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

[VillageChicken]

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If you have a golden cuckoo roo, then you will get blue cuckoo hens, single barred blue cuckoo roos, and they will probably leak some gold in hackle and shoulders, depending on your roo.

 

[VillageChicken]

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A couple more observations from these offspring. If you got a silver cockerel, then your golden cuckoo rooster is S/s+ meaning he has one gene for silver and one gene for gold. I had a S/s+ rock roo, and he showed lots of gold, but could throw pure silver offspring when paired with a silver hen.

From the chickdown on the light cockerel, it looks like you have Wheaten and either Db or Co genes mixed in. I'm guessing Db based on the chickdown, but wheaten tends to change the chickdown too. Db restricts black, that's why your cockerel is so light. You don't really want Db in your GC flock. Wade line black coppers have Db, but it's hard to get rid of because it doesn't do anything in hens when they only have one copy Db, so it gets passed on unnoticed until offspring are created that carry two copies.

The gold on the breast of the original cockerel you posted is a bit unusual - GC should have gold in hackle, saddle, and shoulders, and if e+ based in the wing triangle. Gold in the breast is a possible indicator of wheaten, Db or Co. These may not cause issues in heterozygous form (one copy) but they will create problems when they combine in homozygous (2 copies) form, particularly if you combine the wheaten and Db or Co (your very light cockerel).

 

[Lotsapaints]

From this

to this

So this weekend I switched roosters in my Golden pen to the back up Silver Cuckoo he has a name finally Froggy.....he came out of a darker egg than my Golden guy who is a lazy breeder so he's gone a diet vacation and I'll see what I get from Froggy before I put him in with his hatch mates who lay dark eggs. I'm sure my favorite rooster Pierre came from a paler egg his daughters are laying but the eggs are not what I want.....I keep hoping to hatch out a nice Silver Cuckoo cockerel with feathered shanks but not yet I only get girls with the feathered shanks......mostly I just seem to hatch roosters.......

 

[jeremy]

Lotsapaints, where did you originally get your GC Marans?

 

[Raven1]

those are absolutely stunning! Is this what you are getting rom your birds?

 

[Lotsapaints]

I have 4 hens 2 lay dark eggs 2 lay 4's one of the dark egg layers has feathered shanks the others are all clean

my rooster and 2 hens that lay the lighter eggs came from a friend of Geebs they have the prettiest color and the rooster is huge the other hens are darker came from a seller on Ebay who has Davis stock and is working on feathered shanks and egg color too but they are not as big. I have another batch of eggs from the Ebay guy darkies again hoping to get a nice rooster with feathered legs.....my silver cuckoos who lay dark eggs came off Ebay too. I have met some very nice Marans people on Ebay you just have to watch out for the tricky ones.....I always email them and ask my questions before I bid it might take me a month or so before I win the eggs. Not every time is great I just had to get rid of a complete hatch from a breeder I've bought from before no way was I working with those birds and I've done that with birds off of BYC too....

Remember this is my first project I've asked for help from several people because no bird is perfect and I'm working with what I could hatch and learning something everyday so far it's been a fun journey thanks to everyone who is on this board

 

[rsarns]

Is he a Cuckoo Maran? I bought 14 chicks in April, 2 were supposed to be cuckoo Marans, of the other 12 only 3 others were black chicks. 2 were supposed to be Langshans and a BSL. Now they are 13 weeks old, or as close a guess as I have. I have this roo and a hen which is starting to show some aspects of a very dark cuckoo. My first impression was the roo was the BSL and looked an awful lot like a BR, but his legs are pinkish/white. Neither one of my Marans (?) have feathered shanks, I know some do not and these were hatchery birds of suspect quality. I am in the process of buying Marans eggs from breeders to start my own little flock that I will keep separate for breeding purposes. Being newly retired I am finding something to occupy my time a bit... LOL These first 2 will be kept just as pets at this time. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, since then he has grown a lot and has started to crow..... THanks!

 

[Goose and Fig]

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He sure looks like a marans. Sex-links usually have really bright yellow legs, BUT I made some using my ameraucanas (which are white-skinned) and cuckoo marans, and they have white legs. Thank goodness they have beards or I would have them all mixed up!

 

[rsarns]

Here is a picture of my other that I think is a Marans hen....

 

[Lotsapaints]

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They look like Marans to me you never know what color that egg is going to be until she lays

I had one hatchery girl who laid a nice egg out of 24 not bad