Let's talk Golden Cuckoo Marans!

[Chooks man]

Hi Buckabucka Gorgeous Golden Cucko Maran rosster you ve got. nice color and pretty face. shame the hens like to pick on his toes feathers.

 

[chickee]

For the fun of it, I am going to experiment with using my Golden Cuckoo rooster (second generation black copper x golden cuckoo cross) over two wheaten Marans pullets I hatched last year from very dark eggs. I was told using the wheaten for a cross would produce some mossiness in the feathers of the offspring. If nothing else, the cross will produce some pretty hens for someone's layer flock that lay dark eggs.

Buckabucka hatched eggs out of my golden cuckoo x golden cuckoo rooster and hens and will be breeding those pullets to her gorgeous rooster Woodie and sending me eggs this year. This will help improve my golden cuckoos.

 

[morbius18]

Below is the top view of my lighter one and a darker one:

Recent view of the Rooster (golden cuckoo), Hen (black copper or brown/red) and 3 of the boys. They are 4 1/2 months and have started crowing.

 

[morbius18]

Cuckoo X Birchen will not give you a Golden cuckoo, because a Birchem marans are Silver bird.
A Golden based bird is needed to recteate the Golden cuckoo.

here the way I m doing t;
1) Silver Cuckoo marans Rooster X Wheaten Marans hens.= F1 all Silver cuckoo.
the pullets are pure silver cuckoo .they lay nice dark eggs.
the cockerels where impure Silver /Golden cuckoo. the amount of the gold vary from one cockerel to another .

2) last  year I split the work to make 2 lines; line A) Best F1 rooster Silver/Gold X Wheaten hens = F2 in this F2 there a Golden cuckoo, silver cuckoo ,black and red chicks.
                                                              line B) F1 rooster Silver/Gold  Cuckoo X F1 silver cuckoo hens Brothers ant half sisters = F2B this one s are different ,got a golden cuckoo. silver cuckoo dark, silver cuckoo pure , silver wheaten pullets, black pullets and some other color patern don t have a name yet.

3) this year ; Line A) F2 Golden cuckoo Rooster X Golden cuckoo hen =F3
                   Line B) F2B Golden rooster X F2B Golden Cuckoo pullets = F3B

4) Next year ;Line A) F3 Golden cuckoo Double Barred Rooster Marans X F3 Gold Cuckoo pullets = F4 100% pure Golden Cuckoo Marans lay dark eggs.
                   Line B) same thing F3B X F3B = F4B 100% pure Golden Cuckoo Marams. lay dark egg

5) 2018; Roosters F4 X F4B Hens =F5 pure Golden Cuckoo. Good stock to start line breeding.
           Roosters F4B X F4 Hens = F5  pure Golden Cuckoo. good stock to start line breeding

5 year project .

What are your thoughts on the golden cuckoos being Er based or e+ based?

Bevs Marans say "This variety was started by crossing the cuckoo female with a golden salmon male"
Cuckoos are E extended black, a golden salmon, according to the chucken calculator is E^wh wheaten based. But testing the cross with the chicken calculator shows only barred and black offspring.

Also the golden hen that is e+ based should look like the picture below:

And the ER based hens shoul look like:

The only difference between the cock is the presence of a wing triangle.

I've seen both advertised as proper.

I did your test matings in the chicken calculator, and step 2 of your plan did yield some crazy colors. So yours will be E^wh based birds.

 

[Chooks man]

Hi Morbius 18.
First I need to understand what Cuckoo E are you guys using .any cuckoo or a Silver cuckoo marans. there is a big difference between them.
The Golden cuckoo marans can be any thing e+.EWh. E Ewh. ER e+ depend with what you start.

mine they are ER/EWh the father I used was ER/ER silver cuckoo maran Rooster and the hens whhere W/EWh/EWh .

 

[Chooks man]

The Silver Cuckoo Marans rooster I used is ER/ER in the marans family the Cuckoo are ER/ER not E/E like other breed.

yeah I did get some crazy color .the silver wheaten are the best.

 

[morbius18]

Hi Morbius 18.
First I need to understand what Cuckoo E are you guys using .any cuckoo or a Silver cuckoo marans. there is a big difference between them.
The Golden cuckoo marans can be any thing e+.EWh. E Ewh. ER e+ depend with what you start.

mine they are ER/EWh the father I used was ER/ER silver cuckoo maran Rooster and the hens whhere W/EWh/EWh .

I'm not sure which they meant. My rooster was golden cuckoo hen was brown red, so no cuckoo at all in mine. I guess thats my confusion, there are all different genotypes that have a common phenotype.

 

[morbius18]

http://www.bevsmarans.com/crele.html

Here is the link to Bevs Marans site that I quoted

 

[morbius18]

Here is a few close ups of my sire. I think he is ER based because of no wing triangle present, but its my assumption only. He's finishing a molt, and still regrowing some tail feathers.

 

[Chooks man]

the phenotype are the one we looking for . the best Golden cuckoo marans should be ER/ER like a silver cuckoo to get well balanced cuckoo pattern with a golden color just on the huckel .sattle and back the rest of the body should stay Slver/grey cuckoo pattern.

any person using a Black copper parent will end up having the right phenotype in the end.