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

[Chooks man]

Hi Barney how many varieties are you working with ?
the white what egg color they come from, mine they are 4 on the color chart in they best day s.
next year I m going to cross them with a silver cuckoo. my cuckoo have mass and lay dark eggs. plus the cuckoo and the white they work together .
cheers

 

[Chooks man]

Hi Blarney how many white chicken you end up selecting as your future breeders .
Thanks

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Hi Blarney how many white chicken you end up selecting  as your future breeders .
Thanks

Hi Chooks, I had 4 white cockerels to choose from. We decided on 2 of them based primarily on size. The very next morning these 2 cockerels were in a fight to the death. I'm very surprised at how quickly they went to absolutely no squirmishes to a full blown all out fight to the death. Nothing had changed, I haven't removed any birds with the exception of the injured bird who's blu koted and in quarantined. Now I'm trying to decide how I'm going to change up housing. I haven't culled any pullets yet, waiting on them to fill out more and start laying.

 

[Chooks man]

Hi Blarney eggs Merry xmas to you first and happy new year 2016.

How is your injured cockerel? Can u tell me please how you are going to breed this white chooks. are they from the same hatch Sibling ? or unrelated ?
When your pullets start laying?
I love the white variety and I m interested to see how other breeders are working with them that all.

Cheers Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Hi Holli Dollis Mery xmas and happy new year to you.

What happen with your white little chick? any up date is good.

cheers
Chooks man

 

[KF0002]

I am new to french silver cuckoos, and marans in general. The lady I bought my eggs from sent me 13 eggs, all but 2 had very nice dark color. The two lighter eggs were a creamy brown with dark freckles, and I almost didn't set them but wanted to get as many chicks as I could get. Long story short, after culling a few early quitters (one of which was one of the lighter eggs) I had 10 that looked good. Then there was a power outage the day before lockdown and I only ended up with 6. Out of the 6, one little black pullet came clean legged. Out of the others that were feather legged there are 2 nicely feather legged roos, 1 sparsely feather legged roo, and 2 sparsely feather legged pullets. In the pictures of the parent stock, the roos have good feathering on their legs and the hens' legs are sparsely feathered. So that needs to be improved in this line for sure. I also want to breed for the darkest egg color I can achieve. That is my goal with my black coppers as well.

My question is this: Should I cull the clean legged pullet from my planned breeding pen? I want to keep the two roos with good feathering on their legs (one in the main pen, and one for a backup), and definitely the two feather legged pullets. I will cull the roo with sparse feathers on his legs. Or would you go ahead and breed off the clean legged pullet just this one year and then cull her once I get a few more feather legged pullets from the bunch?

We are pretty strict when it comes to what goes in our breeding pens for other breeds, so that part of me wants to cull the clean legged pullet. I just want to get the two cents of some experienced Marans breeders. If I had 40 pullets to choose from instead of 3, it would be no question as to whether or not I should cull. But where I am limited to these 3 pullets I am temped to just go with it.

I would love to hear any thoughts. Thanks!

 

[Chooks man]

you can breed the clean legged pullets as long as the rooster has a good leg fathers.

the roosters need to be fathered .

 

[KF0002]

you can breed the clean legged pullets as long as the rooster has a good leg fathers.

the roosters need to be fathered .

I have 2 roosters with very nicely feathered legs I will keep for breeding. I figured I would just be really selective of which offspring to keep for breeding in the future and try to improve the leg feathering in the pullets. Once I get a few pullets with better leg feathering, those will replace the main breeders. And so on and so forth. We line breed.. fathers/daughters.. uncles/nieces.. etc.

Here are some pics of them. I didn't get a pic of the clean legged pullet. I was on the fence about her.

Rooster

Same rooster as above
pullet
pullet
Rooster

 

[DMRippy]

you can breed the clean legged pullets as long as the rooster has a good leg fathers.

the roosters need to be fathered .

Feathered legs are not sex linked. Either sire or dam can pass the trait off. Feathered legs or the lack of is an easy fix. Several genes at work to make them but it can be fixed. I did it in 2 generations. A cockerel/cock is the quickest fix since he will pass that off to 100% of the chicks.

 

[KF0002]

Feathered legs are not sex linked.  Either sire or dam can pass the trait off.  Feathered legs or the lack of is an easy fix.  Several genes at work to make them but it can be fixed.  I did it in 2 generations.  A cockerel/cock is the quickest fix since he will pass that off to 100% of the chicks. 

Thats what Im hoping for. My two roos Im gonna keep are nicely feathered so Im hoping their chicks will have nicer leg feathers.