Let's talk Golden Cuckoo Marans!

[chickee]

Oh! Another cluster of posts with no pullet eggs! I'm looking forward to everyone's photos.

I'd like to learn about trap nests also. Not sure I'll ever need them, but I have no idea about them.

Perhaps after I have been breeding for a while it will be different, but I did not find my chicks to be autosexing at all. I think there is a photo early in the thread, -but my chicks were all different colors with a variety of head spot sizes and all were male.

When you hatch pullets it will be become more obvious

Those photos were mine.

Here they are again with the first picture being a new one of the two pullets (and their brother) I am waiting on laying. I think I have an egg eater, so that is why I have not gotten eggs yet.

This is the best example~ Pullet, rooster, pullet.


Rooster chicks: Note the almost blue grey hue to their bodies and mostly yellow heads.


All pullets. Dark bodies with very little yellow on heads.

 

[buckabucka]

Your chicks are so consistent -looking, chickie. Mine were all over the place. I only have this bad photo of the day-olds. I would have thought the one on the lower left with the small head spot was female, or perhaps the two very yellow chicks were a different sex than the others, but all were male.

At least if I hatch some of your chicks, I should be able to identify them.

I hope you can fix the egg eater problem before it spreads! I don't know how much room you have, but I saw these roll-away nest boxes on here somewhere that look easy to put together.

The tote is propped up on the front end, and you just screw a plywood partition in there that let's the egg roll back!

 

[chickee]

Your chicks are so consistent -looking, chickie. Mine were all over the place. I only have this bad photo of the day-olds. I would have thought the one on the lower left with the small head spot was female, or perhaps the two very yellow chicks were a different sex than the others, but all were male.


At least if I hatch some of your chicks, I should be able to identify them.

I hope you can fix the egg eater problem before it spreads! I don't know how much room you have, but I saw these roll-away nest boxes on here somewhere that look easy to put together.

The tote is propped up on the front end, and you just screw a plywood partition in there that let's the egg roll back!

Now I remember you had some light and dark chicks that made it hard to sex them. Mine are real easy to sex. I was guessing on the egg eater because I put a bantam egg in the nest box in hopes of encouraging my two pullets to lay and when I checked at the end of the day the egg was gone! But I did get an egg today from one of my pullets! It is not as dark as the egg she hatched from which is a disappointment. That is why I said what I did about the importance of the rooster concerning passing on good egg color. I am hoping the other pullet lays a darker egg!

 

[buckabucka]

Hooray for the first pullet egg! That egg looks pretty nice. I know it could be darker, but it's still a nice color. Did you use a flash? It is sometimes hard to judge egg color in photos.
The eggs I hatched last spring looked like this:

The egg just below the white one on the left was from my golden cuckoo that has bare legs, the others were all shipped. I have no idea which egg my rooster hatched from, or even which 7 eggs hatched. I don't think I used a flash for that photo, but the eggs look light to me. The dark egg below looks darker, but I don't think it is, in reality. That dark egg is either golden cuckoo, or a blue splash Marans that came in a mixed hatching egg assortment. They both lay roughly the same color:

I can't wait to get some pullets!

 

[chickee]

Hooray for the first pullet egg! That egg looks pretty nice. I know it could be darker, but it's still a nice color. Did you use a flash? It is sometimes hard to judge egg color in photos.
The eggs I hatched last spring looked like this:


The egg just below the white one on the left was from my golden cuckoo that has bare legs, the others were all shipped. I have no idea which egg my rooster hatched from, or even which 7 eggs hatched. I don't think I used a flash for that photo, but the eggs look light to me. The dark egg below looks darker, but I don't think it is, in reality. That dark egg is either golden cuckoo, or a blue splash Marans that came in a mixed hatching egg assortment. They both lay roughly the same color:


I can't wait to get some pullets!

Thanks

It is a pretty egg, and maybe this pullet bred to the right rooster will produce dark egg layers. I have the type I like, now I need the dark eggs to go with it!

The eggs in your first picture look like the egg color of my original 4 GCM hens, with one of them laying a slightly darker egg. I prefer the solid dark brown eggs without spots. I did use a flash when I took the picture of my pullets first egg, but I think it is pretty close to its actual color.

Hope my GCM girls start laying again soon. Heck, I wish all my hens would start laying again! I am getting ZERO eggs from them right now, accept for the one pullet. I have 4 pullets at POL and who knows if they are laying yet with that darn egg eater! A couple more weeks and hopefully I will have my bantam pen put back up (tree fell on the kennel!) and the LF can be separated into their breeding pens and I will have them away from the hen that I suspect is the egg eater.

Looking forward to sending you eggs so you can get those pullets you want!

 

[buckabucka]

Eggs have slowed to a crawl here, too. I have 7 pullets, 6 have started laying, including a lavender Ameraucana that just started yesterday. They are between 29 -30 weeks old. Still waiting on the other lavender.....

Things should pick up in February. I hope to start my hatch in March, unless the weather is like last year. We had 45 mornings below zero last winter!

 

[chickee]

Eggs have slowed to a crawl here, too. I have 7 pullets, 6 have started laying, including a lavender Ameraucana that just started yesterday. They are between 29 -30 weeks old. Still waiting on the other lavender.....

Things should pick up in February. I hope to start my hatch in March, unless the weather is like last year. We had 45 mornings below zero last winter!

Ooooh! That is cold! Hope that doesn't happen again and spoil your March hatching plans!

My other GCMs pullet started laying while we were gone visiting our son for Thanksgiving in Florida! It is darker than the other pullets egg!

I might have to set some of them for the NYD hatch-a-long. One of the two Ameraucana pullets I am waiting on has been hanging out looking at the nesting boxes! Hoping for some blue eggs soon!

 

[freddyyoung]

How did you get such dark eggs??

 

[cynstaub]

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!

 

[chickee]

How did you get such dark eggs??

I did a lot of research and started with some pullets from a good breeder (Rockin' G Ranch who no longer breeds GCMs) and a rooster from a friend that created her own GCM line by adding in a black copper Marans rooster to help improve egg color. Plus I am only hatching from my darkest eggs. Takes lots of culling to get where you want to be.

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!

All 3 look pretty uniform (alike) but one stands out to me that has a nice smooth transition from his back to saddle on up to his tail. It is the one in front in picture #5 and I believe in front in your last picture.