International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[BlueTheBrahma]

Just after posting all his pictures yesterday I’ve found Napoléon dead today…
That’s a real shame, I was really excited about his breeding prospects. I’ve still got one marans cock at least.

 

[wrathsfarm]

Just after posting all his pictures yesterday I’ve found Napoléon dead today…
That’s a real shame, I was really excited about his breeding prospects. I’ve still got one marans cock at least.

Sad news to hear, so very sorry for your loss. He was a beautiful boy. Any idea of the cause?

 

[chickengr]

Just after posting all his pictures yesterday I’ve found Napoléon dead today…
That’s a real shame, I was really excited about his breeding prospects. I’ve still got one marans cock at least.

sorry for your loss. hope the rest are ok.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Sad news to hear, so very sorry for your loss. He was a beautiful boy. Any idea of the cause?

I took his no-crow collar off when I buried him and found mites and eggs under it. That’s my best guess but he has no other mites and he was still very heavy and healthy looking.

I’m just hoping it wasn’t the collar in a worse way. He’d been fine for ages with it though so I assume not.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

I took his no-crow collar off when I buried him and found mites and eggs under it. That’s my best guess but he has no other mites and he was still very heavy and healthy looking.

I’m just hoping it wasn’t the collar in a worse way. He’d been fine for ages with it though so I assume not.

(I’m doubling down on diatomaceous earth and making sure the other boys don’t have issues).

I think now I’m going to focus on getting GCMs quickly by typical flock breeding and I’ll use clan breeding later down the line. DoW (Duke of Wellington) cross Channel might be a promising cross, since she was Napoléon’s dam. It would be nice to get a few more offspring from her before she gets too old.

I’m thinking in the new year I hatch silver cuckoo pullets by crossing DoW to copper hens, and keeping the best a S/s+, B/b+ cockerel to get golden cuckoo pullets the next season.

Then I may buy new BCM boys and breed them to Mole etc later down the line to create a second line.