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

[xlboergoats]

We select our male Cuckoos to be lighter than our females. The Proposed Standard calls for the males to be one to two shades lighter than the females. At this time, the Qualifying Meet is scheduled to be in Shawnee, Oklahoma next year. We hope to have a large number of Cuckoos at the show in Newnan, Georgia this spring so we can see how well they are measuring up to the Proposed Standard.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Here's a pic of our most promising boy from our project. On the down side, he has a small side spur on his comb, and has 1 golden feather. On the plus side, he's huge, and has no white in the tail. He has one copy of the barring/cuckoo gene. He will be crossed to his mother, which should yield some double barred cockerels. He also has a handful of black and blue hens with him to give us some more cuckoo hens in the next generation. Egg color has been quite good on the young pullets.

 

[flgardengirl]

I like the barring in his hackles. My silver cuckoo hens haven't started laying yet but the eggs they came from weren't all that dark so I'm not expecting too much lol.

Bev: thanks for your input on the lighter males. If I end up keeping these, I will definitely select for lighter males and tighter barring. Not sure if I want to work with a whole other project right now or not. I was hoping they would be more to the standard.
I like my girls but will see how their egg color is. These young cuckoo males are the biggest bunch of clowns I've ever seen. I can just sit and laugh at them for hours watching their crazy antics. You'd think they were a bunch of kittens fighting and jumping out at each other from behind trees etc. LOL

Blarney: Your white girl sounds nice. Do you know if she is dominant or recessive white? I don't have any white Marans but I do have a white orpington who hides cuckoo. She supposedly came from the HinkJC line indirectly. I like white birds in general because I started with chickens when I was just 5, taking over my grandmothers white leghorn flock

xlboer: Here are some of the cuckoos I saw at the 2/11 Newnan, GA show (where the BCM were approved) There weren't really that many cuckoos there but some of the lighter males I saw did have gold/leakage. Whether that was from the sun or true leakage, I don't know. Some had white in their tails.
*I know I posted some of these before on a diff thread last year but will re post here for those who haven't seen them. I like when people go to the shows and get pics and share them for learning experiences and for those who weren't able to make the show.


This first guy probably looks the best but it kinda looks like he has a white tail feather. I hated how all those windows obscured the photos lol

I don't remember now if this was supposed to be cuckoo or golden cuckoo due to so much gold (wish I had got a better shot of the card) Very light for golden so probably entered as cuckoo?

Here is a hen. Hard to tell anything on her because she is sitting down but she looks better than the one on the left. The one on the left that you can not see her head, her barring looks smudgy (for lack of a better word) and had non feathered shanks.

Since this is a cuckoo and WHITE Marans thread I will put up the pics of the few whites I saw. They looked pretty good. It seems like white would be an easy color to get approved if there were enough of them and their type was good?

 

[flgardengirl]

Please post cuckoo and white Marans show photos here if anyone has any to share.. I would love to be able to see some from shows I wasn't able to attend. I will probably go to the Newnan show in spring since its not really too long of a drive for me. Missed it due to work schedule this (2012) year. Not sure what birds I would bring yet- prob for sure not any of my silver cuckoos LOL!! Does anyone know if there is a date set yet?

 

[gilavina]

Here's a pic of our most promising boy from our project. On the down side, he has a small side spur on his comb, and has 1 golden feather. On the plus side, he's huge, and has no white in the tail. He has one copy of the barring/cuckoo gene. He will be crossed to his mother, which should yield some double barred cockerels. He also has a handful of black and blue hens with him to give us some more cuckoo hens in the next generation. Egg color has been quite good on the young pullets.

Breeding a bird with a sprig back to the parent bird (which is a carrier) will create a pool of birds with infinitely more sprig issues. Even if they do not express them, they will be carriers, which will pop up, and usually it always ends up on the best birds. If you are trying to breed to SOP, I wouldn't use him for breeding.

 

[flgardengirl]

I have to agree with that about the sprigs. I got a blue rooster one time that had a tiny sprig way down on his comb under the feather line. I didn't even think to look there when I got him. Well he threw a bunch of babies with a hen that I knew didn't have any sprigs or history of sprigs. So I got him down and looked really good and whalla, a tiny sprig! About half his offspring had sprigs so I quit using him. His offspring without sprigs threw sprigs when bred to a non sprigged hen as well so out they and their progeny went as well. I don't know what I hate dealing with worse: sprigs or middle toe feathers they are both difficult to breed out, it seems lol.

 

[DMRippy]

I have to agree with that about the sprigs. I got a blue rooster one time that had a tiny sprig way down on his comb under the feather line. I didn't even think to look there when I got him. Well he threw a bunch of babies with a hen that I knew didn't have any sprigs or history of sprigs. So I got him down and looked really good and whalla, a tiny sprig! About half his offspring had sprigs so I quit using him. His offspring without sprigs threw sprigs when bred to a non sprigged hen as well so out they and their progeny went as well. I don't know what I hate dealing with worse: sprigs or middle toe feathers they are both difficult to breed out, it seems lol.

SPRIGS That is a DQ .... Middle toe feathers is a FAULT.

 

[flgardengirl]

Yes I'm well aware of what is a DQ and what is a fault in the Marans. Been reading about it for the several years here on byc and other places LOL! Just saying, they are equally hard to deal with and given a choice, wouldn't want either one in my breeding programs but did use a blue hen with middle toe feathers due to the fact she was truly blue and laid dark! I personally would not attempt to show a bird with middle toe feathers even if it was just a point deduction but everyone has to make their own decisions. Some people do take birds with very obvious sprigs to the shows too. I have proof LOL!! Sometimes you do have to deal with stuff you don't want to in order to get from point A to point B in your breeding programs though based on what is available.

 

[snowbird]

I recommend that all Marans breeders should do a test mating with the female taht have some middle toe feathering with a Male that has very little. It is much faster to get the good outside toe feathering if you go this route, so what if you get a few with middle toe feathering , just cull and move forward..

No way I would cull a Nice Marans female because of middle toe feathering. Just remember with all breed of chickens it is all about averages.

 

[DMRippy]

Yes I'm well aware of what is a DQ and what is a fault in the Marans. Been reading about it for the several years here on byc and other places LOL! Just saying, they are equally hard to deal with and given a choice, wouldn't want either one in my breeding programs but did use a blue hen with middle toe feathers due to the fact she was truly blue and laid dark! I personally would not attempt to show a bird with middle toe feathers even if it was just a point deduction but everyone has to make their own decisions. Some people do take birds with very obvious sprigs to the shows too. I have proof LOL!! Sometimes you do have to deal with stuff you don't want to in order to get from point A to point B in your breeding programs though based on what is available.

Didn't a Marans win something at Newnan with sprig? Or was it White ear lobes? It really is about the battles you are willing to take on. I just got a BCM roo with middle toe feathers and I will test him with some lightly feathered pullets soon. I used a Cuckoo roo with middle toe feathers and I didn't see that I had more pop up than normal..... may have been because the hens didn't have feathered legs. I may not put up with it long if it get too bad. It is the averages I am going to look at.

BTW my 1 Cuckoo roo is just starting to get some tail feathers

so maybe in a few months I can see what he looks like.... he is HUGE. I picked him up the other day to check him for gold..... none

..... he was quite the chunker.