Could I keep my cuckoo maran rooster?

[sóley]

The eggs from cuckoo maran aren’t that dark or what?

There drakes is from the black cooper maran right?

Just wondering cause I owned one cuckoo hen that’s didn’t lay dark eggs at all, now this year I bought 2 cuckoo maran girls and hatch out 2 boys

Just thinking if I should keep the boy or not.

I own lohmann hen and Rhode Island Red hen and they where laying darker eggs that my old maran hen did, I will see what the new chicks will lay dark.

But what do you think? Could I keep 1 of the boy? Or will they just lay similar egg color than the lohmann and Rhode Island reds?

Also I heard that maran eggs are hard to hatch out, when I bought the fertile eggs I only got one chick and I got some a again and again I got only 1 chick and both where boys
So if it’s hard to hatch then I don’t know if I will want to breed them, just buy hens when mine get old, but i also heard that it’s easier to hatch maran if the eggs are but under a broody hen? Is that true? Then I maybe want to keep the rooster, haha


So I’m saying I don’t want to keep the rooster if the eggs are similar dark to the lohmann and Rhode Island Red hen eggs and if it’s hard to hatch these eggs

And I want to keep the rooster if there darker then the eggs that the lohmann and the Rhode Island Red hens lay and if it’s easier to hatch them under a broody hen

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Cuckoo marans in general don't lay as dark of eggs as other varieties of marans. You are correct the black copper lays the darkest from my reading. My blue copper marans have fairly dark eggs too.

I don't think they are any harder to hatch, they are harder to candle.

 

[sóley]

Okey thanks, also I want to ask, I think these cuckoo maran chicks look more like barred rock maybe, what do you think ?
They have pink legs tho but maybe there cuckoo maran barred rock mix?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

They do look more barred instead of cuckoo, but that could just be an individual thing, but otherwise they look like marans. It probably would be near impossible to tell if they are actually mixed. Marans are supposed to be hard feathered, so "their feathers should be narrow, short and tough with the absence of fluff". So if they end up more fluffy that may lend a clue.