Barred Rock or Cuckoo Maran?

[australorpchick]

This here is my Chickchick.

Up until today, I thought she was a BR. Now I'm not so sure. I bought Chickchick and Pepper (see pic below) when they were 5 mos. from a guy in Austin, who bought chicks in mass quantities.

I noticed right away that she has more black than Pepper and her legs aren't yellow. I just figured it was because she was hatchery quality. When they started laying eggs, they were different colors. Pepper lays beige eggs like my Australorps and Chickchick lays beautiful huge golden brown eggs. In fact, she's my best layer now.

I really hadn't given the differences too much thought, until I looked up pictures of Cuckoo Marans and they look like Chickchick! What do you think, did I scored a CM by accident?

This is Pepper.

 

[speckledhen]

Hard to say since after they lay a certain number of eggs, their legs bleach out, but her beak is white, so she could be a Cuckoo Marans. Has she not laid an egg yet?

 

[LeBlackbird]

Hatchery CM do thay a little darker eggs than a barred Rock, I think You Scored!!

 

[australorpchick]

Quote:
Yes, she took a week off in July/Aug and but is back to normal.

 

[wordgirl]

I looked at some pictures of Cuckoo Marans on the web, and they had rather flesh-colored legs. Aren't Chickchick's legs blackish?

ETA: You're right, though. The BR's seem to have wider white barring than the darker CM's. And BR's have yellowish legs, with some black. I guess I'm not sure what Chickchick is.

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

My barred rocks started off with yellow legs, but now that they've been laying a few months their legs are white (bleached out like Speckled hen said).

Before they started laying - yellow legs & beak (4 1/2 months old?):

A couple months after starting to lay (about 7 months old):

Now, at 9 months of age, their legs are even lighter and I was surprised when I checked their beaks today, but their beaks are not yellow anymore either.

 

[claud]

My Cuckoo Marans are not nearly that barred. They are much darker with white speckles sort of.

Like this...

 

[australorpchick]

Quote:
Nope, they're white, just dirty. She was digging when I picked her up. She's only 7 or 8 months. Also, I looked at the egg chart at the Marans of America website and Chickchick's egg would be a 4.

Funny someone else posted the same question today.