Black Copper Maran or Black Star?

I just got these hens the other day, listed as Black Copper Marans.
Are they really Marans though or are they just Black Stars?
So far I've gotten eggs from two of the hens, one was a pretty light brown, the other was a pretty dark brownish red.
She said they are either a little over one year or over 2 years, it depends the hen.
Any ideas?
Sorry about the quality of the photos, very tough to get photos of them.








Thanks

They look like Black Stars to me. The light golden eyes, the lack of feathering on the legs kind of make me shy away from BCM.

~Alex

I'd say BSL, not BCM.

What color is the skin? Under the dark wash, look on the bottoms of the feet for the best indication of color. Yellow means bsl, white/pink means BCM.

Honestly, there might be both. BCM usually have more of a red "collar", all the way around the neck, while BSL tend to have the color on the front only. Or, could be just weird colored Marans. They seem a little large for sex links.

I pass - getting a headache from going back & forth between the breeds & photos

donrae said:

What color is the skin? Under the dark wash, look on the bottoms of the feet for the best indication of color. Yellow means bsl, white/pink means BCM.

Honestly, there might be both. BCM usually have more of a red "collar", all the way around the neck, while BSL tend to have the color on the front only. Or, could be just weird colored Marans. They seem a little large for sex links.

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I'll check tomorrow. I was thinking both also possibly, because it seems I am getting lighter colored eggs from two of them and darkish eggs from one of them.

Alexandra33 said:

They look like Black Stars to me.

The light golden eyes, the lack of feathering on the legs kind of make me shy away from BCM.

~Alex

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I once heard French Copper Marans have the feathered legs and Black Copper Marans don't, but I'm unsure if that's true or not lol or even if they are two different things. I don't know a whole lot about Marans haha

donrae said:

What color is the skin? Under the dark wash, look on the bottoms of the feet for the best indication of color. Yellow means bsl, white/pink means BCM.

Honestly, there might be both. BCM usually have more of a red "collar", all the way around the neck, while BSL tend to have the color on the front only. Or, could be just weird colored Marans. They seem a little large for sex links.

Click to expand...

It seems that the one that has the red all the way around her neck has whitish/pink skin and one of the other two has yellow, so I think I have two BSL and one BCM. I didn't check one hen because I couldn't catch her, but she looks like the other hen that just has the red in the front and I'm getting two lighter colored eggs and one dark egg, so I'm guessing she's a BSL also.
These are just my guesses though, I'm still not 100% sure lol
Thanks!

My understanding is the original French standard calls for feathered legs. There are also apparently English standard birds who are clean legged.

I have some birds that are 4 years old. Some still lay a nice dark egg, some are lighter (but still darker than my regular brown eggers). I'll see if I can get a pic off my phone and post it.

the eggs in the hatcher are a mix of the Marans and some bantam Cochin. So, you can see the variation in color of the Marans eggs. The egg in the carton are all Marans, and I think those are all the darker ones I'd pulled for hatching.

And then just some hen pics, cause I had them lol.

donrae said:

the eggs in the hatcher are a mix of the Marans and some bantam Cochin. So, you can see the variation in color of the Marans eggs. The egg in the carton are all Marans, and I think those are all the darker ones I'd pulled for hatching.

And then just some hen pics, cause I had them lol.

Click to expand...

Very pretty! The hen with the red all the way around her neck looks pretty much exactly like the one I think is a BCM. The egg color looks about the same also. I'm hoping to get into Marans someday, I love the dark eggs. When I got these birds for $10 each though I wasn't expecting to get anything fantastic. Added them to my Easter Egger flock though so hoping to get Olive Eggers soon

Thanks so much for the help! I appreciate it!