PHOTOS added, Cuckoo Marans leg colors different...

[justhatchin]

Hello- My silver laced wyandottes have very yellow legs and when crosed with buff orp. some have light legs -bo and some have yellow slw.

 

[BikerBabeRules]

Well, now i'm really curious. I checked out the 3 Tractor Supply Barred Rocks I got mid-April. They have beige legs with gray in the front of their legs. I can't tell for certain yet but I think one is roo. The combs are different than that of the Cuckoo Marans as well, but they are still young and i'm not experienced with this yet. Speckled, I'll take more photos this afternoon and for now I see no signs of blue anywhere on those bright yellow legged ones.

 

[helmstead]

My goodness, those are some YELLOW legs! My BRs have yellow-ish legs, but not nearly that bright...more of a tan with dark wash, or solid light yellow on the boys.

Marans are supposed to have grey legs, right?

I dunno, something throws me off here, too. They are stunning boys...I just couldn't say for sure what kind of roo they are.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
Barred Rocks should have yellow legs; the pullets, though often have a dark wash of black down the front. The legs lighten up as they age and lay more eggs, but the roosters' legs definitely stay yellow. You may have a cross, Mahonri, or you may only have hens and they are well into their cycle.

 

[Crunchie]

My guess is you got not very well-bred Cuckoos. Are the hens laying yet? If so, what is the egg color like? You can have yellow legs in hatchery lines or from flocks where, well, not a lot of thought is put into breeding birds to any kind of standard. This kind of breeding happens a lot--there is such a demand for the birds there's just a lot of breeding going on because everyone wants dark egg layers--problem is, when you breed willy-nilly like that, egg color suffers, too.

The correct color for the leggs is that flesh-colored tone. I believe there may be a little leeway there (gray-ish tones are ok, too, I think?) but any yellow is a fault.

Also, you said you got 8 roosters? Out of how many total chicks? Just curious, because Cuckoo chicks can be sexed at hatch with pretty decent accuracy. If you got 8 roosters out of, say, 10 chicks, someone wasn't quite on the up-and-up with you. Now if you got 8 out of 20 or 25, well that's good!

Regardless, you have some pretty birds and hopefully you got birds that are suited to the purpose you wanted them for.

I wouldn't recommend breeding them, though, if you wanted to start a Marans breeding program. If all of those birds came out of the same flock, even the ones with the correct colored legs are probably carrying the yellow-legged gene--and it can be really hard to get rid of. You'd spend a lot more time and money trying to breed out the yellow legs and any other faults in type, as well as improve egg color, than if you started out with better quality stock from the get-go.

 

[BamaChicken]

Wow, those are some yellow legs. The Roosters don't seem to have the body type of a Barred rock to me.Here a picture of three Cuckoo Maran Cockerels I used to have. I don't raise them anymore. But these were some pretty boys.

 

[BikerBabeRules]

Well thanks you all. I got them from a breeder who raises chickens as a hobby. There were suppose to be 10 in all, so 2 hens in the bunch. My sister has them and returned the roos to me. They were born/shipped mid March, so no egg layers yet. She has them all mixed in the same house with several other breeds, dark layers and ameracaunas. (yes, i'm a very generous sister) These she was planning on using for meat for her family in Sept. when the guy came around to butcher on sight. Her neighbor does it so she thought she would also.
Her husband made her get rid of them, so I have them now. A few will go to a local farmer who has one rooster remaining with 50 hens and the rest will probably be in the freezer when the meat guy comes around. (I'm a vegetarian and would like all of them to go to the farmer who needs roos) I thoroughly enjoy watching them figure out pecking order here. The 2 peahens made it clear from the opening of the box that they were just boys and the girls rule in my barn!!!! Peahens are so kool, they are NOT at all aggressive but just there mere prescense in a situation commands respect!

I'll take closer photos tonight so you can see them more upclose, i'm so curious now.

 

[BikerBabeRules]

Okay, final photos...tell me your thoughts! Notice the brown pieces in the neck? Also, I think there are some blue feathers in the tail of one of them.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

Your birds are stunning and your camera is AWESOME!!! Those are some really incredible shots..thanks for sharing!

 

[MaransGuy]

The birds are pretty but I agree that they should not be used for breeding if you are looking to produce true Marans. The brown feathers, yellow legs and the overall grey color of that one bird shows that they have a lot of mixing in their genes. Unfortunately, it will be very unlikely that egg color will be pleasing at all considering the background of the birds. As a mixed rooster, I think that the vivid yellow legs and beak are stunning against the barred feathers though!

Richard