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

[Raven1]

This is my Golden Roo

 

[flgardengirl]

I haven't seen any wheaten in my bcm girl or her 2 brothers and 4 sisters. They are all properly colored except (lol) she has some copper flecking on her chest and one of her brothers is the infamous Agent Orange rooster that I posted pics of before on the Marans thread. He is so reddish orange he looks black tailed buff LOL- Well not really, but you get the picture. Her other 2 brothers are correctly colored except one had a white tail feather. They are from Donna Gherke (babyhorsebonnie) line. I haven't heard of anyone getting wheaten from hers so far...
Hmmm the more I am thinking of that white tail feather in one of her brothers, Maybe I will go ahead and use one of the bcm females from a different line that never has white. Those girls run a little smaller though and the leg feathering isn't as reliable but the eggs much darker. I will have to think about it some more. The golden cuckoo males often get a white tail feather, so I am dreading that to happen in future generations.

I know what you guys mean about the golden cuckoos here in America looking different than the European ones. Ours seem to run much lighter in color.

I believe my golden cuckoos from pasofino are from the Braden line so there is probably a lot of genetic diversity in there.

The very first golden cuckoo I had was a male from nivtup and exhibits barred black tailed buff coloring so I'm not using him for this project. I believe that breeder's GCs were from the Braden line as well so alot of things can pop up in that line it seems. I think he is pretty so using him for something else.

Here is an older thread from 2009 on golden cuckoos that is pretty interesting if anyone wants to read it.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=119871

 

[Raven1]

Yes the dreaded white tail feather! I am hoping to get a son from my guy without it. I like everything about him but that. He is a little on the light side but my girls are a little on the dark side so hoping for a balance there we will see as the babes grow.

 

[flgardengirl]

Okay I have another question, Is the golden cuckoo coloring really genetically the same as crele coloring in other birds?

 

[OHmamma]

Quote:
He is purty,

You are correct about mine, he was from a BCM roo and a cucu mama.
And he tasted just like chicken!

 

[cpegram]

Ok I am just getting into the cuckoos mine are 4 weeks. I have noticed a couple have brown heads instead of black is this normal?

 

[OHmamma]

Quote:
Not as I have seen from mine, but that was when my goldens turned golden if that is what you were wanting.....Do they still have the spot on the head and wing tips?

 

[cpegram]

More like the whole head is brown. I can post a pic later as I only have 2 like this out of 14.

 

[OHmamma]

Quote:
Like what was said earlier if someone has been using BCM to darken their cuckoo eggs then you may get something like that pop up unexpectedly from time to time. They should have some evidence of barring or perhaps some eggs got mixed up.

 

[cpegram]

Oh yes they have barring.......here is a pic

and here are the black headed ones

it was a little cool out this morning