Let's talk Cuckoo and WHITE marans... breeding strategies...

[OHmamma]

Nice pictures Raven, I need to do a collage. I LOVE THAT BLUE ROO!!!!

I did keep my whites separate but my big white roo was killed by a dog a few weeks ago so I have no photos of him. HE was at my uncles with four hens and now one of them is also injured by the same dog attack and the other two still haven't laid an egg since. I think their days are numbered......

I have a pen for each color but right now my white hens are in with my Silver cuckoo roo. I keep mine all in groups of six so I can keep track of parenting. I don't have a blue or black roo but my blue hen is with my Blue copper roo and my black hens are with my Black copper roos.

I have Blue Copper and Black Copper,solid Blue and Black, White and "Sport" White, Adults and Splash and Wheaten young ones. The splash was tossed in when I bought some black copper chicks. I really didn't want her but she was going to be all alone......I have no idea what to put her with. Probably the sale pen, she is from Culpepper birds and kind of cute but I don't really want splash. I am considering some more Wheatens maybe if I see some at the show this weekend.

In Bantam Marans I have cuckoo,sport,and black.

I will try to get some more pictures up. I seem to get distracted everytime I go outside to take some. I have been building a pen for my bantams and I have been doing it between raindrops!

I think a hen just laid an egg on my front porch.

 

[Raven1]

I love that blue roo too he is pure Davis and beautiful I just wish he had better copper I have him wth my over coppered hens for balance. Wish you were closer I would be glad to take the splash hen off your hands!

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
Is she out of BCM/BlCM or Solid Black/Blue? If she's out of BCM, you could put her in that pen for some nice lighter blue coppers, or with the blacks if she's from solid.

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
Pretty sure I was saying bad thing about you yesterday did you win these on Ebay? You out bid me

But..... I got a second chance offer

I think calling them double mutant white is just a way of making them sound more special than they are, IMHO. Sound like Alien chickens to me.
ALL Marans have white skin. White skin is dominant, and not really considered a mutation, simply something that can easily be selected.
Some Marans have white shanks. Clear shanks are also dominant, and are not difficult to select.
White Marans should have pink shanks, but only if they have the ID dermal melanin inhibitor gene. They can have white skin and still have incorrect gray shanks.

It would be more useful to know details like whether they are from silver or gold based parents, whether it is recessive or dominant white, how closely related the parent stock might be etc.

I love my Whites, and I'm glad they are gaining popularity, but now is the time to get some of the language clear when we talk about them. Double mutant doesn't mean much of anything in the poultry world, especially as it relates to Marans. I don't know why a good breeder would refer to them as such.

I hope you both have good hatches with lots of typey birds and more hens than roos. I think the feathered shanks look best in white.

 

[Raven1]

I will be reporting on them as we go along and thank you so much for the well wishes! I wondered why they said double mutant yah it did sound alien

 

[PHarris985]

Quote:
As long as there white marans I don't care what mutant they are. Maybe I'll name one of them alien. I also hope they will be hens. I enjoy reading your input, you have alot of knowledge on chickens.

 

[Raven1]

I need 1 Roo and the rest hens here

Don't want to jinx myself so just hopeing for a good hatch and healthy chicks

 

[OHmamma]

I am starting to think my kids are Double Mutants.

Ok here is the Splash Pullet. Sorry she tried to run away everytime I put her down. No idea why the camera kept going blue.

My Pullet from my Blue Coppers. (Davis/Presley/Krebs)

My Culpepper Cockerel

Sorry I know these aren't whites or cuckoo

Just thought I would share. I am going to pose up my new white chicks tomorrow. They are too precious!!

 

[Myabcs3]

Just curious, when breeding cuckoo x cuckoo, how often would one expect to throw a white? What have others experiences been? Not that I have hatched a lot from my group, but there hasn't been a white...yet!

 

[VillageChicken]

Quote:
Genetically correct cuckoos should breed true... meaning no whites at all. To get white, your roo has to carry recessive white, and one of your hens must carry it as well. In that case you have a one in four chance of a white, and a 50% chance of producing more carriers.