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

[cutecowgirl084]

Ok @Chooks man one of my white marans laid an egg today for the first time and it was only a 3

. Still waiting on the other girl to see her egg color. What would I need to do to improve egg color in the white marans?? I have a feeling it's going to be long and complicated in which case I'll justvbe selling my trio, but figured I'd ask just in case it's a simpler fix than I'm imagining.

 

[DMRippy]

Ok @Chooks man one of my white marans laid an egg today for the first time and it was only a 3

. Still waiting on the other girl to see her egg color. What would I need to do to improve egg color in the white marans?? I have a feeling it's going to be long and complicated in which case I'll justvbe selling my trio, but figured I'd ask just in case it's a simpler fix than I'm imagining.

I know you didn't ask me but there is NO easy fix. If you bring in birds that lay darker eggs you still have an uphill climb to get it back and it will take YEARS and YEARS to get them up to a 4 or 5. My coppers started out laying a 5 and quickly got to a 6 and I have seen 1 bird lay 8's (killed by a coon). TOOK years of selecting only the dark eggs to improve color. You don't have any dark eggs to pick from and crossing in a dark lay alone will not improve them for several years.

 

[Chooks man]

Ok @Chooks man one of my white marans laid an egg today for the first time and it was only a 3

. Still waiting on the other girl to see her egg color. What would I need to do to improve egg color in the white marans?? I have a feeling it's going to be long and complicated in which case I'll justvbe selling my trio, but figured I'd ask just in case it's a simpler fix than I'm imagining.

if she does not lay minimum number 4 don t worry about it .

you need a silver cuckoo rooster from a dark egg layer to improve the color of the white plumage and the eggs.

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I know you didn't ask me but there is NO easy fix. If you bring in birds that lay darker eggs you still have an uphill climb to get it back and it will take YEARS and YEARS to get them up to a 4 or 5. My coppers started out laying a 5 and quickly got to a 6 and I have seen 1 bird lay 8's (killed by a coon). TOOK years of selecting only the dark eggs to improve color. You don't have any dark eggs to pick from and crossing in a dark lay alone will not improve them for several years.

I totally agree with you .there is not easy fix.

White one are complex variety .

every thing has a solution .

chooks man

 

[DMRippy]

My cuckoos lay about a 4. I have some solid blacks that lay a 7. I am crossing the two. The cuckoos pullets will go back to my solid black cock till egg color improves. The cockerels will keep going back to the hens. For the first 2 generations I don't expect to see ANY change in color. When you cross 2 lines you ALWAYS lose egg color. The 2nd cross if you are lucky it will get back to a middle color. To get dark eggs takes hard culling and with cuckoos and solids I am going to have a harder time to keep the pattern. (Solid black cock x cuckoo hens make sex links and those cockerels will only have one copy of the barring gene and the other line with a cockerel from this cross is single barred over solid hens so only about 50% of the pullets will be barred).

If cuckoos were easy to find with feathered legs (took me a long time to fix that issue too) I would have started over but it is not easy to find marans with good egg color. If you can find some whites that lay darker eggs you battle will be half won without the work. Technically at a 3 they are not marans.

 

[cutecowgirl084]

Makes sense. Unfortunately white marans with good egg color are going to be very difficult to find. So I'll likely just sell mine and move to something else. Thanks for the info

 

[GMOfreeMama]

The first girl on the log is the pink legs the second profile shot is the girl with pink with grey legs.

Can you tell me how to sex these guys?

 

[Chooks man]

Can you tell me how to sex these guys?

1 cockerel and 2 pullets

chooks man

 

[GMOfreeMama]

Thanks Geebs I have both Silver and Golden Cuckoos very few with feathered shanks. My Silver Cuckoos have the best egg color my Goldens are barely 4's except for one she lays a 5/6 but her eggs seem to be hard to hatch...it's always something....

I did hatch this guy hopefully he'll grow up to replace my clean legged rooster.

What color is this guy?

 

[angnic22]

Hi all. Can someone confirm that this is a golden cuckoo marans? I have 2 like this: barred with red coming in on tips of feathers and around neck. (The other isn't as predominate in the feather, but definitely brown in the neck. Both have feathered legs.
Any other words of advice?