Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[HenThymes]

Quote:
Hi HenThymes!

I am not sure what to say and don't want to say the wrong thing or mislead you so maybe we can get Geebs, VillageChicken, Wynette, Ms. Bev Davis, Snowbird, Walt and all the other greats that I know am I missing to come by and start up a discussion on them for us. It's always interesting to see how they mature, we can all learn a great deal I think from them. Thank you for sharing them and keeping us updated and giving all the opportunity to learn along with you.

I'm sure someone will come along soon.

I just realized your eggs were supposed to be golden cuckoo/cuckoo. Does that mean they were from a mixed pen of cuckoo and golden cuckoo? The problem with cuckoo is that they are often a mixed bag beneath all those stripes. I have yet to read anywhere what the bird under the stripes SHOULD be. Golden cuckoos can be Gold based undermelanized extended black, or Wheaten, or Black Copper, or some crazy mix of any of the 3. Even standard cuckoo can be Silver Birchen or Extended black based.

It is possible that Db lurks in the genes of someone's cuckoos. It's a Columbian restrictor, but on the Extended Black (EE) allele it does nothing. On Birchen (ER) and Wheaten (eWh) however it pushes all the black out of the chest and into the hackle wing-tips and tail, like Silver Sussex or Blacktail Buff. A hybrid EE/eWh or EE/ER would also not show the effect of this gene.

So someone's mixed flock of Golden Cuckoo, with barred BCM, a barred Wheaten rooster, or barred silver birchens or hybrids of any of these, could produce pure birchen or wheaten based cuckoos where the Db could then kick in and produce the columbian restriction you are seeing in your birds.

Yes, this was a pen of both cuckoo and golden cuckoo. So is the resulting offspring normal for what you get out of this type of pen? Is that where my brown cockerel is coming from? What color is he then?

My only other question would be where would the yellow legs (only on two) be coming into play??

Thanks Again.

 

[shesaredroan]

Wonder if those yellow legs came from a barred rock hen mixed in with the cuckoo hens.
My barred rock hens had yellow legs until they got older and started laying, then their legs weren't so yellow anymore.

 

[VillageChicken]

I think we've seen yellow legs on this thread before... it's recessive to white, so your rooster and at least one of your hens is carrying a yellow gene. Could be from Rocks crossed into the parents at some point.

 

[HenThymes]

Quote:
So the ones with yellow legs, would they be considered marans (not to SOP) or barred rocks or mutt hybrids of the two? The pullet has yellow legs and their feathered...

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
So the ones with yellow legs, would they be considered marans (not to SOP) or barred rocks or mutt hybrids of the two? The pullet has yellow legs and their feathered...

To be perfectly honest with you I would not STRESS out over these mix breed chicks, Do your research and try again to get some better bred Marans. I have bred more Crap than most on here and just had to learn to cull. Don

 

[fowlman01]

Quote:
So the ones with yellow legs, would they be considered marans (not to SOP) or barred rocks or mutt hybrids of the two? The pullet has yellow legs and their feathered...

Yellow legs are a DQ in Marans.
Shanks and Toes -- Shanks and toes light to mid-slate, showing pink between the scales. Bottoms of feet pinkish white.

If the BC Marans are approved by the APA they will be judged by the statement above.

Walt

 

[sewandgrow]

Quote:
Yes..that happens too, but we can't control that either, we can just hope that even though they may have taken offense that later on after they have had some time to regroup and think about it ......that maybe, just maybe a seed was planted. We never know where that seed may take them.

I am struggling with a similar issue myself right now. Recently bought some birds that turned out NOT to be what I thought & was not informed before hand & I have been feeling bad about it, not knowing if I have a legitimate complaint & should say something or just chalk it up to "experience" & eat it. I guess it's a "buyer beware" world out there. Buying directly from the breeders has been all good for me up until this so maybe I should concider myself Lucky. I would never do anything to someone else that I wouldn't think fair if done to me so I might just be pushing "my own" rules onto others. But, honestly folks....................I always thought it was called "the golden rule."

 

[Mountain Mel]

Quote:
Yes..that happens too, but we can't control that either, we can just hope that even though they may have taken offense that later on after they have had some time to regroup and think about it ......that maybe, just maybe a seed was planted. We never know where that seed may take them.

I am struggling with a similar issue myself right now. Recently bought some birds that turned out NOT to be what I thought & was not informed before hand & I have been feeling bad about it, not knowing if I have a legitimate complaint & should say something or just chalk it up to "experience" & eat it. I guess it's a "buyer beware" world out there. Buying directly from the breeders has been all good for me up until this so maybe I should concider myself Lucky. I would never do anything to someone else that I wouldn't think fair if done to me so I might just be pushing "my own" rules onto others. But, honestly folks....................I always thought it was called "the golden rule."



It is the golden rule...."He Who Has The Gold Makes The Rules"

 

[Lotsapaints]

Quote:
So the ones with yellow legs, would they be considered marans (not to SOP) or barred rocks or mutt hybrids of the two? The pullet has yellow legs and their feathered...

I hatched some BCMarans and 2 roosters had yellow legs and the hen had slate with pink underneath and 2 roosters looked "normal" I culled all the boys kept the hen as she lays a very nice dark egg 4 to 6 days a week her fault is too dark of eyes and brown fluff so she's a layer......I have Silver Cuckoos that must be carrying Wheaten probably used to darken the eggs as these lay 6's because a cock has some red brown spots and the sign of Wheaten on the wing triangle. I know my Golden Cuckoos have both Wheaten and BC mixed in with them. I'm going to be setting eggs today from my Goldens I have one that lays a 6 and one that lays a 5 and see what hatches none of these birds have yellow legs all pink some feathered and some not. I'm working on keeping dark eggs and getting feathered legs along with everything else. I feel that all Goldens are a work in progress and for me I wouldn't start with stock that had some hatch out with yellow legs because culling is already heavy enough with Cuckoos and waiting until the pullets lay and then not getting dark eggs would be very frustrating for me I have a hard enough time waiting for them to grow out as it is. I would try to get the best stock I could find to start with it will still be a lot of culling but at least your birds would be "pure" Marans. Look at the time you have spent already on what many would consider mutts not counting the money feeding them......I'm doing test matings right now and having fun because I finally have a few birds good enough to breed (I think they are anyways) I hatched BC all last year and never got any that were very good I hatched some more this fall after doing a little more research and I might have a few good enough to keep. If it was easy to breed Goldens you would find more for sale not that they would be "good" ones but you would at least find some to buy. Kirstie Harris has some nice ones and so does Rockingpaints and Geebs knows of a few breeders. Don't get frustrated do what you think best for you and have fun.

 

[VillageChicken]

"So is the resulting offspring normal for what you get out of this type of pen? Is that where my brown cockerel is coming from? What color is he then?"

HenThymes,

As Lotsapaints wrote Golden Cuckoos are still being worked on in most cases, and even cuckoos are still very mixed in their genetic makeup. So mixing golden cuckoo and cuckoo is going to cause this problem. The only case where it won't is if you know your golden cuckoos are BCM based and your cuckoos are Silver Birchen based and have been for several generations. Even then you'll get some very pale Golden cuckoo roosters. But none of the hybrid colors you have.

The closest thing your brown guy resembles is Blacktailed Buff, but he's way too dark, probably carrying Melanotic and Mahogany, and is missing the Di dilute gene to lighten him to buff.