Rumpless French Black Copper Marans

[Owllea]

A friend ordered these nice chocolate brown eggs, supposedly French Black Copper Marans. There were 12 to start, but only this guy hatched (post office forgot to call and they sat too long). Hens were desired, so a future rooster had to go. I offered to take him to replace my older rooster.
And as he is growing, he has no tail!
I have been looking for comparison pics, and though I have read some threads about this occurring in the FBCM, I don’t remember seeing pictures, so decided I would take some to share.
And if anyone has any input, I’d be happy to hear it: is it really a FBCM? do I have to worry about him breeding my puffy cheek EE girls and having a lethal combo of genes? etc.
He is about 12 weeks old.

 

[wrathsfarm]

I'm not an expert and I'll tag someone that might be able to shed insight on the lack of tail.
Looks to me like he's got slate gray legs and pink feet which is correct for Marans but I will say his legs are over feathered.

@BlueTheBrahma can you chime in on this guy.

 

[wrathsfarm]

Sorry... forgot about your last question. Breeding your BCM to your EE creates Olive Eggers. Depending on if your EE carries one or two copies of the blue egg gene, the pullets will lay Olive shades (2 copies) or Brown eggs (1 copy).

 

[Owllea]

Sorry... forgot about your last question. Breeding your BCM to your EE creates Olive Eggers. Depending on if your EE carries one or two copies of the blue egg gene, the pullets will lay Olive shades (2 copies) or Brown eggs (1 copy).

Thanks so much for your input! That is a cool idea-I didn’t even consider that I could get olive eggs. I was hoping for darker eggs in future hens though.
Do I worry about the cheek puffs mixing with tailless causing non-viable chicks? I feel like I hear that about Araucana breeding but I don’t know what actually causes that concern.

 

[wrathsfarm]

Thanks so much for your input! That is a cool idea-I didn’t even consider that I could get olive eggs. I was hoping for darker eggs in future hens though.

I hatched out 3 OE's last June from my BCM x EE but all were boys so I don't have any Olive eggs yet..

Do I worry about the cheek puffs mixing with tailless causing non-viable chicks? I feel like I hear that about Araucana breeding but I don’t know what actually causes that concern.

This one's above my pay grade.
@MysteryChicken @NatJ can you help?

 

[MysteryChicken]

A friend ordered these nice chocolate brown eggs, supposedly French Black Copper Marans. There were 12 to start, but only this guy hatched (post office forgot to call and they sat too long). Hens were desired, so a future rooster had to go. I offered to take him to replace my older rooster.
And as he is growing, he has no tail!
I have been looking for comparison pics, and though I have read some threads about this occurring in the FBCM, I don’t remember seeing pictures, so decided I would take some to share.
And if anyone has any input, I’d be happy to hear it: is it really a FBCM? do I have to worry about him breeding my puffy cheek EE girls and having a lethal combo of genes? etc.
He is about 12 weeks old.

He's got a tail, just without the feathers. Rumpless birds won't have the bump at the end like your friend's bird does. He's got some other thing going on.

Rumpless for comparison.

 

[MysteryChicken]

He may have the mutation these Chinese chicken breeds possess.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-10943-5
They termed this rumpless, though it's not truly rumpless. It's linked to tail feathers, rather then the tail vertebrae.

 

[NatJ]

Thanks so much for your input! That is a cool idea-I didn’t even consider that I could get olive eggs. I was hoping for darker eggs in future hens though.
Do I worry about the cheek puffs mixing with tailless causing non-viable chicks? I feel like I hear that about Araucana breeding but I don’t know what actually causes that concern.

With Araucanas, the big problem is the ear tufts. A chick who inherits the gene from both parents will die before hatching.

Ameraucanas have muff & beard, not ear tufts. The muff/beard gene does not cause chicks to die.

Most Easter Eggers with puffy cheeks have muff/beard (like Ameraucanas, not dangerous), not ear tufts (lethal gene from Araucanas.) There is a very practical reason for this: hatcheries want live chicks to sell, so when they are breeding Easter Eggers that want the genes that do not kill chicks.

Araucanas are also supposed to have no tails, but that is caused by a different gene than the ear tuft gene.

Crossing a no-tail chicken to a chicken with muff/beard should not be a problem, because neither one is expected to have the ear tuft gene (which is the main one that causes dead chicks.)

And as @MysteryChicken pointed out, the bird you have is not actually the same kind of no tail ("rumpless") as the Araucana breed, so it has some other cause:

He's got a tail, just without the feathers. Rumpless birds won't have the bump at the end like your friend's bird does. He's got some other thing going on.

Note, when I talk about what traits and genes Araucanas have, I am talking about Araucanas in the USA. Some other countries have a breed with the same name but different traits.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

how long have you had him for? Are you certain he hasn’t just got a small tail or is going through a weird growth stage where he has lost his tail? His colour reminds me of a pure BCM, but one detail would make me say otherwise: the foot feathers. They seem really long like a Brahmas rather than the short leg feathers of a marans.

 

[Owllea]

how long have you had him for? Are you certain he hasn’t just got a small tail or is going through a weird growth stage where he has lost his tail? His colour reminds me of a pure BCM, but one detail would make me say otherwise: the foot feathers. They seem really long like a Brahmas rather than the short leg feathers of a marans.

I’ve had him just about a month. He came out of a super chocolate colored egg but none of the other eggs hatched so no clutch mates to compare.
He seems to stay clean back there. I had read that true rumpless birds can get a bit messy. So maybe he does have a little tail.

Thanks @NatJ and @MysteryChicken for your knowledge.

Good luck getting some olive egger hens next time @wrathsfarm. If I get some, maybe I can update this thread in the future!