Is this a Black Copper Marans?

[debid]

She's not a rooster or a Marans. Lovely mix, though, and might have Marans in her.

 

[pinkchick]

Here is a better photo of her in the daylight. I tracked down the farm that hatched her this morning and she is a cross from some BCM eggs the woman ordered from Virginia and a BCM roo she bought locally. I'm just wondering if she is supposed to have the lacing on her chest like that if she is a true BCM? Someone suggested she looks like a Black Sex Link but those don't seem to have feathered feet and legs. What the heck do I have here? Anyone?

This coloring in the chest can happen sometimes in some Marans....I have seen this with some Marans that come from certain lines. I believe and many other Marans breeders believe that when you see this coloring in the chest that they are not pure BCM, but have Wheaten Marans genetics somewhere in the background. I bred a BCM pullet that was colored like this and the resulting male offspring all grew out to have Wheaten in them. Or perhaps she does not carry enough melanisers to cover that off coloring in the breast, but I would put my money on Wheaten influences. Does she actually have a tail? Or does she have a tail and it just hangs at the wrong angle? She looks to me like she is what we refer to in the Marans community as "rumpless" and this genetic flaw does happen in some lines of Marans. It looks to me like she does not have a tail and this could be causing her to look like another breed. Or she could just very well be a cross......but I have seen tons of Marans look like this in regards to coloring and the tail. How old is she and has she laid an egg yet? Her egg color will tell you tons!

 

[chinh0427]

What egg color does she lay? I have 1 similar hen