Recent content by youngbiddy

Comparing a bird that fits the standard to your own bird doesn't do you much good if you don't know how to correct the faults you find. Showing pictures of the ultimate goal without giving any idea of how to reach it would be discouraging to potential breeders. Personally, I was hoping that...

Thank you for clearing that up! Oh dear, I didn't realize that the Standard was printed so infrequently. I suppose I'll bite the bullet, get the new one, and put a printout of the BCM standard in it.

Okay, so the only BCM DQ's are.. Yellow on shanks or toes. White ear lobes. Pearl or black eyes. Absence of feathers on shanks. (See General Disqualifications and Cutting for Defects.) And the general dq's and defects are things like side sprigs, split wings, fused toes and the like, yes? I need...

Can anyone who's bred a few successive generations give his/her experience on breeding towards the standard to overcome a particular fault? For instance, how did you go about breeding for less/more color, heavier/lighter shank feathering, more/fewer comb points, etc.? What worked, didn't work...

I thought more than 10% was a DQ. Yeah, the standard specifically says "Not laced". His two male hatchmates both had black breasts, but he had the best size and type by far so I'm going to line breed back to the dark female to correct for his excess color.

Quote: Well, just wait till I get you a chest shot. LOL He started out with a smattering that I hoped would stay within the "10% flaming acceptable" range, but now it's a good halfway down his chest and that part essentially looks gold-laced. On the plus side, it seems to be the perfect copper...

What a great diagram; thank you! Basically, I've seen some combs that had several little bumps before actual points started and I wanted to make sure that a little serration was not counted as "points". I've read the older Marans threads and didn't see that exact topic discussed so I thought...

I've got a question about combs. The standard calls for 5 points, and I'd like to clarify exactly what is meant by point. Does each little serration in the very front count as a point? How distinct does a point have to be to be called a point, essentially. As an example...

I'm excited about the premise of this thread, please don't close it! I've been trying to get some decent pictures of my young breeding stock, but it's very hard to get a natural pose. Here's the best I could do so far, this is the Davis cockerel I plan on using... And...

Quote: You'd have to run a de-humidifier in the room, then. I tried standard humidity (45%) for the hatch after the Marans hatch and I got a 25% hatch rate. Needless to say, I'm sticking with dry incubation from now on!

Wow, that's high! Mine hovered at 30-35% during the first 18 days; I upped it to 65% for lockdown.

Quote: I had a 66% hatch rate on shipped Marans eggs using the Dry Incubation method. https://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-DryIncubation.html

Quote: That's good, that means you're making the right crosses! I'd say keep crossing and breed your best F1's back to their parents. That's my understanding of what I've read so far.

Quote: Now he says that after I've already read this entire thread and almost 1400 pages of the Marans thread..... Yes, and posters can always send a pm if they do not like or are leery of posting. I always answer PMs. You are one of the few that would remember what you read early on on...

Quote: Thank you! I'm working on a graph of this method since I'm not familiar with it. For things like this I need a visual.