Reviving the English Golden Cuckoo Marans

[BlueTheBrahma]

As a lot of my friends here know, I’m working on a project to combine the Gold allele from my French Black Copper Marans with the barring of my English Silver and Dark Cuckoo Marans, in an attempt to revive the English standard Golden Cuckoo.
Contacts in the Marans club executives have agreed that this variety is likely extinct in the UK and Ireland.

Since I set 14 F1 eggs in the incubator on Saturday, I thought it was about time I made an actual thread dedicated to this project. So here I go.

More info will come later…

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

As a lot of my friends here know, I’m working on a project to combine the Gold allele from my French Black Copper Marans with the barring of my English Silver and Dark Cuckoo Marans, in an attempt to revive the English standard Golden Cuckoo.
Contacts in the Marans club executives have agreed that this variety is likely extinct in the UK and Ireland.

Since I set 14 F1 eggs in the incubator on Saturday, I thought it was about time I made an actual thread dedicated to this project. So here I go.

More info will come later…View attachment 4316691

Cool cool, sounds like a fun project

Love Marans and Brahmas (and haven't had Cochins), but feathered legs are a tad inconvenient at times.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Cool cool, sounds like a fun project

Love Marans and Brahmas (and haven't had Cochins), but feathered legs are a tad inconvenient at times.

Yep they are. My Brahmas have the driest pen on slightly higher ground to stop messing their feet up. My maras are eventually all going to be moved to the English Clean Legged standard.

I also have another project for my own ‘breed’ that have feathered legs but not feathered feet, which would eventually replace my Brahmas potentially (that’s still up for debate since they are my namesake here!).

 

[wrathsfarm]

Following along....

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Finally to get back to posting here.
I’ll start with the Golden Cuckoo Marans standard, as laid out by the Marans club of Great Britain. I’ll assume everyone knows the Marans standard for type, even if it’s the French one. Main difference for the English standard are clean legs and less penalisation for tails above 45 degrees (still can’t be squirrel though).

THE GOLDEN CUCKOO

Male plumage: Hackles bluish-grey with golden and black bands, neck paler than saddle. Breast bluish-grey with black bands, pale golden shading on upper part. Thighs and fluff light bluish-grey with medium black banding. Back, shoulders and wing bows bluish-grey with rich bright golden and black bands. Wing bars bluish-grey with black bands, golden fringe permissible. Wings, primaries dark blue-grey, lightly banded, secondaries dark blue-grey, lightly banded, with slight golden fringe. Tail dark blue-grey banded with black, coverts blue-grey banded with black. General cuckoo markings.

Female plumage: Hackle medium bluish-grey with golden and black bands. Breast dark bluish-grey with black bands, pale golden shading on upper parts. Remainder dark bluish-grey with dark black bands. Cuckoo markings.

It’s a description that seems really specific and yet interpretation can be quite wide, but I have some nice references from French and American birds.

 

[Beaus plus baby Bunny]

what do they look like

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Two fantastic hens. I can’t remember where I’ve saved this pictures from to credit them. They should be birchen (E^R) based, not wheaten or duckwing, or else their bodies are too brown rather than black/blue. They’re basically a black copper with barring.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

A couple of my favourite looking cocks I’ve seen. There’s reasons for preferring either, I’d like to settle somewhere in between both of them, though hopefully the BCM blood will make the hackles even deeper gold.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

One of my favourite hens I’ve ever had, Chanel. She’s a blue copper from my original Marans line. Very dark egg, very heavy hen. About 8.5lbs. She’s coming up 4 years old.

Fantastic proper French Marans type. I have two of her daughters and she’s produced a great cockerel, though unfortunately he died. Three of her eggs in the incubator, crossed to a silver cuckoo English cock.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

Duke of Wellington, the Sire of the F1s I have in the incubator. Nice English standard boy, classic crisp cuckoo barring. For some reason he is missing a wattle but I think that was just developmental and hopefully not genetic.

Unfortunately the new build houses neighbouring my small holding don’t like rooster noise, so the council are funny about me having boys. So what I do is sell them when they ask and set a hatch. I sold him to a cuckoo breeder last week, who said I’m welcome to any eggs for free. This does mean I’m banking on this hatch to carry his genetics and combine his barring with the s+ allele of the BCMs.