International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[WVduckchick]

Send me some pictures of your girls. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to tell which one she is

I’ll get some new ones this evening and pm you. She was the smallest for a long time, and had a much lighter breast color. But now they are all about the same size and I have a couple with lighter breasts. I assume she is one of those.

 

[kfelton0002]

His comb is massive? Lol
May even end up needing trimmed, but I hope he grows a little more

The male and one of my 5 pullets came from eggs from a member here. I’m not sure what lines they are. I don’t think she knew, or I can’t remember.
The other 4 pullets are supposedly from GFF birds. I only hatched the pair (post office was brutal!) so I bought the other 4 at 3 days old, local guy had hatched them the same day as mine.

Well it's twisted and lopped but many Legbars have that problem because a nice full crest displaces the comb and pushes it forward. I had to trim both of my original cock birds last winter like gamecocks. lol It is impossible to breed a Legbar male with a nice full crest and a perfectly straight comb, either one or the other will suffer. My Legbar cockerels with straight combs have barely any crest. The one I have free ranging with my layers has a good crest but a badly twisted comb. I also have 4 white legbars.. 2 males and 2 females. Both males have twisted combs, one worse than the other. A slight twist doesn't bother me and won't count too badly against them in show.

I will tell you this, the judges didn't like the white streamers in my best cockerel's tail so that will have to be improved in my line. White streamers are a fault in Legbars and a DQ in many breeds/varieties so even though the judges wouldn't know a Legbar from a hole in the ground they knew the white streamers shouldn't be there. lol

Sorry to ramble.

 

[kfelton0002]

These are the legbars from me right? There was very little, if any Reese line in them as far as I know. Grandpa to your roo was a free boy that I got from someone semi local when I lost my roo. He was very rough looking when I brought him home. He was too upright and had almost no crest but had VERY thick hackle and tail and a smaller comb. He helped bring the comb size down some in the hens.

View attachment 1609078

His sons both looked better and with better coloring and they inherited crests from their mothers.

View attachment 1609079

The generation after this (Your roo's generation) I was extremely happy with. I loved the coloring and type of all of them (I am in love with your roo still lol). Unfortunately, nobody wanted legbars in our area. So many people had loaded up on them and were circulating them everywhere so I decided to sell them off. I used the girls and made some sex linked olive eggers with welbar roos them foind them homes. If they were a larger breed that made more sense for food, I probably would've kept them around to work with them more but instead, I made more room for my more popular breeds and favorites. Maybe someday, when I have more room, I'll get back in to them again.

Your Legbars were lovely, it's sad you had to part with them. I agree the local market for them isn't great in my area either. Literally nobody cares about them around here and they carry very little appeal locally. They are sweet little layers though and definitely bring something to my backyard flock that no other bird does. They look so elegant and striking with their little bouffant crests. I plan on using extra birds I raise to donate to 4-H kids interested in showing poultry. I want to take a trio or two to the Appalachian Classic for their auction.

 

[kfelton0002]

Sorry for the cream legbar intrusion, but i need @Chooks man to give this fella a name!
(Even if that name should be Dinner?) lol
View attachment 1608969

His type is lovely, just had a second look at him. A lot of Legbars you see have very high tails. Your fella has a really nice topline. You should get some of your birds to a show one of these days. They are a really fun breed.

 

[kfelton0002]

breed a line from her .Xena s progeny will be all big warrior . good for many thing well handy .
her line will make you famous for sure . big chunky marans ,short on they feet like the old days .

keep her line big my friend she is an asset to you and the marans breed .

chooks man

Will do! Thanks! Size and mass is definitely something I need more of in my birds. The little pullet I took to the AC likely could have won best of breed if she was heavier. She was a half pound under the standard weight. The bigger birds always show better, that's a fact. The pullet that won BB, BV, and Champion Continental at the show had brown eyes and an unevenly serrated comb but her type and mass were superb and that is what won her the titles. She was a lovely bird and was very deserving of them.

 

[kfelton0002]

you guys is the US have a same problem we having here in OZ . all the marans chooks are out cross lines not pure inbred line except LP originated from France and inbred for over 30 years .
but now it is different .there is a lot new breeders who established new line in the US they are well known now ,you guys working with they lines .

