Marans coloring--Confused

[vaultmom]

I got 10 Marans- pullets- from my local feed store as 2 day olds. Now that they are about 6 weeks old. I appear to have about 5 that are Cuckoo Marans, 2 that are getting a golden tint to neck feathers & the rest are much blacker than the others especially darker than the Cuckoo's. Do the hatcherys just send out mixed Marans and you end up with whatever they turn out to be? Do you have to breed a Cuckoo to a Cuckoo to end up with a Cuckoo or do they carry genes for other colors within the breed?

 

[Illia]

Cuckoo color breeds true.

What you may have is simply hatchery breeding, which is sloppy breeding. Do you have photos of the darker or more gold tinted ones?

 

[drom]

Some of the smaller commercial hatcheries have been selling other Marans varieties besides Cuckoos. Did you buy an assortment of Marans varieties by any chance?

If they are barred, they are Cuckoos. But I have seen several hatcheries selling Black Copper, White, etc...

If you post some pics, we might be able to tell you what you have.

 

[Mahonri]

Gold on the hackles would mean Golden Cuckoos.

I have three hens (GCMs) and they are lovely. They share space with 4 FBCMarans and their roo.

 

[blackdotte]

Need photos but Cuckoo, actually Silver Cuckoo are based on Silver & Extended Black genes. The males,if correctly bred, ane much lighter than the pullets. Incorrectly bred males can be as dark as the pullets. The gold breaking through in the neck hackles is more likely to be gold bleeding through (the bird being based on Gold & Extended Black) rather than a Golden Cuckoo which is a Gold Barred Duckwing.

 

[vaultmom]

Thank you everyone for responding. I will take a few photos tomorrow and post them showing the various colors. The last time I ordered a group of chicks I got them from a hatchery and they were all day olds when shipped and they all turned out to be what I expected (Barred Rocks & Ameraucanas). This time, I got these at my local feed store, they had a heated tray of "Maran" chicks...I had read about the Cuckoo Maran, but did not realize there were other Maran colors--so I didn't realize at the time that I might be getting birds that would turn out to be different colors. Now that I have them I have been researching & know a little more about them. I would like to know if the 2 really light ones might be roosters.