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

[ladycat]

Hi,
I was reading this book again last night. One of my favs!
Laws governing the breeding of standard fowls. c.1
( with linebreeding chart)
By Card, Wetherell Henry. Published 1912
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=chi.087299559;view=1up;seq=5
Anyway the author states that side springs show an indication of
rose comb blood. Don't the Pendescendas (sp?) have a rose comb?
Just wondering.
Best Success,
Karen

FYI that book can be downloaded in the readers choice of format here:
https://archive.org/details/cu31924003158312

I've downloaded dozens of fantastic and valuable chicken books from the Internet Archives. There are hundreds of poultry titles available there.

 

[sasimpson77]

Okay I think I understand the leg color has to be pink to meet SOP on a white, My next question (sorry if its already been asked) but I have two 10 week old white marans that have black spots about the size of a dime on them will they molt this out these chicks are from eggs I ordered from someone on this forum. I am going to try to post pictures also I only have the one pair can I breed them and just cull the dark legged chicks or it will continue to be an issue in the future? Sorry not the best pics but hopfully you can get the idea of what I am working with.

 

[DMRippy]

The spots are Leakage from Dom White..... my guess is they only have one copy of Dom White. Rec White can be leaky too but I have not seen it as much.

 

[Ihilani Coffee]

Okay I think I understand the leg color has to be pink to meet SOP on a white, My next question (sorry if its already been asked) but I have two 10 week old white marans that have black spots about the size of a dime on them will they molt this out these chicks are from eggs I ordered from someone on this forum. I am going to try to post pictures also I only have the one pair can I breed them and just cull the dark legged chicks or it will continue to be an issue in the future? Sorry not the best pics but hopfully you can get the idea of what I am working with.

When I enlarge the second photo, these legs look yellow.

 

[sasimpson77]

When I enlarge the second photo, these legs look yellow.

Yes your right they are yellow sorry

 

[freddyyoung]

Hi, I live in England and today I bought two golden cuckoo marans, but most of the golden cuckoo marans that I have seen on this thread have a black body and gold head, but mine look like this hen

They also don't have feathered legs, but I am going to buy a golden cuckoo maran cockerel who has feathered legs, will the feathered legs from the cockerel be passed on to the father? Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[freddyyoung]

I am picking up a golden cuckoo cock today, and I have a choice of two, they are both about twelve weeks and one of them has better colouring, but one has a better body structure, which is the most impirtant if it's going to be used for breeding?

 

[wuffielover]

Ok, time for some pic spam in this thread again...I thought about just making a new thread but I figured more people might see it here?? I posted pics of these guys when there were 12 of them back in March...well, I weeded them down to 1 roo & 5 hens, and they are 7 months old now! The hens are laying great ^_^ Anyway, now that they are more mature, I was hoping I could get some honest critique and opinions on if these guys are worth breeding, if I should get rid of a few more hens, look for a new roo, just scramble all the eggs I get from them, whatever. I am super new at this, these are my first chickens, so any advice is welcome. Here they are, rooster first:





I think his tail angle is high, sometimes it looks ok to me, other times it seems really high. I've seem a lot of roos that are lighter than him, I'm not sure he is double barred? His feathers are very even colored all over, not lighter in the hackles at all, and I'm not sure that's desirable. I think his overall build is OK, though. PS he is kind of dirty/sun bleached in spots, if you see a spot that looks brownish that's probably what it is.

Now some hens!





Last one is with the roo just for reference. OK so I really like the darker hens, I think they are more correct? I have 2 dark hens, two that are almost exactly the same shade as the rooster, and one kind of in-between. I think all the hens have a better tail angle than the roo, but maybe I'm talking nonsense It's hard to see in these pictures because I just moved the coop and the grass is high, but the whole flock has really good leg feathering, all the way down the shank & outside toe but none where it shouldn't be (if that makes sense). And one last picture, here are their eggs (smaller/lighter ones were the first ones they laid, you can see the progression ^_^). They are not SUPER dark like some I've seen but not light brown either. They are a kind of deep terra-cotta color (4?ish?), I had a hard time photographing it but I think this is close to true.

 

[DMRippy]

Are you sue that second pic is not a barred rock? What color is her beak and legs? Her barring is WAY to tight and straight for a cuckoo. Cuckoos are more smutty looking. Did you get them all from the same place? It is hard to tell from the pictures but does that cockerel have some red leaking in his hackles and saddles. Does he always carry his wings like that? Was it hot when you took the pics? I would not use the dark hens. The hens are DARKER than the cockerels because they only carry one copy of the barring gene. The hens should be cuckoo all over.


This is the TYPE they should be.



These are my Cuckoos. Most of these are blue so it is harder to see the barring in the hens but they ALL have it.







To illustrate the LIGHT and Dark of the barring this a barred rock cockerel. See how much more barring he has than the pullet in the next picture?


This is a blue barred Rock but you can see she is not as barred as the Cockerel. Do you see how STRAIGHT the barring is on her.... as the name implies cuckoos are not that distinct in the barring.




The cuckoo and barring are different. Cuckoo is more like black, gray, white, gray, black. barring is Black, white. Barring has an OFF and ON switch and I don't think that is in the cuckoo birds. Lots of people crossed barred rocks into the marans. if your birds were at some point you might have yellow legs pop up right off.

 

[wuffielover]

Wow that was a quick reply with some good Q's and info, thanks!

Quote: OK let me hit up these questions- I did get this whole group from the same place as pure bred, but I guess I can't rule out that some barred rock might be in there somewhere. All their legs are white/pinkish, and beaks are horn-colored with some black, even in the 6 that I got rid of for one reason or another, none had any yellow in their legs. Let me see if I can find some pics that show that better...

Here is a couple of foot shots (feet shots?), one I think you can see the beak pretty well in too:



And you are saying the barring should be more like this? She looks more 'messy' to me.


As opposed to here, the more barred rock-looking on is in the front, compared to the back one is more correct for cuckoo? Sorry, I know peering through chicken wire is a pain.


Quote:
I am 90% sure that any brownish/reddish that he looks like he has is just because he's a dirty bugger that's been out in the sun all summer. I would have to give him a bath to be 100%. It isn't that hot out anymore (mid-80s?? as opposed to 90s, whew, finally), but he was ****** some because I was crawling around in his turf trying to get pictures, he did his little stomp and flap dance at me a couple of times. Here are a couple more, I would say this is how he normally is, it's through the coop wire also unfortunately: