Let's talk Golden Cuckoo Marans!

I decided to start a new thread just for GCMs. It's so hard to weed through alot of the other Marans threads and not very often is GCMs mentioned!!

These are my 3 girls. I had a roo also but we culled him, He just had to many issues! It's so hard to find any information on exactly what their "supposed" to look like and so many breeders show you one pic usually of the roo. As you can see in the pics below I have 2 that look identical and one that's totally different!





I decided to hatch out some more this spring, and like an idiot bought eggs off eBay. The seller had great feedback also. I knew something was wrong when all but 2 of the chicks came out black & white. Out of the other 2 one looks like a GCMs and one is solid brown. After an email to the seller questioning this I got the reply back "With the genetics of Golden Cuckoos, you can get all sorts of things. Biggy Pants has produced Salmons, Silver cuckoos, blacks, wheatons and salmons. The Salmons are the rarest. So be careful what you give away or sell." So now I have the thoughts going through my head is this just a shot and miss kinda thing with this breed or is this a seller that has not perfected her breeding program in this breed and is just selling them to sell them. And the least she should have some type of disclaimer that "Hey, hope you get at least one GCMs in this batch". And now I have to wonder should I even use this rooster, (which btw was the only one that came out a GCMs) even if he turns out gorgeous.

Here's a few pics to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. (I do have 5 Speckled Sussex mixed in with them)







So I hope all of you with GCMs will join in and let's talk about this beautiful bird!!

Hello,

I don't have this variety, but was interested in them for awhile until I came upon what you are talking about! The best person that I've seen explain this color is David Hancox, I believe his call name here in BYC is "blackdotte"? You might try PMing him to see if he could help you with this thread. Good luck, love this color!

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Thanks for the info!! Will do that!

Hi Missi, thank you for starting this thread. I too have some GCM. Yes was I also surprised when they hatched. What was suppose to be a cuckoo pullet by appearance at birth has turned into a phenomenal wheaten cockerel, got one BCM, one white/black that looks like he is getting gold in hackle-saddles, one jut down right ugly cockerel , two regular cuckoo's with yellow legs, and finally a quad of golds but getting gold slow. I have narrowed the flock down, rehomed the yellow legs and one clean pullet and the BC, the white & ugly go to a local sale tomorrow leaving me with the wheaten and the trio. They are 6 months old and I am look for eggs everyday now as the girls are really really red. i plan to hatch some offspring as my own experiment to see what hatches. Is it possible to weed out the other colors?? Thankfully all three of my golds are french and of really good size, though my cockerel is dark thus carring only one copy of the barring gene I am hoping for a nice outcome from offspring.

At 5 months


She is just getting gold around her neck


A few days ago

I have 2 male and 2 female golden cuckoos. Mine came from Melissa at pasofino farms in TX. One of my females is darker that the other but defintiely not silver cuckoo. She also has a few feather stubs on her shanks. I am planning to breed the male to a dark egg gened female bcm with nicely feathered shanks to get nicer feathering and a little darker color overall on my GCs since my two males are a little light.

I also have another male that was supposed to be a golden cuckoo but turned out to be a barred black tailed buff. He is so pretty and sweet I decided to keep him for another marans project.

I posted this on the other cuckoo thread but will also post it here. It details on how to create the golden cuckoo color. Scroll way down to the Golden Cuckoos
http://frenchmaransclubaustralia.yolasite.com/notes-on-breeding.php

Barred babies I hope David will come and look at your pics that you got from the ebay breeder. He will be able to tell you for sure what you do (or do not have).
As per the French Marans of Australia website. It states that the "the golden cuckoo (s+) gene is present in golden salmon, black tailed buff, wheaten, and brown red varieties."
I love GCs. I agree good ones are hard to find and like most of the other varieties of Marans they also need a lot of work LOL!

I am also following the other cuckoo thread, but have a general cuckoo question, I have a rooster that shows some brassiness in his hackle after going through moult. Does that make him a golden cuckoo? And all my girls, but one, look like the hen picture from Henthymes, but they show no gold around the neck. Just trying to figure out where I have and where I go next. Here he is, I had posted him on the other marans thread. You can also see some of the hens. Please be honest and thanks for the patience with uneducated questions!

WOW, glad I'm not the only one here!! It's just crazy trying to figure it out. And look at the difference in the way they look! They link was great but man couldn't they have posted bigger pics so you could actually see??? I knew yellow on the legs was acceptable at all, but I thought leg color was supposed to be pink/fleshy looking. Most of what hatched out has the black wash down the front except one and her legs are solid black!

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He's just brassy and like many Cuckoos has too many white feathers in his tail.....you should read the White and Cuckoo Marans thread I've posted picts of my Goldens too. Many people just cross and don't cull for color faults then sell eggs many of us have looked at the pictures of what people have hatched I too would be disappointed.....I'm working on size, egg color and feathered shanks many Cuckoos need help with egg color.

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He's just brassy and like many Cuckoos has too many white feathers in his tail.....you should read the White and Cuckoo Marans thread I've posted picts of my Goldens too. Many people just cross and don't cull for color faults then sell eggs many of us have looked at the pictures of what people have hatched I too would be disappointed.....I'm working on size, egg color and feathered shanks many Cuckoos need help with egg color.

Thanks Lotsapaints. I start trying to figure out these genetics, not my strong suite to begin with, and get confused with what I have. I am trying to figure what I breed next in my group to start fixing faults and then, introduce some genetic diversity in my group. I have good news in my first generational hatch - my egg color has improved, and the offspring are not showing any brassiness. I will wander back over to the Cuckoo and White Marans thread and post them there.

Thanks again.

Sometimes the brassiness doesn't show up in the males until they get pretty mature. This is true in the other varieties as well. Sometimes other things can cause brassiness like sunshine and feeding too much corn. I got a new lavender orp that must of been on a high corn diet when I got him because he had a lot of brassiness in his hackles and saddle. On the advice of someone who knew more about them than I, I made sure he didn't get any corn in his diet and it totally dissappeared. Go figure. Some of my roosters get lighter in the hackles when they run around in the sun all summer freeranging. It seems like the ones with the gold based hackles get more straw colored and the ones with the silver based get more brassy looking.