Let's talk Golden Cuckoo Marans!

[jaybrenn]

This picture really confuses me though.

Mine being a hybrid of a Golden Cuckoo and a black copper should have 1 copy of the barring gene and be dark. This hen in the background is a cuckoo, and is showing the darkness of one gene copy, so why are these so much lighter? Is there varying shades of darkness in the dark cuckoos? The more I learn, the more I get confused, lol.

I asked a friend of mine about this that is very tuned in to the Cuckoos and the genetics behind them. This was her response......

"They will be varying shades until you choose for one shade. It also depends on the rate of feather growth and melanizers."

I asked her if the birds that feathered in faster were lighter than the slower feathering birds. Her response....

"It is just distributed better. The barring gene effects the way the color is put into the feather. It is like a switch turning it on to make black/blue/gold and off to make the white/silver. Like if you were spray painting and pressing the button once a second down a length of board. If you move your hand fast you have less color. Slower and you have more. The barring gene only works at one speed. The feathering rate determines the pattern. There are several genes related to the rate of growth."

Hope this helps a little.

 

[morbius18]

I asked a friend of mine about this that is very tuned in to the Cuckoos and the genetics behind them. This was her response......

[COLOR=373E4D]"They will be varying shades until you choose for one shade. It also depends on the rate of feather growth and melanizers."[/COLOR]

I asked her if the birds that feathered in faster were lighter than the slower feathering birds. Her response....

[COLOR=373E4D]"It is just distributed better. The barring gene effects the way the color is put into the feather. It is like a switch turning it on to make black/blue/gold and off to make the white/silver. Like if you were spray painting and pressing the button once a second down a length of board. If you move your hand fast you have less color. Slower and you have more. The barring gene only works at one speed. The feathering rate determines the pattern. There are several genes related to the rate of growth."[/COLOR]

Hope this helps a little.

That helps a lot. Your friend seems really knowledgeable. Thanks for taking the time to find out for me.

 

[jaybrenn]

That helps a lot. Your friend seems really knowledgeable. Thanks for taking the time to find out for me.

No problem. She is very knowledgeable. She has studied and breed them for quite some time.

 

[morbius18]

Caught one of the pullets for pics today. 3 1/2 months old. Getting nice colors, finally!

 

[jaybrenn]

Caught one of the pullets for pics today. 3 1/2 months old. Getting nice colors, finally!

Looks like they are coloring in nicely.

 

[jaybrenn]

This is a first generation cross of a Black Copper rooster and a standard cuckoo hen. I can't wait to see how he finishes coloring in.

 

[morbius18]

This is a first generation cross of a Black Copper rooster and a standard cuckoo hen. I can't wait to see how he finishes coloring in.

One of mine ended up with the more reddish colored hackles too. I was going to hatch out some golden cuckoo and cuckoo crosses, but the chicken calculator said they'd all be plain cuckoo. The rooster obviously influences the hackle coloration as evident in your cross.

He looks good though, like a barred black copper

 

[sophiaw00]

My beautiful and amazing golden cuckoo girl passed away. Vivi was special needs, as she was scalped by two other chickens when she was younger, and never completely healed in the head. She had poor balance, and seemed to forgot what a predator was. She lost all her confidence, got confused very easily, was smaller, and never grew as big as the other marans. I loved her all the same, if not more than all the other chickens even though my Vivi required more time and special assistance than the rest. As winter progressed and stressed out the flock, they began to bully Vivi again. She became depressed and slower than usual. So every day after school I brought her inside to warm up, eat some tasty food, and get away from the bullies. When she got tired, I wrapped her in a towel and carried her around with me while she just slept. She came with me to the grocery store, friend's houses, the movie store and even once to school when I needed to pick something up. She was more like my house pet than a backyard chicken. One day after school, I decided to go out and spend some time with them. I let out my border collie/lab mix, Ruby, and went to grabbed my coat. Ruby, who is completely used to the chickens and has never hurt one before, was outside unsupervised for a minute at most when I went out and found Vivi dead with her neck broken. She will forever be missed, but I find comfort in knowing she's not longer "different".

The next day, a friend of mine who loved Vivi as much as I did, came over and we buried her together. My rooster crowed the whole time and it was a very peaceful day. I will miss my girl always and all she taught me about never giving up.

Here's Vivi's story: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/vivicas-story

 

[morbius18]

My beautiful and amazing golden cuckoo girl passed away. Vivi was special needs, as she was scalped by two other chickens when she was younger, and never completely healed in the head. She had poor balance, and seemed to forgot what a predator was. She lost all her confidence, got confused very easily, was smaller, and never grew as big as the other marans. I loved her all the same, if not more than all the other chickens even though my Vivi required more time and special assistance than the rest. As winter progressed and stressed out the flock, they began to bully Vivi again. She became depressed and slower than usual. So every day after school I brought her inside to warm up, eat some tasty food, and get away from the bullies. When she got tired, I wrapped her in a towel and carried her around with me while she just slept. She came with me to the grocery store, friend's houses, the movie store and even once to school when I needed to pick something up. She was more like my house pet than a backyard chicken. One day after school, I decided to go out and spend some time with them. I let out my border collie/lab mix, Ruby, and went to grabbed my coat. Ruby, who is completely used to the chickens and has never hurt one before, was outside unsupervised for a minute at most when I went out and found Vivi dead with her neck broken. She will forever be missed, but I find comfort in knowing she's not longer "different".

The next day, a friend of mine who loved Vivi as much as I did, came over and we buried her together. My rooster crowed the whole time and it was a very peaceful day. I will miss my girl always and all she taught me about never giving up. 

Here's Vivi's story: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/vivicas-story

I'm sorry to hear that, you really made a difference in her life though. She was a stunningly beautiful girl too!

 

[sophiaw00]

I'm sorry to hear that, you really made a difference in her life though. She was a stunningly beautiful girl too!

Thank you. She really was gorgeous. I never thought I'd love and miss a chicken this much.