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

[VillageChicken]

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The interesting thing about white in chickens is that a bird can be both dominant AND recessive white, as they are two different genes that work independently. But dominant clears the black feather color almost completely with just one dose since it is dominant, but won't clear the red unless there's two. Your birds may also be recessive white but that won't show unless your cuckoo roo carries recessive white as well, but you'd be getting a lot more clean whites if that were the case.

 

[Lotsapaints]

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You might find that those with a spot or two will turn out barred

in this picture are 1 White Marans and 2 barred Marans....the yellow chick with the spots in the wings turned out like this

 

[OHmamma]

Ahhh so much more to learn...thank you for explaining that.

So here they are, one has a couple black spots and a red one right on top of its head. I think it is odd how their legs looks green, the mom of those two has greyish legs so I guess they will too. I just can't win on this one, notice the one that has the proper pink legs has no leg feathers? Only the one from the grey legged hen does.

I supose the darker faced ones could still be cucu as well. Oh well, at least they all will taste the same

 

[jeremy]

So if you were to breed a Golden Cuckoo Marans rooster over a Black Copper (or Blue Copper) Marans hens, would the resulting offspring have the Cuckoo pattern? (According to the chicken calculator, yes) Would they appear to be Golden Cuckoos though? Through selective breeding could you consider them pure Golden Cuckoos?

I'm thinking of ways to darken the egg color and add feathered shanks into the line of Golden Cuckoos I'm looking into acquiring, would adding some Black Copper blood be a bad idea?

 

[Lotsapaints]

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Jeremy go to the Australian Marans http://frenchmaransclubaustralia.yolasite.com/notes-on-breeding.php site scroll way down to the bottom it's not as easy as the calculator shows it can be done just adds even more culling but most Goldens need help with egg color and feathered shanks

 

[cmfarm]

So if you breed a white marans to another white will the offspring be all white or will it most likely be a mix of whites and cuckoos?

 

[Lotsapaints]

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If you are breeding recessive whites together (the ones with the pink shanks) you should in theory only get whites breeding dominate whites the ones with gray shanks you should only get whites also though I think you could get color leakage again you can read the Australian site http://frenchmaransclubaustralia.yolasite.com/notes-on-breeding.php and scroll down to the whites have fun reading I like this site for showing so many things including Randy's Wheaten hens

 

[OHmamma]

I have my silver cucu roo over a black copper hen and this hatched out today from them, that was his egg. It looks like it is going to be a real dark cucu and I am hoping a male too so I can use him next year to darken the eggs in my "regular" cucus plus add some of those heavy feathers back in. It seems roo-like with a larger comb,spur nubs and big mouth. It is also pretty big.

Ahh wishful thinking. I have never seen a BCM x Cucu so I wouldn't kow by color like with the normal cucus.

 

[Hens and Roos]

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Cute baby!

 

[VillageChicken]

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Don't you usually have a bigger headspot on your cuckoo roos?