I wish you luck with the next batches and hope you find yourself a male worthy of using. Marans are a tough breed and there aren't a lot of "good" ones out there, its definitely hit or miss, most of the time a miss. I hope the GFF chicks turn out well. Where did you get the hatching eggs? (you don't need to disclose that if you don't want to).
As for me and keeping males I would only like to keep 2 males at most. I have one male right now and it is so quiet here I love it lol. I will keep 2 males though, 1 Cream Legbar and 1 Barred Plymouth Rock from the new group of chicks I am growing out, bred to Standard not hatchery.
My Cream Lgebar Cock I have now is not great looking (Rees) but he is a wonderful flock cockbird, great to the hens and does well with all the broodies chicks , even people friendly (well tolerant lol) I will likely rehome him to someone just looking for an overall good male for their flock. I plan to keep one of my own males to replace him.
BCMs are a difficult breed. Finding good stock to start with can be a trail even when you go with 'name brand' birds but I decided to source the eggs from Brenda Little. I don't mind saying. I'm not sure they'll hatch and I'm horrid at hatcing shipped eggs but i decided to jump the shark on this one.
Hopefully the RCOM will work well but im prepared for them to be a waste. I did a comissioned painting and used part of that for them...they are not cheap but it helped totally defray the cost. The rest im using to take the kid to Disney. The rooster had to wait as i promised the hubby a year (warm open window months) without roosters so im growing one out this fall and winter. Id like to keep a GFF and LP boy if i could. Both lines are imports. We'll see how it turns out. Ill breed whatever i keep as my foundation flock. Im contemplating showing as a goal to shoot for going forward. Id love if they laid super dark eggs but im aiming for 6-7 as a goal.
The Rees line is better and worse than the other lines. I think they require a full grow out for the best assesment. But Legbars seem to really be best to assess after 9 months or so i think. Good earlobes are a good thing. My rees girls have good lobe color, nice gray tone plumage and okay type but the tails are tight and one has black edge lacing. The egg color is nothing to write home about. I miss my own birds very much at times. I think they were way better.
If your females are nice and gray I'd worry less about the boys cream and more about the barring. T. Adkersen (sp) advised that i do that in my boys as soon as i could as as it would stick going forward. Size ... if you mate him to your larger girls that might be your next step. The English birds have awful barring on the boys. Let me know what you do so i can live vicariously through you.
A single rooster is great but that heir and a pair quote i know is good advice from experience.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for your advise about how to move forward. Your advise/opinions are always very appreciated!
Ill keep watching them to see who will work the best. I have 2 favorites with fantastic barring that were the top 2 contenders, but as they get older even in just a weeks time they are starting to show much more chestnut than I would like to see
But the barring is dark and crisp. I might have to take the hit with the chestnut.
You are right that the Rees line is good and bad, My Rees hens and pullets are nicely colored (some better than others) and type is ok, I do like the way they look. My Rees cock and cockerels are not the best and all will be culled, I feel like the Rees line could possibly be a pullet line but that is just a guess coming from my own experience and some other pics I have seen. And yes the barring between the UK males and our US males is such a difference as you mentioned. Rees males have quite blurred barring almost looking "splotchy" or "smoky" even if that makes sense. I do plan to mix my Rees Hens/pullets in with my other CL to see where that takes me. So I think you are right on picking a male with good barring to move forward.
Ill keep you updated on where I go with the flock.
