Recent content by BlueTheBrahma

I thought the BlCM appeared paler and with a yellower belly than Chanel did when she hatched, but looking back at photos I don’t think this is true. The Olive egger is almost certainly a cockerel (sex linkage). Five silkies hatched this year, and all different colours, I think this is a blue...

5 hatched so far. Natasha’s chick, Chanel’s chick and Esme’s chick, the olive egger and a silkie. Chanel’s chick died, it appeared to have broken its neck getting out the egg. No cuckoos hatched yet, there are six of their eggs remaining after candling. I’m worried because all my eggs hatched...

DCM is dark cuckoo marans BCM is black copper marans BlCM is blue copper marans So I use B(l)CM to mean black/blue copper marans, when I’m referring to both or either.

I true rumples bird will not develop the straight, main tail feathers. I don’t know exactly why his tail is so small, but I think it’s clear now he isn’t true rumples. Once his main sickle feathers grow it might look bigger. Marans shouldn’t have too big a tail anyway.

Here’s my book, still only at the beginning. I hope this gives you inspiration to lay out your own. I note down each hatch, some notes, and give each chicken a page (or part of a page if they are culls). I then give the birds I keep a scoring and progeny page to note all their offspring and...

Yes, I’ll give a full breakdown of points about a couple more photos would be beneficial.

Do you have a book where you write down all your hatches, marans, breeding programmes etc? I’ve started doing this an I think it’s really helpful. It allows you to keep track of who’s related to who as your flock expands, and therefore understand which pairing has produced the best outcomes...

He’s a mixed breed. A very easy way to tell with roosters is that single barred roosters (faint bars, not fully barred feathers all over) are always mixed colour, so therefore often mixed breed.

Something I noticed today while putting new leg bands on my Marans that I thought I might comment on is how big they are under their feathers. All my BCM/BlCM hens look pretty much the same size at a glance, but when handling I got a good understanding of how much more meat was on Chanel...

How many adults is it again? You have King, Kong, Copper, Joanie, Angel, Betty and Raven, right? Any more than that or are the rest young ones?

How many marans will you have once all the eggs are done hatching? One more week for my DCMs, I can’t wait. One Marans and two olive egger eggs were broken, so I have 9 DCMs, 3 B(l)CMs, one CCL olive egger and two Silkie eggs.

Blue wheaten. As a rooster he will be blue with gold hackles, saddles and secondaries.

What would the coop arrangement be? The best plan involves 3 pens/coops but I understand this is not manageable for all. Do you have any marans already? What is your tolerance of roosters? Sorry for all the questions, but they are necessary so I can match you to the right breeding strategy...

I might make a thread for my GCM project, maybe one where others can share theirs, since the old GCM thread has only me active now. @wrathsfarm @Trullheath34 Would you be interested in this?

I am working on this exact project. A golden cuckoo is a barred black copper, wheaten or gold duckwing (rarely exist) marans. The best and correct GCMs are barred black coppers (aka gold birchen). You need to introduce the barring gene (B) to the birchen pattern (Er) while retaining pure gold...