Orpingarans..or Maraningtons...or Morons

[Cara]

Has anyone here crossed Cuckoo Marans and Blue Orpingtons? Any ideas what the outcome would be? I won three Cuckoo Marans pullets from Ray Valentine, and was thinking about coop space and trying to find a Marans rooster...and then wondered whether this might be a good cross. They have Blue Cuckoo genes.

 

[speckledhen]

If the roo was a Cuckoo Maran, all the chicks would have cuckoo barring to a degree, I'm told. I asked the same question of my Barred Rock roo over Blue Orp hens.

 

[Cara]

The roo would be the Orpington (hopefully

) and the pullets would be the Marans. I'm hoping i'd get a blue cuckoo darkish brown egglayer, ie blue stripes on blue, or maybe a solid blue. With my luck they'd all come out a boring solid black though!

I had an idea for a cunning thread LOL. I'm thinking about crossing two of my birds because the offspring may look pretty crazy, and take pictures from hatching onwards to see if anyone can guess the parents. We could have several concoctions from different users.

 

[skeeter9]

That sounds like fun!

 

[justusnak]

Cara.....I like the idea of offering pics of mix hatches. I have one in the bator,....and when/if it hatches...I will post pics for a guess. It will be very interesting bird, indeed!!

 

[snugglepup]

I hatched some that were a buff orp roo over a maran hen. Unfortunately, they were all cockerels.. and will be in my freezer shortly. They came out looking mostly like lighter cuckoo marans with splattering of buff colored feathers mixed in, and HUGE!