Barred Rocks - head gear

[jjaazzy]

Right and Yes I posted a picture but it was dark I will get a new one posted

 

[jjaazzy]

Here are most of the BR or whatever you say that they are.

 

[junebuggena]

The darkest hen is Cuckoo Marans. The rooster could be a Cuckoo Marans. The other hens look like Dominique mixes.

You don't have any Barred Rocks.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Those are not Barred Rocks, not predominately.

I think I see mostly rose combs, hard to tell as photo blurs on enlargement, and sort of yellowish legs, which could make them hatchery quality Dominiques.

The one darker hen in forefront has a single comb and wrong leg color for a Barred Rock, and is a bit mussy in the barring, so I think she is probably a hatchery quality Cuckoo Marans, featherless legs (American style).

Your rooster honestly looks more like a male Black Sex Link than a Barred Rock, but he could be a Barred Rock.

What you have from this feed store is an assortment of barred birds, and you are placing a BR male (or BSL male) over predominately Dominique hens (rose comb) which will give you all barred birds with rose combs. A rose comb looks like a little horse shoe oriented with the luck running down the beak when they are chicks. As the bird grows, that grows in and fleshes out. Males will mature faster and their rose combs will get redder and fleshier sooner, while the girls will be pale and "empty" horse shoes longer.

Your Cuckoo Marans chicks with that roo will produce single comb chicks that will be barred both genders. The males will probably get larger combs pretty early, probably by 3 to 4 weeks will show a significant yellow mountain range with some pink coming in. Those girls will have small little teeth ridges and remain pale and yellow until POL, however, some of them could get a bit taller yellow combs that can worry you.

You do have barring and cuckooing being mixed which can change the appearance of the chicks but not sex link any genders...all genders will look alike, and it may be the difference between the cuckooing and barring effects and how those genes line up in individual chicks why some will look darker and others lighter...but for both genders.

Comb development will be the most important indicator of male/female. Males will get combs earlier and redder. Single combs will look bigger than rose combs even at pullet ages as the rose will remain a flat horse shoe while the single will get comb teeth ridges....however males from both comb types will get fleshier and redder compared to the females of that comb type.

Feed stores are notorious for mixing up their bins and orders and selling birds under the wrong breed name. (I've actually spent more than one afternoon teaching an uneducated employee the difference in their own breeds...I've had them sell Barnevelders as Welsummers and full face explain to me that sex links are 50% male/female straight run when all they have to do is look at the color of the chick on shipment arrival and NOT mix them in with other red down chicks, like RIR's!)

So you have hatchery quality mix of barred birds, and will produce utility quality barred birds that will make decent layers.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Rooster is not Cuckoo Marans...wrong color legs....and too much white...ETA on feathers...too much white at hackles and tail...looks more like a BSL male, possibly a BR male.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Sell your chicks straight run as utility quality barred layers. Make sure you put on signs and receipts that they are mixed breeds of good layers.

People will be happy.

And top photo showed females...2nd photo of 9 week was a female...top photo lighter ones indistinguishable as I couldn't see combs...lighter *might* indicate male if double barred or could simply be BR barring with the softer Dom barring (which is technically a cuckoo as white barring)....but comb size/color is what will indicate male/female.

LofMc

 

[shortgrass]

And there ya go, @Lady of McCamley, thank you very much!


You have quite the mystery there, thanks to the feed store special lol

I've scratched my head several times at the local one, walking by bins of ducklings labelled "geese" etc... My Anconas last year were labelled "Minorcas", and I got the stink eye when I asked why they looked just like Anconas ha-ha... Meh, you can't really blame them when their Saturday morning associate is 16 and would rather becat home playing Xbox

At least, they ARE Barred lol


Yep, label them as Barred brown egg layers and you should be good. Most breeders would go to another breeder for purebreds, so as long as any buyers are just looking for layers and know they aren't purebred, they'll be fine with them.

Lol that's why I was shocked to see the combs; I was expecting single combs, so that threw me off. I agree with LofMcC that comb color is going to continue to be the biggest indicator, as the barring might get muddled, but I do believe the 4 week olds that you show above are mostly pullets if the barring is trustworthy. I do see a behind of a possible male in the first pic on the left, and the chick with the thicker bars on the right. And in the second pic of the one with the 9 week old hen, I believe I see 2 males. So I would mark those lighter ones with a tag or sharpie on the foot, and watch the comb development on them; that would be a good way to see if the barring is going to be consistent with males.


