Marans keepers, please advise or confirm

[JHaller]

One of my Cuckoo Marans looks like a text-book cockeral: silvery feathers, larger comb, wider barring, and pink legs without the shadows on the shanks.

I need to sell three of these birds, so I don't want to risk misleading potential buyers. I'm also new at chicken raising. They are 26 days old in the photos.

My questions are:

1) Do you agree the lighter bird is a cockeral?
2) Is it possible the darker birds will be cockerals?
3) Should I let them grow a little more to be sure of their gender?

Thank you, everyone, for the good information on this forum.

Judith

 

[the1much]

i'd say the lighter is the roo,,like the BR's ,, but i dont have any expierience with that breed,, so dont take my word for it,,,,, and i would say the darker ones will almost 90% of the time be hens.

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Yep, the light one is a cockerel.

 

[Harley's girl]

You will have a nice breeding quad.

 

[becky3086]

Are the cockrels always lighter?

 

[Harley's girl]

Yep.

 

[klf73]

actually they are not always lighter. Sometimes the cockeral only gets one barring gene which is why it is not 100% accurate to sex this way. Most of the time it is right, but it does happen that you will get a dark roo with the single barring gene. I agree the lighter one is a cockeral, and most likely the others are pullets, but there is the chance......

 

[Harley's girl]

WOW, thanks! See I learned something new today!

Thank you.

 

[klf73]

I learned it on the Yahoo Marans Group

.
OT - Harleys Girl, how is the egg color of your Penedesenca?

 

[Harley's girl]

They are not laying yet. They hatched in August. But they came from a nice dark egg. And thanks for the info.