Let's talk Golden Cuckoo Marans!

[estamets]

My FGCM chicks are 9 weeks old. I have way too many chickens right now and need to let some go.
The idea was to keep them until 6 or 7 months so I can take my pick of the 3 cockerels for my personal FGCM breeding. The rest I would then let go.
But as I said above, I have way too many and need to thin the flock NOW.
All you FGCM pros out there...is it too soon to tell which of the three might be the better choice to keep?
Take a look and and let me hear your opinions. The light is not the greatest in these pix. It's very overcast here today. The white is a bit blown out. They all look so similar to me.
Thank you, thank you!

I don't want to meet any of these guys in a dark alley. Look at those fierce faces!

 

[sonew123]

All 3 of my girls are laying now...they are a nice brown but not the dark browns I was looking for...either way, they are pretty and the girls are huge!

The dark eggs with the messed up paint jobs are from them...funny how are all blochy one day then totally uniformed the next...adds character

 

[buckabucka]

Pretty eggs, sonew! I like the various splotches and speckling that some eggs have. I have one hen that lays a light green speckled egg, sometimes with subtle stripes:

 

[freddyyoung]

When you bring a copper black cockerel in and cross to the gcm hens, what are the offspring like?

 

[chickee]

All 3 of my girls are laying now...they are a nice brown but not the dark browns I was looking for...either way, they are pretty and the girls are huge!



The dark eggs with the messed up paint jobs are from them...funny how are all blochy one day then totally uniformed the next...adds character

Nice looking eggs! It is fun to get those funny, blotchy ones

I got one the other day and it had dark brown on each end and a stripe of light brown in the middle. My GCM hens are starting to laying again after molting and that was a first egg. This morning I caught another hen who has just started laing again in the nesting box who had just laid a super nice dark egg! The eggs are so pretty and dark when they first start up laying again.

Pretty eggs, sonew! I like the various splotches and speckling that some eggs have. I have one hen that lays a light green speckled egg, sometimes with subtle stripes:

Cool! I like that green speckled egg with the stripe in the middle!

When you bring a copper black cockerel in and cross to the gcm hens, what are the offspring like?

I remember someone posting pictures of chicks from the first breeding of the cross to the BCM rooster. If I remember right, they had the cuckoo markings but their background color was really dark and they didn't have as much gold. My rooster is third generation from the BCM breeding and has proper GCM coloring, and so far produces chicks with correct color, so you can get back to the original GCM color pretty quickly.

 

[suncatcher]

Hello all! I am subscribing as I have a rooster that looks to be a golden Cuckoo or at least split for Golden Cuckoo, if there is such a thing.

What coloring would he be considered? I bought him a year and half ago, his ad said a blue copper, yeah, I knew he wasn't but had driven 75 miles, so bought him anyways! lol

How should I breed him? He has no shank feathering, but they did say he came from breeder quality eggs. Maybe he will just make a really good chicken stew........

 

[chickee]

Hello all! I am subscribing as I have a rooster that looks to be a golden Cuckoo or at least split for Golden Cuckoo, if there is such a thing.

What coloring would he be considered? I bought him a year and half ago, his ad said a blue copper, yeah, I knew he wasn't but had driven 75 miles, so bought him anyways! lol

How should I breed him? He has no shank feathering, but they did say he came from breeder quality eggs. Maybe he will just make a really good chicken stew........

He looks like a Blue Copper Marans x Cuckoo Marans or Barred Rock to me. What breed did the person you bought him from have on the premises? He might make some pretty hens bred to golden cuckoo Marans hens for some non standard colored blue gold cuckoo colored offspring.

 

[suncatcher]

She had Marans there, and said he came from a breeder that bred Blue Coppers. Hmmm, may have to find some Golden Cuckoo's.... thanks for responding, as I was not sure what color he was!

 

[freddyyoung]

What are the opinions on my gcm cockerel? Many thanks for any feedback

 

[chickee]

What are the opinions on my gcm cockerel? Many thanks for any feedback

That is one beautiful rooster! But not a "golden" cuckoo Marans. GCMs have no blue. I keep thinking someone should work on the blue gold cuckoo Marans color like your rooster because it is so pretty! Your hens look like wheaten Marans and your rooster a cross between a copper blue and golden cuckoo Marans.

This is what the golden cuckoo Marans roosters should look like.