Let's talk Cuckoo and WHITE marans... breeding strategies...

[DMRippy]

Mother to son and son to daughter seems to work better than brother to sister in my experience. Once you get your line going, try it that way and see what happens.

I think she means Father to daughter....

 

[flgardengirl]

LMAO yes that is what I meant Sorry for the confusion. I will correct it. Mother -> son and father ->daughter

 

[DMRippy]

LMAO yes that is what I meant Sorry

I know it is all the talk of snow ..... has everyone's minds on something else ......

You are going to get some snow in FL right?

 

[flgardengirl]

It might get down to 39 tonight does that count? It is supposed to actually freeze tomorrow and the next night. It has been really warm here for December though. I would love for it to snow as long as I get everything into the greenhouse first lol.
I miss snow especially around the holidays. We lived outside of Yellowstone Park in WY for several years and it was so pretty there.

 

[flgardengirl]

Speaking of improving on egg color, this is great food for thought: A really great thread on origins of the dark egg.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/278349/marandaise-origins-of-the-dark-brown-egg

 

[DMRippy]

It might get down to 39 tonight does that count? It is supposed to actually freeze tomorrow and the next night. It has been really warm here for December though. I would love for it to snow as long as I get everything into the greenhouse first lol.
I miss snow especially around the holidays. We lived outside of Yellowstone Park in WY for several years and it was so pretty there.

It has been the same here. I was getting some pics of my cuckoo roo the other day, maybe a week ago and my Olive Egger roo started to come at me (his name is DINNER) and I didn't have anything to defend myself AND I was in SHORTS in DEC?????? something is wrong with that picture

It is going to freeze tonight and for a couple of nights, but not too low, just 26 or so. The teens worry me a little about the waterers but that is it.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Even if she doesn't lay dark, just find her a nice white boy..she is too pretty not to breed plus whites are not exactly real common. If you can't find a white roo try and find some eggs from someone with white Marans. Separate the darkest eggs from the lighter ones when you hatch. Put up a barrier or place them in plastic baskets if you have to hatch them in the same incubator. I have two separate foam incubators that I use as hatchers so I can keep the darkest eggs separated.  
Mark all the chicks from the darkest eggs (colored zip ties on the legs or however you mark them). Pick the best roo from your darker eggs then mate him to your white hen. Do the same with the next batch and mate her best male chick from the darkest egg color back to her etc.. This is how to get dark egg coloring. I have truly found that the egg color the roo comes from matters as much as the hen's egg color. 

These are BCM eggs from some of my darker layers (Cheepa's line) but this is how I did it. These are a little dirty but they are going in the bator and I will still separate out the roos from the darkest egg  and use them back to the darkest laying hens.

These are amazing!

 

[PGRanch]

I posted here a while back about some chicks I got from a breeder.

I am pretty sure that breeder sold me EE crosses not CM. I was told here that they were all roos. I lost one yesterday to my dog...**** dog, I was sure that one was a pullet.

Anyway, here is the largest of the 3 that I ended up with. It has a beard and looks to be a pullet so likely an EE/CM mix. I can't find any photos of the smaller one I still have but I'm pretty sure its a roo. I'll post photos tomorrow. Just thought it would be nice to update these birds

The breeder got really creepy so I chose to not exchange for pullets lol

 

[flgardengirl]

These are amazing!

Thanks some of these are getting to be really hard to candle lol.

PGRanch: That is definitely not a pure cuckoo marans. It could be either a cuckoo marans x ameraucana or ee OR it could be ameraucana or ee x barred rock or other type of barred bird. Whatever it is its really pretty. I like him/her!! Hard to tell really if they are male or female at that age. Tail looks kinda roo-ish though. I'm thinking he is probably ameraucana x cuckoo marans because his legs are pale and barred rocks have more yellowish legs. The cuckoo marans have pale legs. Ameraucanas are usually more slate but the cuckoo genes would cause the legs to be paler. You could breed him to a blue or lavender ameraucana and make some pretty ee babies. The lav would take a few generations to get the lav barred though.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

Well I ended up with 2 golden cuckoo marans Chicks 1 hen and 1 rooster. It is amazing how easy it is to tell the gender at hatch! Really a fun breed and so far I have 5 regular cuckoo Chicks. Not the best hatches but with shipped eggs I'm always glad to get at least 1 chick. I'll try an add photos later