Roo or hen?

[SaraMarie]

Our cuckoo Maran hatched these 4 babies in early/ mid June. Rooster is a mix, but two were welsummer eggs, one buff Orpington and one cuckoo Maran (we think). Question is, do we have all hens or some roos and where did the little bright yellow legs come from in our dark one? None of our other breeds have that bright yellow of legs.

 

[Sussex19]

This one is the only one that looks like a pullet

 

[SchwartzLakeFarmNC]

This one is the only one that looks like a pullet
View attachment 3602731

X2 I agree, looks like all the others are cockerels.

 

[Winderdear]

Fair warning, I know hardly anything about chicken genetics, and everything I’ve learned is from looking at these forums since the beginning of summer.

However, I think yellow skin is recessive, so both your rooster and the mother hen must carry at least one gene for yellow skin, though it may not show since white skin is dominant. The chick received two yellow skin genes, thus it has yellow legs. If you know for sure your cuckoo chick came from a Cuckoo Marans egg, then I would say the mother is not a pure Marans.

I’d wait until a genetics expert pops in to confirm this, or sets me straight if I’m incorrect, but that is my understanding of the matter. I only hope that I’m being helpful and not just making things more confusing for you!