Barred Rocks vs. Cuckoo Marans

[TurtleFeathers]

Hi all -

My husband's 90-year old uncle has 5 chickens, 1 roo over 4 hens. The roo is "barred", as are two of the hens, but the other two hens are black with brick reddish looking "collars" (forget the technical name here). He has no clue what they are, only that they lay medium brown colored eggs. They are all clean legged.

How do I know if he has barred rocks or cuckoo marans? The black hens look like they could be black copper marans, so I'm thinking these could be cuckoo marans? Is there a way to tell them apart? I'm new to chickens, and I have nothing to compare them to.

I'm hoping to get some eggs from him soon to put in my incubator - will I be able to tell anything from the chicks?

Sorry, I don't have any pics right now - hopefully I can get over there in the next couple weeks and take some. Any light you can shed on this in the meantime is certainly appreciated!

Thanks -

Kathy

 

[sara]

Without pics it's hard to say.

On the barred birds are the legs white or yellow? Black Copper Marans have feathered legs, should lay very dark eggs. Is the color on the blacks just on the chest? They could be sex-links depending. Just tossing out some thoughts here.. Take a look at the birds and post more details if you can.

 

[Reinbeau]

What color are their legs? Barred Rocks have yellow, Marans have white.

 

[CovenantCreek]

Quote:
Marans should lay a dark chocolate brown egg.

 

[Pumpkinpup]

Sounds like he may have black sex links and barred rocks

Lovely birds

 

[walkswithdog]

If you mix barred rocks with partridge rock or a black bird, you get black bleeding red pullets, and cockerals with some tiny bits of red on the chest, or underwing or vent.

And though the darker rocks have colored fronts to their legs/feet the base color is very much yellow. Partridge have bronze/brown fronts, blacks and the black/reds tend to have some or a lot of black on the front edge of legs and toes. Barreds will also have black touches to the legs.

Whites and buffs have all yellow legs.