Is this a Barred Rock or a Marans hen? (PIC)

[bluehenlover]

This is a hen I rescued- she is old and her legs show it. I cant tell if she's a Marans or Barred Rock. Her egg color is dark, but not nessasarily Marans dark. She is soooo friendly, she follows me everywhere. She thinks she's human, I think. LOL

What do you think?

 

[halo]

I am the wrongest person to be answering this, but I would vote for a barred rock.

 

[MissPrissy]

Her feet and legs look white to me so she is Cuckoo Marans. Also the barring is irradict = 'cuckoo'.

Barred Rocks have yellow feet and legs and the barring is uniform. (Although on really bad specimins the barring can be aweful and inconsistant.)

 

[Katy]

She looks like my old Marans hens....her legs look white to me, so I'd vote Marans.

 

[coopist]

Probably a Marans, but if she has been laying for a while, she may be lacking pigmentation (many hens in full lay lose their own pigment in beak and feet. These resources having gone to the eggs). Some people actually use this bleaching phenomenon to judge the quality of their layers, since hens who've laid the most are the most pale. I have some Delawares who've been laying since last summer, and their feet look white right now. When they stop, they'll turn gold again.

So, if that's the case, pigment could return when she goes through a molt. At that point, if her feet turn more yellowish, you'll know she's a Rock...

FYI:
"As the hen produces eggs, she diverts yellow color from certain portions of her body and deposits it into the yolks of the eggs. Bleaching of various parts of the hen's body is a very good indicator of the time the hen has been in production. The loss of color is easily seen in yellow-skinned breeds such as the white leghorns and birds on diets containing sources of the coloring agents. In the white-skinned breeds the bleaching effect is less pronounced and more difficult to detect.

Bleaching of Yellow Coloring Body Part Time After First Egg
Vent 4-7 days
Eye Ring 7-10 days
Ear Lobes 14-21 days
Base of Beak 4-6 weeks
Tip of Beak 6-8 weeks
Bottom of Feet 8-10 weeks
Front of Shanks 15-18 weeks
Rear of Shanks 20-24 weeks
Hock Joint about 24 weeks

The vent is the first site of color bleaching. When a pullet begins to lay, the color fades from the vent within the first week of lay. A good producing hen will have a white, pink, or bluish-white vent.

The eye rings start to bleach soon after the vent and are usually completely bleached within the first two weeks of lay. In leghorn strains the eye ring bleaching is closely followed by bleaching of the ear lobes.

The beak is the first significant portion of the body generally used to judge the bleaching effect of egg production. The beak will lose its color, progressing from the base to the tip. It takes from four to eight weeks for the beak to bleach after the hen begins laying eggs. The beak will often have a striped appearance then. The lower beak loses color more rapidly than the upper beak. If is often used as a bleaching indicator when the upper beak has a heavy brown or black pigment. A hen whose beak is fully pigmented has not laid for at least four weeks.

Bleaching of pigment from the shanks is a good indicator of a long production time. The pigment bleaches from the shanks in this order: bottom of feet, front of shank, back of shank, and hock joint. The shanks have no coloring between two and six months after the onset of continuous lay.

When the hen ceases to lay, the body parts are recolored in the same order as they were bleached, with the vent first and the shanks last. The speed at which the color returns depends on the type of feed and the state of the bird's health, but it usually returns in about half the time required to bleach."

http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/extcull.htm

 

[Bawkadoodledoo]

you got a Marans there!!!

 

[ginasmarans]

She looks like some of my marans hens. Barred rocks should have yellow legs.

 

[bluehenlover]

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Thats what I thought- her egg color is pretty dark, but Ive seen BR that had eggs that dark. I suspected she was a Marans. Thanks!!

 

[coopist]

Quote:

Again, I agree, probably a Marans. But the bleaching effect of a long-time layer can fool you... I'm just saying...

 

[bluehenlover]

Great information, guys! That is really, really helpful, thanks!!