International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[BlueTheBrahma]

The best advice I can give is, it is hard to spot in the females. I carefully check the blue silver males every year, and every year, I get fewer instances of autosomal red. I have gotten it nearly eliminated from the black silvers. I keep all the girls who look correct, but I am sure that there are females carrying that I cannot see it in, due to the dark chest color covering up any female presentation of autosomal red. If you have females available that do not carry autosomal red, it would be super easy: use these cockerels, sell resultant females, cull the males that show autosomal red, it would disappear pretty fast, but you are likely in the same boat as I am, where you have a mixed boat and you aren't sure of which females may be carrying, so the males carry the brunt of the culls ( as is wont anyways, considering I only need a few of those). Eventually, if you aren't in a hurry, and you are able to do test breedings, you can get there the slow way. Just keep at it.

Thank you, I knew you’d have some good advice.

In a way the case for SDW is better than SBMs because you can see the hen’s autosomal red.
The frustrating part with silver welsummers is that you still need some autosomal red because the females have to have a robin red breast, even salmon orange is considered a fault.
But I guess the general premise is the same, you just have to be pickier about it. I suppose I could look for hens with less red bleeding up into the wings and hackles.
Thanks again

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

If you have females available that do not carry autosomal red, it would be super easy

I have hens which I know were sired by my old cock, who was almost perfect in his lack of autosomal red, which I figure would be the best equivalent in this case.

 

[Bantambird]

This guy stood out to me, even though he has a little autosomal red on his wing bows. What do you think of him? He's hatched in Feb/March this year.

 

[Bantambird]

Never mind the calendar, that's just when I stopped running the hatchery so I pretty much don't mess with it when the hatchery isn't in use

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

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This guy stood out to me, even though he has a little autosomal red on his wing bows. What do you think of him? He's hatched in Feb/March this year.

You’re making me jealous. I always thought I preferred my SDWs to birchen marans, but BLUE silver birchen !!!

Type, carriage: 26/40
Size, quality: 12/20
Colour, markings: 10/15
Head: 7/10
Condition: 10/10
Legs, feet: 4/5
———————————————
Total: 69/100

I feel like this score is too low, I think it’s because of how many points are allocated to type. It’s the same score as BCM Loki.

It’s a shame he’s a little lean because he’s got the structure of a great marans, just lacking in breast fullness. Maybe he’ll fatten up. Back very nice and long. Good tail, legs nice but some misplaced feathers.
Head really nice, to be picky his beak is too long. His comb also has a thumb print in the side, it’s regarded as a defect in the UK but I’ve never seen foreign standards talk about it.

His blue is a nice even shade, lacking in the lacing in places (I don’t have much knowledge of exactly how they should look). Yes his silver isn’t as crisp white as possible, but there’s no big patches of red, so you’re almost there with it. (Another reason I’m jealous.)

You might well have known about most of this but I thought I’d give you a full breakdown because he’s a very nice looking cockerel. Keep us updated as he matures.

What does his sire look like?

 

[Bantambird]

If i knew which was his dad, I would probably mark him. I have an idea, but I am a group breeder (My husband won't let me have tons of little breeder pens). He will fill out more for sure since the oldest he could be is 6 months. I get 2 big pens, one is for Marans and one is for my legbars. I have a hospital pen, a little 4x4 pen coop we just built with no run yet, and my big 16x20 grow out pen in the hay barn, those are all the pens I have right now. He is actually loose with all the cockerels right now, so I marked him with a yellow band so I don't accidentally cull him when butcher day comes. Usually I try penning all the cockerels up, marking the obvious culls with a red legband, and then marking obvious keepers with some other color. I guess this year is yellow. My husband will get pretty mad if I don't go through and start really marking everyone. Because winter is so tough, my cock birds always look real rough after winter, and the hens almost always pull out tail feathers. I guess one of the things about raising them here, mine get fairly weather tolerant. I still loose points, and my combs are definitely medium single. I will look him over for that thumb print. The big one I am always looking for on mine is the occasional coronation comb. Some of the old marans lines in the US were outcrossed with Pendescendas quite a while back, without regard for the partial recessive sprigs. Every once in a while, I get one that pops up. Sometimes, rarely, I will even get a matching pair of side sprigs and not just a singular side sprig. Usually, I will get a slight bulging where a sprig might have occurred, and I make a mental note of that, too. Cleaning up the combs has been a long battle. Someday, i would like to have a bachelor pad to hold my favorite spares over winter so my daughter has a nice cockbird for show next year since the Marans are SOOOO slow growing. Mine are SUPER slow feathering and growing.

 

[NanaK]

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This guy stood out to me, even though he has a little autosomal red on his wing bows. What do you think of him? He's hatched in Feb/March this year.

Love him!

He scores 110 with me!
Very handsome dude. He will be needing a few nice ladies.

 

[Bantambird]

Here's another blue silver dude, I like his color better than the other one, but he is younger by a couple of weeks so he's still got a ways o go in growth.

 

[Bantambird]

Plus that wattle fold is driving me nuts

 

[NanaK]

Plus that wattle fold is driving me nuts

He is really nice too!

I didn't notice the wattle fold until you pointed it out.
Maybe it will relax some as he grows??

Love his color! You definately house a LOT of eye candy.