Cuckoo Maran rooster?

[lethalfire]

I have a rooster who is just starting to crow, I got him when he was 2 months old and he is 3-4 months old now. The lady I got him from told me he was a barred rock however I just discovered the cuckoo maran breed and after looking at pictures of barred rock roosters and cuckoo maran roosters I believe I have a cuckoo maran rooster.

I don't have any pics at this time but he has areas of blue in his feathers and I have noticed recently that he is getting "blonde" colored feathers on his neck area, so does this indeed mean that he is likely a cuckoo maran or could he still be a barred rock?

 

[speckledhen]

I have a rooster who is just starting to crow, I got him when he was 2 months old and he is 3-4 months old now. The lady I got him from told me he was a barred rock however I just discovered the cuckoo maran breed and after looking at pictures of barred rock roosters and cuckoo maran roosters I believe I have a cuckoo maran rooster.

I don't have any pics at this time but he has areas of blue in his feathers and I have noticed recently that he is getting "blonde" colored feathers on his neck area, so does this indeed mean that he is likely a cuckoo maran or could he still be a barred rock?

Neither. He may be a black sex link rooster. BRs and Cuckoo Marans have no blue or "blonde" in them. I take it you mean a blue sheen on black feathers? We'd have to see a photo to be sure what you have.

 

[donrae]

I agree it's likely he's not pure. My black sex link cockerels get a fair amount of reddish leakage on the hackle and saddle feathers, and it tends to increase as they age. A pic would confirm.

In general, an easy way to tell Rocks from Marans is shank color. Rocks are yellow, Marans are white.

 

[Michael OShay]

It definitely sounds like a Black Sex Link rooster. With a picture, we could confirm it.

 

[lethalfire]

These are the best pictures I could get this morning as I was letting them out of the coop. Notice in the first picture the "blonde" by his wing area and also on the back of his neck/head area.






These next two pictures is to show you the blue on his wing, my daughter said she seen some on his tail also, maybe if you enlarge it.



Hopefully these pictures are good enough that you can help me figure out what he actually is, even if he is a mix is he more one then the other? He does very good as a rooster so far he's not mean towards us and keeps the ladies together and corals them in the coop for me at night.

 

[Wyandottes7]

Looks like a Black Sex-Link rooster to me.

 

[speckledhen]

Yep, not a BR nor a CM, at least not pure. This rooster of mine was similar to yours with the "blonde" you are showing as well as some reddish streaks. He is 1/2 Delaware and 1/2 Something else that wasn't barred-barring came from the Delaware. So, your doesn't have to be a sex link, specifically, just a cross whose one parent passed on a barring gene.

 

[lethalfire]

So I could end up with something pretty interesting LOL. I swear it's as if he is changing colors right before my eyes. When I first got him you would of swore up and down he was a pure barred rock, no color variation whatsoever. As he is getting older though as you can see in the pictures his feathers are changing as they are molting.

I got them in July and was told they were 2 months old, so this month they are going on 4 months if the information I was given was correct. Now I'm curious as to just what he is going to end up looking like lol.

 

[speckledhen]

He'll probably get more silver as he ages, like this rooster of mine, a Delaware x Barred Rock, though Rex has no blonde color, only black and silver:


One of Rex's sons with a Blue Rock hen looked very much like your cockerel, blonde and all, but ended up looking almost identical to Rex as a young adult.

 

[lethalfire]

wow he is very pretty. Wouldn't hurt my feelings at all if Rocky ended up looking like that.