marans or australorp?

[onthespot]

Someone gave me this roo a month or so ago. I was told it was a marans, and I know it is from a a lady that had a LOT of marans, penedesencas, etc... and a bunch of everything else under the sun. Well, recently there was a "show us your australorp hens" thread and some of those hens had the same sort of look about the face. This guy has a less tame temperament and his feathers are hard and not fluffy feeling at all. I have had him in with my BBS marans, so I hope he is NOT an australorp, but I just thought I would run it by people who have seen more australorps, and marans for that matter. Thanks for any and all opinions. Oh, and please also state why you think he is what you think he is, i.e. comb type, feathers, legs, tail, etc... He is very even green sheen all over, somewhat flighty, and came from a lady whose black marans turned out to be possible Penedesenca crosses, due to smaller size, upright tails, flighty dispositions, some white on ear lobes and slight irregularities in the back end of their combs. Their eggs are quite dark. His ear lobes are not white tinged and his comb shows no spurs or thickening toward the rear end of it. If he is an australorp, he needs to be out of the marans pen. If he is a marans, he probably came from very dark laying stock, and I need him... HELP! (thanks) Oops, forgot the pic, thanks!

 

[digginchicks]

Can you post a picture

 

[klf73]

He looks like a marans to me. I researched australorps a while back and he does not remind me of them at all. His *build* isn't correct for an australorp. I haven't seen any black marans in person, but I think he looks a lot like the pics they have of them on feathersite. JMO

 

[NYREDS]

If it's an Australorp it's a very poorly bred one.

 

[digginchicks]

I'm not sure my black austrolorp is a lot bigger and filled out better than that so I'm not sure

 

[klf73]

looks like you have a project. The proof is in the puddin

. Guess you will have to see how his daughters lay, worse case you can sell them as layers.....too bad they don't come with labels

 

[onthespot]

I think I should just put him with the two black girls and see what I get. Right now they are in with a splash roo, so it will be very easy to tell whose is what. Those hens lay dark, so if his pullets all lay light, at the very worst they are black hens that lay nice, darker than usual brown eggs I guess... I will hang onto him at the very least until I have a known black marans, preferably feather footed, from known stock.

I think I will have to open a rooster hotel for a while, I have more roos than groups of girls, but I need them for breeding, just "not right now" and they are all oddball ones, nearly impossible to replace, like mille fleur cochin, blue cuckoo marans, a mille x mottled cochin with spectacular type and a good personality, two extra copper black marans roos from huge, DARK eggs, each with different degrees of coppering for balancing feather color on the hens, a somewhat barred NN roo with a pea comb for my barred bearded olive egger project, those are my "extras" for right now... and yes, my neighbor can go pound sand to put it mildly... I'm still allowed three more roos, per my zoning.

 

[COChickens]

He looks just like my Black Marans roo. Here are pictures I have of him at 7 months old he is going to be huge. He had frostbite and lost the tips of his comb.

 

[onthespot]

Wow, they really DO look the same! Thanks for posting your photos. Do you remember where you got your boy from? Did you get hens from the same breeder and do they lay dark? (probably not laying yet)

 

[COChickens]

Your welcome! I got the roo and a hen from Ray Valentine and I was worried about egg color because the Cuckoo hens I got from Ray lay a very light egg but the black ones are way darker and have a purple glow to them very neat.