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

[Chooks man]

Hi Blarneyeggs any news about your pullets how they are going?

I noticed that you like the name s. all my chooks have names.easy to track when you have a lot varieties and a lot of lines .
here how I make put name.I named all the breeders chooks I bought
named the selected chicks that hatched from fertile eggs I bought .each strain or line are named after the breeders I bought them from. So all this name where the foundation off my made up names.
How how do I made up this name.
1)if the Rooster is a dominant in the cross ,than he ll past the first 2 letters of his name to all his progeny.
Example . the Silver cuckoo Rooster name CHARLIE = all his son are named .Chinatown. Chaplin .Chapel etc....
his daughters are name ; Clelsea, Cheese, Channel , Cheetah ,Chemise etc......
2) if the Rooster and the Hen s are from the same variety = than the cockerels will pick the name of they father( 2 first letters) and the pullets will inherit they mams name.
Example; Black coppers; Rooster Walker X Hen Sahara = Cockerels = Wallace .Wall,Wardrobe , etc... Pullet = Sasha , Sari , Samira
Channel = Chamoise, Charming .Charlotte etc
3) Back crossing name. I like those one because I made them up. in this case the cockerels will keep the name of they father with some thing added to t.
Example = Charlie= Charliehouse . Charlieboy , Charlielove
= Cheese= Cheesell .Cheeswek ,Cheesabelle .best Cheese etc
= White Storm = Whitehope. Whitelion .
=Cheetah= Cheetahira, Cheetahari ,Cheetahub
If I don t give them name than they are just chooks nothing special
Chooks with name they will stay with me for the rest of they live NO culling they will live and reproduce and get the retirement bonus by leting them roaming free in they pens with they friend for the rest of they lives I have a lot of space .

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Wow. I can hardly keep my own children's names straight.

One of these days I'm going to have my camera outside with me and take a picture of my Cuckoo Cockerel. I believe he is quite a disaster. But good size, and nice leg feathering. He's got lots of white in his high tail too.

I STILL haven't gotten any eggs from that pen. Every day is an easter egg hunt here, they are fenced in their own field, so I search through all of the high grass as well.

We will be stealing half of their fencing soon for my son's 4-H lambs, so my search will take less time....

 

[KF0002]

Thanks for the info. I've not seen them or even heard of them before.

Oh Wow! Precious

I was just thinking it's about time for an avatar change...yes she's a great Pyr. That's my Bella, she has my heart.

Aww she is lovely! GP's are the only breed we have ever owned to protect our chickens. They are great dogs.

 

[DMRippy]

Sorry to hear your lost. same happen to me lost most of my cuckoo and Blues 114 chicks aged 3 month. that a way of life .we have to push forward .Loosing a chicken is hard but loosing the years of work been put to fixed them that hurt .

how are you working with them and a Black copper ?

I had a good result crossing the silver cuckoo Rooster ( English type) to the Black coppers hen s without a hackle ( Black hens) the F2 Solid cuckoo like type is from this crosses

I m going to cross mine this year to the Birchen .my cuckoo cockerels need type and feathered legs and my Birchen need a boost of pure silver gene / clear what let of the Ar+ Autosomal Red and keeping a hackle on the cuckoo hen s.

here how I m going to do t ;1) Birchen Roo X silver cuckoo hen s= F1 dark cuckoo Cockerels and Bichen pullets YEAR ONE
YEAR TWO ; Cross back a Birchen pullets to they Sire ( Birchen) and Cross back The Darck cockerels to they mamas( silver cuckoo )

2) Silver cuckoo Roo X Birchen hen s = F1 A all dark cuckoo .YEAR ONE.
YEAR TWO ; Cross back a cuckoo pullets to a new silver cuckoo Rooster ,and cross the F1 darck cuckoo cockerel to they mam s( Birchen = 50% Birchen ,50% cuckoo.

a lot of work but it s enjoyable . I like Genetic and breeding.

Good luck with your breeding

Before this happened I crossed Birchen into my Blue Marans. She came from a Single barred Splash Cuckoo Cockerel. I got some solid looking pullets from that cross. They are the reason I knew that birchen look would pop up. BUT what was I going to do.

