from vacation to go over and look at her two Black Copper cockerels. I am hoping they don't have any serious faults. She just wants to trade, so maybe I'll propose a Black Copper pullet that is a bit younger than her male in trade.

 

[gilavina]

the color on those girls hackles are a really good start! And the other part that crossing to a BCM roo will do for you is to take the blue a bit darker, which should give you some good lacing. Once you get some blues, even if they are a shade darker than the medium blue judges love for showing, these will make you good breeding stock when breeding blue to blue matings or blue to splash matings.

 

[desertmarcy]

Here is Blue Copper pullet #30. She has decent lacing, some copper hackles, but doggone it, her eye color is still dark brown! I am hoping it will change still, but it was dark a month ago and still as dark as could be a couple days ago when I rechecked them all.

 

[gilavina]

Oh he is a handsome devil

You have seen pics of the Black Copper cockerels that I am mulling over. I don't think any have his color. So you think using a Black Copper male works better than a Blue Copper for those? I held back 3 Blue Copper cockerels, 2 are immature yet, but I will get some pics of all of them shortly. I am waiting until that gal gets back from vacation to go over and look at her two Black Copper cockerels. I am hoping they don't have any serious faults. She just wants to trade, so maybe I'll propose a Black Copper pullet that is a bit younger than her male in trade.

Honestly, I never make my decisions about what route I'm going with matings until I see what I have to pick from. If I'm working on color, I first will look at who will give me what I want in terms of color first of course, but for example, if I have a pullet that has say has a body type issue, like tail or etc, I will also take into consideration the body type when crossing them. Sometimes you won't be able to just do one cross to get the color or body type you want. Its a progressive forward movement that you want. This is where test mating is so important. Doing this will keep your overall number of birds more controlled, because you figure out pretty quickly who works best together and who is a terrible match. I just got home from work, so I might not be wording it the most efficiently. It was crazy busy!

 

[Cadeau]

hubba hubba, Vicki!

 

[gilavina]

hubba hubba, Vicki!

Thanks lady

 

[ChickChickChicky]

Oh trust me, I know the risks. That being said I have talked to a lot of people and they have said they feel 10 times better. I take a lot of pain meds. Im sick of taking them. Thats one reason why I want to try a more evasive surgery. Why would I survive the accident and then die a slow death by medications. I take a vicodin and it just takes the edge off. Its still there. I have tried acupucture, of sorts. I have gotten countless shots into my neck and the base of my skull. Also they have stuck these huge needles into my neck and then heat them. This cartorizes the nerves that creat pain. The nerves slowly grows back. I have had this done 3 times. Feels like a cigarette being burned into my skin. It is what it is. I cant do anything about it. It just sucks being so young and going through this. It makes me fearful as to what old age will be like. If I get there. Any way back to Marans and enough about me.

Have you tried going to doctors who specialize in pain management? We have a small group of doctors here that that's all they do, treat pain by various methods. Nerve blocks, pain pumps, various meds, etc. My dad had osteoporosis so bad that his spine was basically disintegrating and they kept him relatively pain-free... my mom has severe osteoarthritis in her cervical spine and they've kept her going... and when my husband had spinal stenosis they were able to help him til he could have surgery. Just different meds might help, for instance vicodin does absolutely nothing for me except make me sleepy, so when I need heavy-duty pain relief I have to take oxycodone. If you don't know of any pain management specialists, ask your insurance company or nearest teaching hospital for referrals.

 

[laughingclown]

Ok Wynette, here are the photos you asked me to take. Also anyone else feel free. I only have 3 Roos to work with right now. I can only keep 2. There are 2 Blacks and 1 Blue. I know they are not perfect but its what I have. They are all 4 months old.

#1




Here is Roo #2 and #5. #2 is the Blue Copper, #5 is a Black Copper.






The Blue Copper was the Roo that I mentioned had split wing.

 

[snowbird]

Lc, the #5 male appears to be much better than the other. Could you catch up the Blue and take a picture of the wing open ? I fail to see a split wing from the picture.