Barred Rock? Cuckoo Marans? Mixed? What do I have?

[eggsellentfarms]

Well I finally got a few halfway decent shots to share, but she was being camera shy, so not quite as good as I'd like. I know in some of the photos there seems to be a little blue in her coloring, but when I see her in good natural lighting, I only see gray tones. But she definitely has a lace pattern, not a barred pattern. Her legs are yellow, but her comb is quite a bit larger than my other barred rock.
Any suggestions on what breed rooster might be best to breed her with if I want to try to reproduce her appearance?

 

[aoxa]

Oh she is soooooo pretty!!!

 

[donrae]

I'd think any blue rooster would give you a pretty similar color, no matter the breed.

 

[BantamLover21]

The blue lacing and white ears make me think Blue Andalusian. Her legs should be more of a blue-grey color so that is off. Perhaps an Andalusian mix or just Hatchery Quality. Definitely looks blue laced, not barred so I vote no on the California Grey.

x2 Could certainly just be a mix. She's a really beautiful bird!

 

[eggsellentfarms]

The blue lacing and white ears make me think Blue Andalusian. Her legs should be more of a blue-grey color so that is off. Perhaps an Andalusian mix or just Hatchery Quality. Definitely looks blue laced, not barred so I vote no on the California Grey.

Thanks! I was not familiar with this breed, but she does look a lot like a Blue Andalusian, with a few exceptions.

 

[eggsellentfarms]

I'd think any blue rooster would give you a pretty similar color, no matter the breed.

Unfortunately this is going to complicate my plan. My goal was a dual purpose flock mixed with some great egg layers and some meat birds. Then two different breeds of Roosters so that I could reproduce some purebreds to replenish laying and breeding stock, and some hybrids or just mutts for egg laying, meat, or just for fun. And two roosters may be pushing it as I only planned on about 15 to 20 adult hens max.
Originally I had planned on selecting roosters from two of the following: barred rock, buff orpington, black australorp, or black copper marans. From the minimal info I've gleaned on the blue color dilution genes, the Black Australorp or Black Copper Marans, while not ideal, could still work in breeding with Quicksilver (my daughter and wife helped me pick out a name for her today).
It seems like a better choice would be a Blue Andalusian, Blue Orpington, Blue Laced Red Wyandotte, or Blue Copper Marans. All of these are probably going to be expensive and hard to find, especially in a breeding aged bird. But if I do give this a shot I'm leaning towards a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte( they are such remarkable looking birds and I will have a couple of other colors of Wyandottes) or a Blue Coppers Marans( I have been considering getting some black copper marans for their dark eggs and it should be easy to find buyers if I hatch a bunch of these.) Anybody have any experience with any of these breeds? I'd love to hear what you think.

 

[dretd]

Quote: I looked at the new photos you sent and I think I am seeing subtle barring on the tail feathers so I think that she does have a barring gene.

As for the the rooster, you may want to look more into blue color genetics which is based on black. One copy will have a bird be 'blue' and two copies they will be called 'spash' which is not a recognized show color in most breeds so you may be able to pick up a 'splash' bird cheaper?

As for the roos the only comments that I will make are that rose combs for some reason have decreased fertility. Not a huge deal if the boys are randy and don;t have too many hens, but since you are going for flock replacements, I would personally stick with single combed varieties. I have also heard from others that the extra dark shells on Marans are harder to peck through for the chicks so the hatch rate may not be as high as some other breeds. You will have to investigate that yourself. I just remember reading on an incubation thread about scoring or filing the surface of the Marans eggs prior to setting to increase hatch rates.

 

[redrooster99]

beauty full