What I have now are another line of Black Marans. I have 3 black hens and 1 cock. He is covering a blue or 2 from that birchen cross and I think since I added some pullets there are 3 or 4 reg cuckoos and 1 blue cuckoo.... I need to go do some culling in there and test mating same with the hens. I had them with a blue cuckoo cockerel and issues just popped up so he is going to the roo guy and I am testing the hens. Something is not correct in that wood pile LOL. Not going to go further till I have single mated them to test.

I have never crossed Copper Marans in my cuckoos.... gold leakage has been a little issue so don't want to add to that problem.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Chooks Man, I was just looking at the French Marans of Australia Web Page, VERY informative. I especially like how the first thing I read was what size leg band was best and how they describe the tinted egg color as being 'wrongly called 'BROWN' in most of the foreign breeds standards' LOL!

 

[Chooks man]

yeah a lot of information there. my favorite page is Notes on breeding..well explained all the varieties .

 

[KF0002]

Just wanted to share some pics of my babies! I'm a new Marans mom so I have to show them off. The top pic is a mix of a little bit of everything: my 4 cuckoos (2 pullets, 2 cockerels), my 2 splash marans (1 pullet, 1 cockerel), and a little oddball Speckled Sussex pullet. The second pic is of my black copper babies. They are really enjoying the grow out pens outside.

Edited to add: As you can see in the pic, one of my black copper roos has yellow soles on his feet. He is a cull and will be given to a friend as a meat bird with the rest of our cull roosters. I am weary about using this group of black coppers for breeding as so far one has hatched clean legged (the breeder claims 5% or so hatch clean legged) and I'm noticing yellow soles on one or two. They are Bev Davis/Wade Jeanne. Any thoughts on this? I know this is a Cuckoo/White Marans thread but I am not a fan of the other Marans threads. I have more Black Copper chicks coming next week from a breeder so I have higher expectations for them.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

LOVE chick pictures!! I guess the culling all depends on what you plan to use them for. Yellow in shanks and feet is a disqualification, as is clean shanks (APA) so personally I would not use them for breeding at all. If you're interests are solely for a colorful egg basket, then I would keep the pullets, possibly cross them with a blue layer and make Olive Eggers and enjoy them.

Did you hatch them yourself? If so, did they have a decent egg color? If you're interested in showing, breeding, or selling, you should probably see what a new group of eggs or chicks from a different breeder brings. How old are these chicks? I believe when mine are of that size, I see a bit more copper, especially on the males. I see a white feather on the cockerel on the right, which of course, may molt out.

I'm always hesitant to critique other people's birds. So I will add that these birds look especially healthy and well cared for, and if I can figure out how to add pictures from my phone...I will supply fodder of my own to be critiqued.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

As promised... besides what I've already mentioned not liking on this cockerel, I'm not very pleased with his longer leg length and excessive fluff. His tail set looks okay in these pictures, but normally he carries it a bit higher. And while I'm at it... His comb is a bit larger than I like, and the blade is not as long as I would like. OH, and his color is too dark...have I covered it? lol

 

[KF0002]

As promised... besides what I've already mentioned not liking on this cockerel, I'm not very pleased with his longer leg length and excessive fluff. His tail set looks okay in these pictures, but normally he carries it a bit higher. And while I'm at it... His comb is a bit larger than I like, and the blade is not as long as I would like. OH, and his color is too dark...have I covered it? lol

I think he is just gorgeous! I am so in love with the Cuckoos and the whites.. be still my heart! I only hope my group of Cuckoos look half as good as your fella.

I am just getting into Marans, but I plan on being very strict on what I do use in my breeding pens the same way we are particular about our Games. My Cuckoos, Splash, and BCM all come from different breeders. The set of BCM chicks from the pics I purchased as hatching eggs and they did have decent color.. at least 5's and 6's. My second set of BCM are coming next week and I purchased them as chicks. The chicks coming next week are an infusion of several different bloodlines including Greenfire Farms, Little Peddler, and Heaven Sent Ranch. I look forward to those chicks and have higher hopes for them.

The BCM chicks in the pic I am culling through very heavily. There are 2 nice looking cockerels and 1 nice pullet in all that have appropriate leg color and nice leg feathering. There is 1 other pullet that has appropriate leg color but sparser leg feathering. I have already marked the yellow footed cockerels as culls so those are definitely out. And the clean legged cockerel was culled a few weeks ago. I will probably keep the best looking pullets depending on how they look as they mature and not use the cockerels from this group. Since the chicks coming next week are straight run, I'm sure I will have a good number of cockerels in that group to chose from. lol