Cuckoo marans

Thanks Chooks Man! I can see from your other posts, that you have lots of experience and know what you're talking about.
I went to my local feed store this weekend just to see the other Cuckoo Marans chicks and compare the barring because to my very inexperienced eye, I have been worried that the barring on my chick is too even which makes her look lighter to me. What I saw at the feed store was that almost all of them looked like mine, and they can't all be boys, right?!

Maybe someday I'll have enough experience to recognize what it means when you say " 1 barring gene B the other one is not expressed..." vs. what double barrs look like. I understand the concept, but just by looking, clearly I can't tell the difference!
Thank you again- you've calmed my worries significantly!!

:)
 
Hi MBK Farm your chooks have some marans on them .how much i can t tell. they marans side come from a English type cuckoo marans feather less shanks and hen without hackle ( like a strait cuckoo ).
the hens ,do have nice long body, they are short close to the ground
nice orange eyes
bad tail to high  but not that bad because isn t opened wen you look t them from the back ( that marans)

But if the egg s colour is poor ( how poor is )than they aren t pure marans .they need to be able to lay a minumin of egg  colour 4 to be a marans)

hope that help

chooks man


Yeah, for sure they're the English type and they need a ton of work, but they're very good layers of some nice big eggs. The eggs are a far cry from marans quality, but the birds flesh out very well by 14 weeks and the meat quality is awesome and tastey. As far as tails and all, yeah lots of work all around with egg color top priority. Positive is that the size and type is pretty close. Going to put my large black copper over them and see what happens. Approaching this from the utility side of things with an eye towards the French standard. Going to be easier going cuckoo marans here than barred rock. LOL.

Should be a nice 8-10 year project.
 
Hi Teya. that good you end up going to the pet shop to check .That mean you are interested in them and you want to know.

too easy just follow the thread and ask question and you will lern a lot especially if you start breeding ( breeding is fun and make having a chooks a pleaser )

when the cuckoo chicks hatch if they pure silver cuckoo, the boys are grayish black with a big white spot on they head.
the pullet are black with or without a small white dot on they head .

IF they are Dark cuckoo single barred .they will hatch black like a pullet but they will have larger white dot on the top of they head.

SO to know the different between boy and girls @ hutch you have to look t the white dot. Boys LARGE. Girls Small .

your chick have a small white dot on her head She is a pullet

cheers
 
Hi MBK Farm.

that is a good plan. they will give you F1 generation Hybrid Golden cuckoo. pretty chooks. will take you 5 years if you don t loose any breeding generation .

Here how you do t;
YEAR 1 ; BCM rooster X your silver cuckoo hens = you will get 50% Dark Golden cuckoo Cockerels and 50% Black copper pullets. from this hatch keep one best cockerel ( he will be ER/?, S/s+, B/b+,Pti/pti+) we only going to work with this 4 genes combo for the first few years.
we call this cockerel F1 DGCMH ( Dark Golden Cuckoo Marans Hybrid ) with a pullet aren t good for forward crossing keep them as layers.

YEAR 2; you mate a cockerel F1DGCMH you kept ( now he is a rooster) and mate him to you best BCM hens = you will get F2.generation .50% DGCM both gender and 50% BCM both gender
So we keep the GCM male and Female they genome now will be ( for the cockerels ER/ER, S/s+, B/b+, Pti/Pti) for the pullets ( ER/ER, s+/-, B/-, Pti/Pti)
we keep the best cockerel and the best 4 pullets

YEAR 3; you need to create 2 lines now ;
Pullets line; mate the F2 cockerel you kept from the last year and Mate him to his mum and ants BCM hens and do a samething you did in the year 2. you will end up with F3 generation Cockerels and F3 generation pullets. you are only keeping a pullets this time from this line.they are F3 DGCM and they genome will be ( ER/ER, s+/-, B/-. Pti/Pti)

Cockerels line; mate your best BCM rooster with F2 DGCM pullets from the last year = you will get all the cockerels are Dark GCM and the pullets Black and BCM. you only keep the Best cockerel .he will be F3 DGCM and his genome will be ( ER/ER, S/s+, B/b+, Pti/Pti)

YEAR 4 ; we are getting there.
this year we are going to cross the 2 lines ; Cockerel F3 DGCM mated to pullets F3 DGCM = 25 % cockerels Double bared GCM. 25% cockerel Single barred GCM ( a cull ) 25% pullets GCM and 25% BCM pullets
this year you will be keeping the Best Double barred GCM cockerels ( 2 or 3 ) they genomes will be ( ER/ER, s+/s+, B/B ,Pti/Pti ).and the best 4to 5 GCM pullets they genome will be like they mams.

