looking for others who raise Golden Cuckoo Marans

[redhen]

I have a pair of Golden Cuckoos.. (from pasofino)
Beautiful birds!

 

[Lotsapaints]

maybe late spring or summer at the earliest more likely next fall.....I didn't hatch any spare roos that were good enough so far....I just have one for me

 

[BevDavis]

Quote:
Hi

The main thing with egg color is always use a male that comes from a very dark egg laying line. It's easy to see what a female produces but you only see what a male contributes to the egg color when his daughters start to lay. The egg color is passed on by both parents.

Bev

 

[Lotsapaints]

Thanks Bev the roo is from a dark egg then hens were lacking only a 5 maybe but they were stressed from lots of rain I do have one hen from a really dark egg so I plan on single mating as she's very nice and large with the lightly feathered shanks I mostly hatched pullets I'm happy about that too. It's the waiting that always kills me. I'm going to only hatch from the best hens I'm just hoping nothing happens to the ones I have because I have so few. Next fall I'll know more......

 

[BevDavis]

Hi

It won't be long before my cuckoo starts to lay, it will be interesting to see the difference between the chicks from a cuckoo that is carrying the wheaten gene and a cuckoo carrying the golden salmon gene. It was a golden cuckoo and a little red haired boy that got me on the road to get the Marans breed accepted by the APA. Jacob got a golden cuckoo male from me as a chick and showed him at the local 4H show. Everyone was so impressed with this little boy with the huge golden salmon and said what a shame it was that he could only show at the local level. This happened years ago and I still meet people who are still talking about it.

The picture of the cuckoo's on David's site French Marans Club Australia is carrying the silver gene, that is why they are a lighter color in the hackles.

Bev

 

[blackred]

Quote:
Are you sure? It appears to me that the bird is just a young cockerel and once he feathers out will have the right top color.

I once had Cuckoo Marans about 6 years ago and was a member of the first US Maran's club ( I forget it's name right now). I hatched and raised a bunch of birds with selection in mind of the French Standard. From those birds a few Crele Maran popped up and I toyed with the idea of working on them but I got over it.

I am not a genetic expert but I have been developing a line of Large Crele Old English for exhibition for about 5 years. One of the things I see in the pictures of the Crele Marans in this thread is that they have almost sold white tails and a smattering of black feathers in the body. This is a Major defect and very hard to breed out. You better count on raising about 100 of them to maturity and then culling back to the best 3 or 4. You may have to do this for 3 or 4 years before you get it out.

Bob

 

[Lotsapaints]

Blackred it says white feathers are a major fault...some of my babies are much darker/deeper color than others my understanding is the Golden Cuckoo is a "crele" and the French site says not to breed the lighter ones....since there is not a standard yet I was going for the darker color and going to cull for white feathers just like the Black Coppers. I hope I'm on the right path.

 

[chasehope]

I looked closer at my birds when I got home last night, and they rooster is the only one with any white feathers. The girls dont have them. Also, I didnt see any black feathers on them. I know that they pictures are hard to tell, but I dont see any black feathers in person. People are criticizing them, but cant tell me where to get better ones without breeding in a different color?

 

[snowbird]

The question keeps popping up on various forums about why should I spend the money on a APA standard of perfection Book. The reason is that there are lots of DQ's that are not listed in the Breed standards of each individual breeds. They also give pictures of DQ's and faults so you can compare it to your fowl. Very cheap investment.

 

[Lotsapaints]

You have nice birds to work with just hatch them out and start learning. No white feathers and no green sheen so no jet black either....At least you've met some of us trying to raise them right I had a very hard time finding eggs and then I had to ship them so that meant over half my eggs didn't hatch. As I breed them I'm going to be learning from my mistakes and I thank Don so much for sharing his problems so I learned something without using 3 years of my time...weigh your stock now see how close to the standard they are weigh your eggs and chicks keep records and charge ahead read all you can about selection for Dual Purpose stock and first all have fun. I know I hate it when I figured out my Black Coppers weren't so good it does make me feel better that I'm not the only one breeding Goldens isn't going to be a walk in park cull cull cull....