maran x cornish vs cornish x maran...

[e.myers]

Help with genetics. Relatively new to all this but on my 2nd batch of 25 chickens. Have numerous varieties and now I'm interested in crossing.

Was curious what the difference would be between crossing a male Cuckoo Maran with a Dark Cornish vs Crossing a female Cuckoo Maran with a Male Dark Cornish?

Does it matter?

Who determines Egg Color?

Who determines size?

Who determines skin color?

Etc.....

 

[flgardengirl]

I'm sorry I don't know the answer, but it seems to me that someone was working on a type of meat chicken involving marans...was it Illia? Anyhow, I hope someone can come along and post an answer for you.

 

[Nimby Chickens]

I could be wrong but I have always read that roosters are responsible for most of the egg color.

 

[Illia]

There's no difference except in plumage color. Male Cornish means you get sex-linked offspring. Female Cornish means you get all barred offspring. Either way you can sex them at birth.

Egg color either way will be a normal brown, since most Cuckoo Marans have poor color of eggs anyway.

Size will be normal, since most Cuckoo Marans along with most Dark Cornish sadly are just typical 5-7 lb weight.

Skin color will be white; shanks will be white, as the white of the Marans is dominant.


I am indeed working on Marans X meat birds but my advice to others is to not use hatchery stock, and that includes most Cuckoos. Also, hatchery Cornish - Pretty typical looking chickens compared to real Cornish. Most hatchery Cornish actually have production laying blood in them to boost egg laying and fertility, otherwise hatcheries wouldn't be able to sell enough. It's all about profit.

 

[e.myers]

Thanks everyone for the interest.

Illia & others. So what is your understanding as to why someone would want to use Marans for crossing for meat birds- with dark cornish or others?

"Egg color either way will be a normal brown, since most Cuckoo Marans have poor color of eggs anyway". Well, they call them chocolate eggers in the catalog whatever that is good for. For me, even if they are significantly darker than the normal brown eggs then I'm OK with it. Let's say my chicken was the offspring of a hen that laid dark chocolate eggs. Would it matter then if it was a boy or girl Maran that I was breeding to try and duplicate egg color?

Yeah, I saw where the Marans are typically 7 pounds.... but mine gained weight a lot faster than my dark cornish so was thinking maybe by mixing the two I could speed things up a little.
What is your experience with the Marans breast type. Was thinking I read their carcass was more like the dark cornish (wider breast) than other breeds.

The dominant white skin and shanks is not what I was after, but if there are other reasons that you'd be willing to share for mixing the two, white could possibly be an option for me.

Anyway, I have a Maran rooster (the only Maran I have.... he was a freebie) and was hoping I could get some chocolate eggs and a faster growth rate out of him for my dark cornish.

Any other ideas as to what I might consider mixing with my dark cornish to get the following attributes?
Somewhat Faster growth rate
Yellow skin & Shanks
Maintain Cornish breast type
Good forager
Possibly "unusual" egg color and decent layers

This is my first experiment with breeding, so any insight is appreciated.

Planning on ordering some barred rocks and Americanas tomorrow..... anything else I should consider to mix with my dark cornish? Currently have New Hampshire Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Silver Laced Wyandottes, and White Plymouth Rocks

Anyone?

 

[tadkerson]

e.myers :

Thanks everyone for the interest.

Illia & others. So what is your understanding as to why someone would want to use Marans for crossing for meat birds- with dark cornish or others?

"Egg color either way will be a normal brown, since most Cuckoo Marans have poor color of eggs anyway". Well, they call them chocolate eggers in the catalog whatever that is good for. For me, even if they are significantly darker than the normal brown eggs then I'm OK with it. Let's say my chicken was the offspring of a hen that laid dark chocolate eggs. Would it matter then if it was a boy or girl Maran that I was breeding to try and duplicate egg color?

Yeah, I saw where the Marans are typically 7 pounds.... but mine gained weight a lot faster than my dark cornish so was thinking maybe by mixing the two I could speed things up a little.
What is your experience with the Marans breast type. Was thinking I read their carcass was more like the dark cornish (wider breast) than other breeds.

The dominant white skin and shanks is not what I was after, but if there are other reasons that you'd be willing to share for mixing the two, white could possibly be an option for me.

Anyway, I have a Maran rooster (the only Maran I have.... he was a freebie) and was hoping I could get some chocolate eggs and a faster growth rate out of him for my dark cornish.

Any other ideas as to what I might consider mixing with my dark cornish to get the following attributes?
Somewhat Faster growth rate
Yellow skin & Shanks
Maintain Cornish breast type
Good forager
Possibly "unusual" egg color and decent layers

This is my first experiment with breeding, so any insight is appreciated.

Planning on ordering some barred rocks and Americanas tomorrow..... anything else I should consider to mix with my dark cornish? Currently have New Hampshire Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Silver Laced Wyandottes, and White Plymouth Rocks

Anyone?

This is one of my cornish crosses I produced.

All of the offspring had a similar body build- much like a cornish game. I do not remember what I crossed the cornish with to get this. The cornish game I used came from Cackle Hatchery- they were pretty good birds. I would like to work with them some more but I do not have the room.

If you want to produce a meat type bird, it will take you many years of breeding to accomplish the task. I worked for a while and wanted to make a meat bird for my own consumption but my wife will not eat the birds I raised- I stopped the project. I did not like dressing the birds anyway- too much of a pain.

This is one of the male breeders I produced- he was heavy.

This is one of his sons

They are all big birds over 8 lbs.

I do not have pictures of the females. They were also heavy birds.

Tim​

 

[flgardengirl]

The largest marans are the wheaten roosters. My wheaten roos get much larger than the blues, black coppers, bl coppers and golden cuckoos. Maybe try using a wheaten marans in the meat bird mix. They seem to lay larger eggs as well not darker but larger.

Tim I love that first bird. He looks calico LOL!