Huge!

[KelsiNS]

Out of my 41 chickens, i have a dozen "barred rocks". Im not sold on the idea that they are rocks.

Even less so the older they get. Half have lemon yellow legs, the others are a pale pink. Half have bold, defined, uniform barring-others look like barring was an afterthought. And now, half of them (at 8 weeks old) are almost as big as my 17 week old blacl aussie mix. The rest are still petite.

They all have hatchery straight combs (wavy, some have crooked points, some have extra points to the sides).

So....what breeds can i narrow them to.
Defined barring
Mottled barring
Yellow leg
Pink leg
XXL
Medium

 

[dandrews1971]

Where did you get them? They look like my BSL boy did.

 

[KelsiNS]

MPC. They are wonderful birds, im just confused as to why such a large difference in them?

 

[Kelsie2290]

fuzzy barring + pink/white leg could be a Cuckoo Marans, the hatchery ones are almost always clean legged.

 

[Wyandottes7]

I think that they might be Cuckoo Marans. Cuckoo Marans have pinkish-white legs, like yours.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Is there any pattern to the cuckoo vs. barred, yellow vs. white legs? Such as, the cuckoo ones all have white legs while the barred all have yellow legs?
If so, then you have Barred Rocks (yellow legs and defined barring) and Cuckoo Marans (pink legs and cuckoo, not barred).

Barred Rocks with pink legs would be a DQ for show.

 

[KelsiNS]

The smaller, bold barring have yellow legs. Most of my larger ones are more scattered with pink legs. I have one barely barred with yellow, and one large defined with pink.

How on earth did i possibly get marans in an assortment order? I thought that never happened :/

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

What assortment did you order, rare breeds, brown egg layers? Marans would fit into.both of those categories

 

[Kelsie2290]

Sure sounds like you have Cuckoo Marans and BRs then, the hatchery CMs are also usually bigger than the BRs. Most hatcheries have had the cuckoos for awhile, I have gotten them in assortments from McMurray.

 

[KelsiNS]

I got the brown egg assortment, but they did not list marans as an included breed.
With the breeds i ordered abd a possible set of marans, im looking forward to a colorful egg basket when they grow up!