Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[Foster's Freehold]

Thanks, I'll look for his posts.

 

[Chooks man]

A great guy to ask is @Chooks man on Marans genetics. He works pretty closely with marans and is a wealth of information about their genetics.

thank you .
I m just doing my best to help those chooks .and peoples working with them .

chooks man

 

[Bantambird]

thank you .
I m just doing my best to help those chooks .and peoples working with them .

chooks man

Our friend here has a trio of golden cuckoo marans, possibly with one silver Gene. He's looking to darken egg color on his golden cuckoo, so I recommended he breed his cock over black copper marans hens with proven dark eggs to darken eggs without messing up his golden cuckoo color, and breeding back the darkest egg layer daughters to the sire(since all his daughters should be cuckoo and his sons will be culls in this case) then F2 should see pure golden cuckoo cockerels start hatching from potentially darker eggs, along with pullets.
Lots of watching and waiting, though.
But you know what the names of the genes are, I'm always forgetting myself.

 

[Chooks man]

Our friend here has a trio of golden cuckoo marans, possibly with one silver Gene. He's looking to darken egg color on his golden cuckoo, so I recommended he breed his cock over black copper marans hens with proven dark eggs to darken eggs without messing up his golden cuckoo color, and breeding back the darkest egg layer daughters to the sire(since all his daughters should be cuckoo and his sons will be culls in this case) then F2 should see pure golden cuckoo cockerels start hatching from potentially darker eggs, along with pullets.
Lots of watching and waiting, though.
But you know what the names of the genes are, I'm always forgetting myself.

Hi to you all .

yes you are correct .the GCM and the BCM are from a same family genetic except the GCM has a extra barring gene ,that all .so they breed very well together . I run my GCM with a BCM and I ll get a great result .
if you friend BCM lay dark egg than 3 crosses need to be done ,

Cross one = is the one you described .GCM Rooster over a BCM hen = all the progeny will be barred ( cuckoo) one single dose ( we call them dark cuckoo) only pullets are a keeper and will mated to they sire to get the F2 . we call this one line A .

Cross two = BCM rooster over a GCM hen = only the cockerels will be barred ,the best of them should be mated to his Dam to get the F2 , we call this one Line B.

Cross three and the final = we need to cross the F2 LA and F2 LB to get the true F3 . pure golden cuckoo with a nice body marking ,nice copper and dark eggs layer .

that how I recreated mine from just a Silver cuckoo rooster and a BCM/Wheaten marans hens. now my line are the largest chooks ( because of the hybrid vigor) and they lay the darkest eggs too .

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Oh Wow!! That's really cool. So, with these cuckoos and some BCM (am I abbreviating that right?) I can not only darken the eggs, I can possibly end up with three different kinds? OK, so now I need to be reading up on Maran genetics lol.

This is a pic taken from the net, but looks just like my boy.View attachment 1293875
Except he may be a little more golden.

this rooster is gorgeous .
great body type ,
great body marking .
nice head and comb.

but there is major problem he is from a wrong family genetic . he is from a wheaten based stock . it is a reason he do have a golden wing triangle , his copper is lighter and his shank are pink .he is Ewh/Ewh, s+/s+, B/B.
the true GCM as desired by the SOP is a BCM based ER/ER.s+/s+, B/B.

to fix this problem ,this rooster should be mated to a BCM hens to produce F1 Black chicks with a white dot on they head ,but they still split wheaten. than the best of those F1 shoud be mated together to produce a true F2 = this F2 chicks will hatch with 2 different hatch down . 50% Black with a white dot ,true GCM .and 50% will be yellow whaten based. bared and no bared . if there is any hint of silver in there ,than you ll have some impure Birchen and Silver cuckoo marans.

it is fun and hard work .a lot of chicks and a lot of note taking too .but the reward is great ,your own lines ,pure and healthy well selected .( selective breeding) healthy great chooks .show winners .

Chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

here my F1 GCM rooster . his sire is Charlie Silver cuckoo and his mama is Blue copper hen .he is dark only one single barred gene .and split silver/Golden

chooks man

 

[Bantambird]

Hi to you all .

yes you are correct .the GCM and the BCM are from a same family genetic except the GCM has a extra barring gene ,that all .so they breed very well together . I run my GCM with a BCM and I ll get a great result .
if you friend BCM lay dark egg than 3 crosses need to be done ,

Cross one = is the one you described .GCM Rooster over a BCM hen = all the progeny will be barred ( cuckoo) one single dose ( we call them dark cuckoo) only pullets are a keeper and will mated to they sire to get the F2 . we call this one line A .

Cross two = BCM rooster over a GCM hen = only the cockerels will be barred ,the best of them should be mated to his Dam to get the F2 , we call this one Line B.

Cross three and the final = we need to cross the F2 LA and F2 LB to get the true F3 . pure golden cuckoo with a nice body marking ,nice copper and dark eggs layer .

that how I recreated mine from just a Silver cuckoo rooster and a BCM/Wheaten marans hens. now my line are the largest chooks ( because of the hybrid vigor) and they lay the darkest eggs too .

chooks man

I've been considering adding the (silver) cuckoo to my birchen flock, since they can be ran together. With the blue birchen, birchen, splash, adding in cuckoo could potentially net single and double barred cuckoo and blue cuckoo marans. Wouldn't be this year, but it's definitely a thought!

 

[Chooks man]

I've been considering adding the (silver) cuckoo to my birchen flock, since they can be ran together. With the blue birchen, birchen, splash, adding in cuckoo could potentially net single and double barred cuckoo and blue cuckoo marans. Wouldn't be this year, but it's definitely a thought!

running the Birchen and a Silver cuckoo together will help the silver cuckoo to maintain they lighter hackle .they will be dark ( one barring gene but that is alright . because when we mate the dark cuckoo together we get the lighter cuckoo .

chooks man

 

[Foster's Freehold]

@Chooks man, ok, on looking at my roo in actual sunlight, not cloudy or rainy, he is a bit darker. I will try to get a pic today. But whatever he is, I'm just gonna send you pics of my birds and let you tell me what to breed when lol.

 

[Flock Master64]

Hello