Can you tell me what are expecting from each hen/pullets mated to Duke ,what are you trying to achieve .
I ll love to help you to breed them well .
don t pen a related hen or pullets with duke ,better if they are all from different origin .

chooks man

Duke is completely unrelated to any of my birds. If there is any relation of the lines at all it is very distant. Duke and Duchess are half siblings and both are from the same breeder in Kansas. I was going to single mate those two together to ensure I always have pure birds from that line around. It would be a tragedy for me to lose the line if one of the pair were to die unexpectedly.

From Duke and the two blue coppers, I hope to produce blue coppers with better toplines and tail angles. Both of the blue copper pullets Duke is penned with have high tails but have great mass and size.

From Duke and Xena, as you said, I hope to produce large birds with good size and mass. Her comb is the best of any other female I have.

Duke and Malika will hopefully produce birds with good type and tails. The pair together will help dig me out of the high tails rut I've been in. And Duke will hopefully add depth to the breasts of their offspring.

Queen has the potential to produce very beautifully colored males, that is her purpose. As evidenced by shepherd6567's cockerel that was produced from her, she can help balance out the halo that Duke has. Her hackle is dark with deep copper.

I know what Queen's eggs look like and can pick them out of a lineup. The 3 sisters (2 blue copper and 1 black copper) will likely lay a more elongated egg like their dam. Queen's daughter will likely lay an egg similar in shape to her's but smaller as she is young. Once I know what Duchess's eggs look like at she begins to lay, I can pull Xena from the main pen and put her in with Duchess so I will be able to better identify her eggs and mark them separately.

 

[kfelton0002]

Also, Duke has zero parasitic white and Duchess is dark as well. I think they will help greatly to help reduce parasitic white in my birds. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that 2019 is a better year to me than this past year.

 

[WVduckchick]

Well it's twisted and lopped but many Legbars have that problem because a nice full crest displaces the comb and pushes it forward. I had to trim both of my original cock birds last winter like gamecocks. lol It is impossible to breed a Legbar male with a nice full crest and a perfectly straight comb, either one or the other will suffer. My Legbar cockerels with straight combs have barely any crest. The one I have free ranging with my layers has a good crest but a badly twisted comb. I also have 4 white legbars.. 2 males and 2 females. Both males have twisted combs, one worse than the other. A slight twist doesn't bother me and won't count too badly against them in show.

I will tell you this, the judges didn't like the white streamers in my best cockerel's tail so that will have to be improved in my line. White streamers are a fault in Legbars and a DQ in many breeds/varieties so even though the judges wouldn't know a Legbar from a hole in the ground they knew the white streamers shouldn't be there. lol

Sorry to ramble.

I realize this is the BCM thread, but I think a few of us have CLs so I certainly don’t mind the rambling, hopefully no one else does either.

His type is lovely, just had a second look at him. A lot of Legbars you see have very high tails. Your fella has a really nice topline. You should get some of your birds to a show one of these days. They are a really fun breed.

I really know nothing about showing, and am still barely learning both these breeds. I have always wanted all of my breeds to be as close to standard as possible, just for my own satisfaction, so I tried to start with good ones.

I really like my cockerel too. Thanks to Aurora! He has been very good with the girls, his crow cracks me up, and it’s not overly loud like my BCM boy was. (I have a few neighbors in ear shot, so don’t want any complaints). He forages well with them, is protective, but has never been anything but polite around me or my dogs or other chickens. Unlike BCM boy. Lol I’m excited to keep breeding them this spring.

 

[Bantambird]

here's more Big Jackson with his brother near in the middle picture.

here's some different angles of Mr Big.

 

[Bantambird]

Jack, sire of both Jacksons, had some lacing on the upper third of his breast. I was hoping for his sons to inherit this, but none of them did and Jack started to be bothered by old injury. We didn't discover the old scar until he was processed, but he was becoming uncomfortable with mating so we retired him.

we also managed to get better wing bows from the sons.

here is grandsire Jake. He was very nice, except he had side sprigs, essentially a king's comb. I selected hard against this and Jack was the best son with no side sprigs, despite the slight bit of wing bar bleed through. Jake's grandson big Jackson resembles his grandsire quite a bit, except no side sprigs!