International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Old Man Tom]

Hey all. Been a long winter in Eastern Washington. We got to -17 degrees and over 3 ft of snow through the winter. All the chics hunkered down and made it fine. I ordered chics from Brian Parks in Oct. He has a line of LP, BD and Frasier Creek Farms. All of LP and FCF cockerels had full copper chest. Not just a few copper spots full copper chest. I culled all but the one with the least amount. They do make really nice hens with really nice copper in the hackle. I have one BD cockerel, he has the dreaded white under fluff in the hackle and very, very light legs?? SO I ended up with 2 cockerels and 3BD hens, 4 LP hens and 5 FCF hens. They are 22 weeks old and I have two hens laying nice chocolate eggs. Brian opened a new restaurant and is very hard to contact. Will want to get his perspective on breeding these lines. Spring is here!! Would add pics , but for some reason this site will not allow. My e-mail is down and that might be why?

TOM

 

[chickengr]

Hey all. Been a long winter in Eastern Washington. We got to -17 degrees and over 3 ft of snow through the winter. All the chics hunkered down and made it fine. I ordered chics from Brian Parks in Oct. He has a line of LP, BD and Frasier Creek Farms. All of LP and FCF cockerels had full copper chest. Not just a few copper spots full copper chest. I culled all but the one with the least amount. They do make really nice hens with really nice copper in the hackle. I have one BD cockerel, he has the dreaded white under fluff in the hackle and very, very light legs?? SO I ended up with 2 cockerels and 3BD hens, 4 LP hens and 5 FCF hens. They are 22 weeks old and I have two hens laying nice chocolate eggs. Brian opened a new restaurant and is very hard to contact. Will want to get his perspective on breeding these lines. Spring is here!! Would add pics , but for some reason this site will not allow. My e-mail is down and that might be why?

TOM

sometimes the site is busy or whatever so try later to post pics. we all would love to see them.

 

[kfelton0002]

Occasionally Jake gets in a bit of a scrape and his comb takes some damage, usually due to maintaining rank. When once he is damaged, he is so gentle with the hens that he lets them pick at the wound if I don't smear something inedible on it.

He was the only rooster in both coops he has been in lately, so he is the top ranking chicken in both coops. The pullets all seem to adore him so I just dont know what happened.

 

[kfelton0002]

Sorry to hear that .
I don t think the hens did a go at him ,must be some thing else.

moving him forward and back ward between coop will not cause him that . Look around maybe some thing else.

keep him worm and calm he ll get better .
how about his dropping ?

chooks man

Thank you! His droppings have been loose and a dark green. My husband said he may have "the greens" so I am withholding all pellets and grains and today I will slop feed him some starter grower and yogurt. He will be started on a course of antibiotics also. He has lost a lot of blood also so he got a shot of aminoplex. Hopefully he will pull through.

 

[marchick]

Hey all. Been a long winter in Eastern Washington. We got to -17 degrees and over 3 ft of snow through the winter. All the chics hunkered down and made it fine. I ordered chics from Brian Parks in Oct. He has a line of LP, BD and Frasier Creek Farms. All of LP and FCF cockerels had full copper chest. Not just a few copper spots full copper chest. I culled all but the one with the least amount. They do make really nice hens with really nice copper in the hackle. I have one BD cockerel, he has the dreaded white under fluff in the hackle and very, very light legs?? SO I ended up with 2 cockerels and 3BD hens, 4 LP hens and 5 FCF hens. They are 22 weeks old and I have two hens laying nice chocolate eggs. Brian opened a new restaurant and is very hard to contact. Will want to get his perspective on breeding these lines. Spring is here!! Would add pics , but for some reason this site will not allow. My e-mail is down and that might be why?

TOM

Please do add pictures if you can!

I would like to order chicks from Brian. I havn't been able to get through to him though.

 

[kcrandall]

So my Splash Copper hen went broody yesterday - she is my darkest egg layer with a consistent #6 and occasional #7 egg. She is sitting on 8 eggs of which 4 are hers and 4 from my BCM hen. Both of these hens are covered by one of my BCM Cockerels. With these 8 eggs plus 25 more in the incubator this should give me a good idea of the genetics of my breeding stock. More chicks, more better!

Keith

 

[winterhorses]

So Sorry! I know how you feel I bought 50 chicks one time and there was only like 3 pullets!!! It wasn't that much money but close. Then I was stuck with 47 roosters!!!

Wow! That's actually sort of impressive...and also a little sketchy. I'm thinking someone was offloading their boys to you!

 

[Chooks man]

Thank you. My last hatch was a disaster because my eggs did not lose enough moisture even though the humidity in the incubator (still air) was between 30 and 40%. I did not find out about the extra thickness on the BCM shells until too late. I read an article by a woman who claims to have excellent hatch rates who does not add any water to the the bator until day 18. My incubator, dry, measures about 10%, is this method reasonable, do you think? Also, do you even candle your eggs? Once again, thanks for the help.

Yeah dry incubation work great as well depend on the climate you live in . not too dry ,neither too wet .

marans eggs because of they thickness need a little higher temperature 37.7/8 DC and lower humidity 40/50 % . because they are thick and large .

in the end of the day each climate is different .so it is our job to find the right setting .

Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Ugh, that hits WAY too close to home! I got 4 chicks from GFF ($240), and I'm almost positive they're all boys. And I already have plenty of nice cockerels!! Sigh,they're the most expensive chicken dinner I ever bought.

I don t like to say this so often ,but I ll say it this time .

I hope you are wrong about you saying all your 4 chicks are cockerels .
I say there is a pullet or 2 in there .

my success in hatching a same amount of both sexes is my intuition . When I m setting the eggs in the battor I always think I m setting half cockerel and half pullet. I never favor any gender . both are the same to me in they genetic value and use.

by the way I need every year around 400/500 cockerel for my self to butcher . me and my dogs we only eat marans meat no other chooks , and my dog are fussy they like them to be boiled .they don t eat them row .

all the best.

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Thanks Chooks Man! The results with your pairing makes me excited that I may see a similar result in Otis's pairing.

Keith

be confidant you will see a great colored chooks come out of that sort of t pairing .100% sure.

chooks man