YEAR 5 Final year;
we mate a cockerl Double Barred GCM to his sisters /half sisters = 100 % pure Golden Cuckoo Marans ER based with a feathered shank and lay dark eggs. true French Standard.

Happy Five years.

Don t be shy to ask any question any time.

chooks man
 
Chooks,

Thanks for taking the time to sketch out the blueprint. I'll be looking to put my black copper cock onto these girls in the coming weeks. I'll be shooting for a hatch by end of June/early July. I have to get current batch of birds out of brooder first. I'm hoping for at least three solid hatches since these are also my main meat chickens for the farm right now. I'm forecasting at least 55 cockerels to satisfy freezer demands alone. This should put me in position for a good shot at developing a strong candidate for moving ahead. Again, thanks for the plan and it should be an interesting five years.
thumbsup.gif
 
Hi all- me again. SO my chicks are about three weeks old now and I'm still obsessing over whether the cuckoo is a pullet or a cockerel.
With the research I've done here's what I know to look for:

Spot on head:
- males larger and yellowish
- females, very small spot

Barring on feathers:
-males, double barred, lighter almost striped looking
-females, single barred, darker with barrs looking more grayish

Combs-
-males, develop faster, and get pink and reddish sooner
-females, smaller, less pink

legs:
-males thicker stronger, sometimes develop spurs
-females, thinner, no spurs

So with that all said- do we still think Titania here is a pullet? I've also just noticed she's developing these stiffer looking feathers right above her tail feathers. My other chicks don't seem to have that, but maybe she's just developing faster.

*sigh* I can't help but feel like I'm in denial and that Titania is actually an Oberon.
What do you all think?
Chooks Man??




 
Teya I have been looking at your photos for hours now ,making comparison with the pics I have in my Cuckoo Marans files . here my conclusion. ( I could be wrong ) this day s the genetic of the chooks is well mixed up people added all sort of thing to they chooks. so gad know what we have now ?

any way we have to work with what we have and try to restore them to they breed original standard they belong to.

what you have read about the Cuckoo is all true and I ll add a pure Cuckoo maran cockerel hatch down is silver/grey or black/grey with a large white dot on his head. that is true if they are a true silver cuckoo well breed .because the Barring gene is sex linked so the coq have BB and the hen have just one expressed ( the hen doesn t have just one chromosome ,she still have 2 but just one expressed the other is there but no develloped and we don t know much about t no much study has been done in the subject) so she s B/- darker .

Ah what about your chick Titania ?
1 st we didn t see her/his hutch down colour so we don t know if was a black or silverish. but the head dot was small.any way now at 3 week and close photos shot I can tell you ; is a cockerel and is double barred .
look at the feathers they are double barred you see 1st barre at the end of each feather and another barre in the middle , that double barre will give the feathers the silvery look.So Titania is a cockerel.
single barred pullet or dark single barred cockerel they feather are black with just one barre . have a look on the Golden Cuckoo Marans .Morbius 18 posted a few photos of dark and light cuckoo marans chciks .you will see the difference between the 2 single and double barred.

Titania is developing the comb as well.

the feathers you talking about is just a type he is early ( fast) feathering type.

It s very hard to tell when chicks come from the store
I have seen cockerel hatched with a small dot and pullets with a larger dot. that mean they where not bred properly.

I could be wrong let givea couples more weeks and see.

chooks man
 
Hi,

I got three (plus others) black and white chicks from a hatchery by way of a store. They have some feathers on their legs but not as heavy as a Cochin. But, those same feathers mean they most likely are not Barred Rock. I am wondering if they are Cuckoo Marans. As well as gender. These pictures were taken today and the birds in question are about 10 weeks old.



Had the solitary one been in the same lighting as the other two it would be like the darker one in the other picture. The two darker ones are larger and their combs and wattles grew earlier than the lighter one - but none of their combs or wattles are still a peach color rather than turning red. They are getting some color but not a lot so far.

There was no noticable difference when I got them from the store. (1 is pictured below - and yes the white spots on their heads were all about the same size.)




Anyway, for my own info are they Marans? And any guesses on gender yet?

I really appreciate the input.

Lisa
 
Yes they are marans or marans crosses.
they look to me they area good type .the one in the right photos by it self is a pullets .nice long back .tail with a nice angle .well feathered shanks.
the other 2 in the left photos with the others one is a boy the lighter one the other by the door i can t see him /her.
can you take a photos of this 2 separate close shot will be nice .

chooks man
 

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