Gender?

[Celtchick68]

I purchased this today at a local auction. It was listed as a cuckoo maran. I got 3 total. Do we think this is a roo or a hen?

 

[DoubleMM]

I'd say you have a cockerel

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

He's a cute little thing, but all boy!

 

[soydo]

Cockerel and not a maran. It has yellow legs- should be white for marans and wrong feather patterning and possibly size. I would say it's a mixed breed.

 

[Pinkaboo]

Nothing like my cuckoo Marans he's lovely

 

[Michael OShay]

The yellow legs, single comb, and light colored barring indicate a Barred Rock rooster (it's either hatchery grade or a Barred Rock mixed breed).

 

[Celtchick68]

I thought it looked like a barred rock too but then looked up the cuckoo maran and these show up...even one has yellow feet. I have another that looks definitely like a hen as she has absolutely no visible comb. She's darker in color but they all have a barred type feather like in the google images.

 

[soydo]

Did you click on picture of the yellow legged one? I'll put the link here.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg0513355723923.html?11

If you did not click and read that one, here's the title on that page:

Distinguishing Cuckoo Maran and Dominique chicks


That's a Dominique rooster.

Bottom line: Marans are a white skinned breed. That means white legs, white beaks for them. Yellow is a sign of wrong ID or mixed breed.

As for the other pictures, you will have to click and read up. The differences could be down to various lines or different colors- salmon, gold salmon etc or talking about Cuckoo Marans crosses.

 

[Celtchick68]

Did you click on picture of the yellow legged one? I'll put the link here. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farmlife/msg0513355723923.html?11 If you did not click and read that one, here's the title on that page:
Distinguishing Cuckoo Maran and Dominique chicks

That's a Dominique rooster. Bottom line: Marans are a white skinned breed. That means white legs, white beaks for them. Yellow is a sign of wrong ID or mixed breed. As for the other pictures, you will have to click and read up. The differences could be down to various lines or different colors- salmon, gold salmon etc or talking about Cuckoo Marans crosses.

I had not clicked on the link. Thanks for the info. I'm sad now but I'll get over it. I'll take him back to auction in a few weeks and sell him most likely. Now I'll have to examine the other 2 more closely. I did learn a lot going to my first auction but I really appreciate the extra info here.

 

[soydo]

Yeah unfortunately things like that happen. I'm already seeing "mislabeled birds" in here not just yours. I also went through the learning curve myself.

For quality birds it's best to try finding private breeders instead of auctions. Especially if your goal is for true Marans laying dark eggs, this is a hard trait to breed and maintain and if not bred well it's quickly lost and the eggs become same color as barred rocks. Good Marans stock is one of the more difficult things to shop around for, lots of false and exaggerated information- using someone else's picture of dark eggs to sell their birds which may lay only medium colored or worse eggs. Do be careful.

Auctions are notorious for mis labeled birds and also for sick animals.