They're cute though, but all chicks are cute ha-ha... You might actually have better sales by mentioning the Marans in them; some people really enjoy the different colors in the egg basket

 

[Lady of McCamley]

You have quite the mystery there, thanks to the feed store special lol

I've scratched my head several times at the local one, walking by bins of ducklings labelled "geese" etc... My Anconas last year were labelled "Minorcas", and I got the stink eye when I asked why they looked just like Anconas ha-ha... Meh, you can't really blame them when their Saturday morning associate is 16 and would rather becat home playing Xbox

...ain't that the truth...no disrespect meant, but half the time my shoe laces are older than the kid "helping." But even then, I'm amazed at how clueless feed store people can be...it was the OWNER of the store, who had been in business for years, staunchly defend that sexlinks were not gender identifiable. (He never did concede even when I showed him an internet link explaining the whole genetic concept of sex linking and purpose of color coding for gender). To his defense, he's a busy man, and feed store owners are in the store business, not chicken business. Chicks just happen to be a product they seasonally market. Next.

Personally, I wouldn't push the Marans aspect much. You've got a feed store quality of Cuckoo Marans.

Even with breeder quality, the Cuckoo variety is the lightest color layer of the Marans. Black Copper Marans are the darkest layers, so if you want dark eggs, go BCM. Some Cuckoos lay darker, but often it just looks like a normal brown egg especially for hatchery quality.

I doubt you've got dark layer genes to pass along, and even if you did, the genetics for dark is very complicated and seem to be easily diluted.

All of that to say...you'll have fabulous barred utility brown egg layers...with Dominque blood mixed in, which should make for better winter layers.

LofMc

 

[jjaazzy]

I will have to read this many times to get it all. But wanted to say the 2 birds you kinda see in with the 9 week old hen are cream leg bars Roos I got eggs and hatched out last year this is some of the babies I have hatched out from the ones I hatched out. Follow?.... I do have BCM just coming of age now my GF sent eggs to me. I just got my first dark brown egg. Of the birds in question I only get one dark brown egg and it's not dark dark. The others are a make up brown... I told my son and husband that and I got blank faces. It has a pink undertone. These guys are awesome layers and are terrific birds,,,and they stay in the yard....So I will continue with them, call them Barred....straight run... But will look for a breeder.
I am going to send baby pictures tomorrow if I can get things to work...
I would like easy to tell who's who birds....
Thank you all, you have been such great help.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

So they would be CCL mixes, mixed with the barred birds as those are not full blooded CCL. (I do see the CCL crests).

Are you mixing the CCL with the Cuckoo Marans? If you set the dark brown eggs and only allow your Marans exposure to the CCL roos (the full blooded parent, not what's in the photo with the 9 week old), you could get Olive Eggers, but you'll have to keep strict pen policies, otherwise you'll never know the lineage with all the barring.

Nice thing will be if you set the BCM rooster (if you have one) over a Cuckoo Marans hen, you'll get sex linking...should darken the CCL with the BCM blood for darker eggs and the added bonus of KNOWING that you've got girls (no head dot, no barring) and boys (head dot for barring.

I just did that with my Barnevelder roo over my Cal Grey girls to check his fertility (young roo)...have some pretty brown sex links who will probably lay a middle tint egg (white with the darker brown should produce about tan to middle brown).

Good luck on your project. Read everything you can, keep strict pen policies, and try to keep the number of varieties down at first otherwise you multiply your problems with too many genetics. Make a plan for where you want to go and choose the birds to get you there. Be aware that specialty types (Marans and CCL) often drive down the productivity of utility layers as the different colored layers generally are not your most prolific, especially your dark layers (has to do with the fact one of the reasons the egg is darker is that it takes longer to go down the tract gaining more brown wash). If you aren't careful, you can drive down productivity substantially even with hybrids.

LofMc

Good website for learning basic chicken genetics for breeding:
https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/genetics-mini-series/

And this for running plummage checks and sex linking checks (remember female has to be barred and male non-barred/non-cuckoo)
http://www.breedbook.org/?action=geneticscalculator&tab=CHICKEN