Auto sexing hens with Cuckoo maran Roo

[MandaRae]

This thread has kind of bounced around so I'll start back at the beginning.
You asked about autosexing. Usually when talking autosexing it's used to describe birds like the CCL. Most always these breeds are barred duckwing. The double dose of barring that the males have will dilute the duckwing pattern making them a lot lighter colored then the females.
You're not gonna get that out of your crossings. Some also call solid dark barred breeds autosexing because the double dose of barring on those males cause larger head spots on the male chicks. It's not always so black and white with those. Some lines are easier to sex then others and it's more like 80% accurate instead of 100%.
Your marans Xs CCL will result in offspring like this. You can try to judge the head spots to sex them. Females may have smaller to next to no spot and males will have larger.
I think you'll get a good idea of what's what but there maybe be some that will be kind of in the middle and hard to judge.
Your other cross will make sex links. Males should show a head spot and will be barred when they feather in. Females will not have a head spot and won't be barred.
You didn't mention exactly what color that male is. If he is splash that means blue offspring and that may make the head spot harder to see.
If he's blue you'll get some blue chicks and some black. Same issue goes for those blue chicks.
If he's black you should not get any blue chicks so those would be easier to sex.

He is a Blue/black/Splash EE
His Father was an Ameraucana

 

[MandaRae]

I know a lot of all this is trial and error but shipped eggs is a gamble to begin with and if I end up with only 1 hen I want to place her in the best flock.

 

[ChickenmanWV]

This thread has kind of bounced around so I'll start back at the beginning.
You asked about autosexing. Usually when talking autosexing it's used to describe birds like the CCL. Most always these breeds are barred duckwing. The double dose of barring that the males have will dilute the duckwing pattern making them a lot lighter colored then the females.
You're not gonna get that out of your crossings. Some also call solid dark barred breeds autosexing because the double dose of barring on those males cause larger head spots on the male chicks. It's not always so black and white with those. Some lines are easier to sex then others and it's more like 80% accurate instead of 100%.
Your marans Xs CCL will result in offspring like this. You can try to judge the head spots to sex them. Females may have smaller to next to no spot and males will have larger.
I think you'll get a good idea of what's what but there maybe be some that will be kind of in the middle and hard to judge.
Your other cross will make sex links. Males should show a head spot and will be barred when they feather in. Females will not have a head spot and won't be barred.
You didn't mention exactly what color that male is. If he is splash that means blue offspring and that may make the head spot harder to see.
If he's blue you'll get some blue chicks and some black. Same issue goes for those blue chicks.
If he's black you should not get any blue chicks so those would be easier to sex.

I'm looking at doing the same thing, except I have golden cuckoo marans. The males are much lighter with bigger head spot than females and fairly easy to distinguish. I am wondering since the females are dark in the marans, and the legbar females are dark striped then shouldn't the cross females just be darker? I am hoping to create a autosexing olive egger so I was thinking use a roo of each type to begin with. I included the pic. of F/M Marans chicks.

 

[MandaRae]

I'm looking at doing the same thing, except I have golden cuckoo marans. The males are much lighter with bigger head spot than females and fairly easy to distinguish. I am wondering since the females are dark in the marans, and the legbar females are dark striped then shouldn't the cross females just be darker? I am hoping to create a autosexing olive egger so I was thinking use a roo of each type to begin with. I included the pic. of F/M Marans chicks.

That is awesome!