I had a marans that I purchased as a pullet at almost 5 months of age. She looked *just* like the one on the right in your photo for months. Mine turned out to be a cockeral (just found out a few days ago with the assistance of another forum member, thankfully) and he did not get any color in his hackle feathers until he molted after 6 months of age. He crows like mad and I watched him mate a pullet today, so he is definitely a he! I am not saying that yours is a cockeral for certain because I am clearly not a marans expert, but I wouldn't assume anything just yet. Sometimes they can fool you!! Good luck!
if you look close at the second piucture, the "hen" has dark red over the wings, only the roosters get red there not the hens, so you have two roos infact if you want to breed any marans, the dark red one is the one you want in the roosters
Thanks, everyone. I feel much more confident now that I do, in fact, have two roos. Definitely a minor disappointment, but I like these guys, so not a big one! Next question: Anyone out there looking for a BCM roo? These boys (sigh) are Bev Davis line and are only breed for #6 or darker eggs. I, obviously, would LOVE to trade one for a similar BCM hen. Thanks!
does it have a lot of red on the back? because if so, it is probably a rooster. I am just bringing up some BCMs right now, and i find them very hard to sex. They are the only chicks i have no ideas how will turn out. Mine are about 8-9 weeks now. I could tell my other breeds between 2-5 weeks, and the only one that fooled me was a buff japanese banty that suddenly drew a massive comb on week 9.
My BCM that is male for sure, is SO male, HUGE comb/wattles, flaming red, lots of copper, massively bigger, expecially the legs and feet, and then nearly all the others have combs/wattles in varying degree of redness, and i think the ones with a lot of red on their back are male, the others i am not so sure. I got 9 straight run from a breeder... they could all be male, but that would be fairly unlikely ... i hope!