This chick has an interesting pattern..

[Shipgirl]

The odd thing is, I've done many Barred X Buff crossings, & never gotten a yellow chick, only black with, or without bars.

Is the rooster a Golden Cuckoo Marans by chance?

No just a regular cuckoo marans. She doesn’t have any buff orpingtons. I’ll have to do some digging and see what other hens she has in that pen with him for the possibilities. Maybe she mixed up the mother. That’s a possibility.

 

[Shipgirl]

The odd thing is, I've done many Barred X Buff crossings, & never gotten a yellow chick, only black with, or without bars.

Is the rooster a Golden Cuckoo Marans by chance?

Unless it is a golden cuckoo but doesn’t show it

 

[Shipgirl]

The odd thing is, I've done many Barred X Buff crossings, & never gotten a yellow chick, only black with, or without bars.

Is the rooster a Golden Cuckoo Marans by chance?

Here are her chickens…

 

[NatJ]

Weird. This one I know for sure the lineage because this one is from my grandma. The only roo is the marans. The hen I don’t know what it is. Just guessing a red hybrid of some sort.

That's definitely weird.

If the rooster is a purebred Cuckoo Marans, every chick he produces should have a black base color. That may be changed to blue or white by genes inherited from the mother, but chicks should never show large amounts of gold (buff, red, and brown are all "gold" for this purpose.)

But if that male must be the father, he must have something different genetically, as compared with what is normally found in a Cuckoo Marans. Maybe he's a mix of some sort, who could be carrying a recessive gene that allows other colors to show.

You're sure he's the father?
No other rooster in the month or so before the eggs were collected?
No young cockerels? Occasionally they start mating at a much younger age than expected.
No new hens, who might have mated with a rooster at their previous home?

 

[Shipgirl]

That's definitely weird.

If the rooster is a purebred Cuckoo Marans, every chick he produces should have a black base color. That may be changed to blue or white by genes inherited from the mother, but chicks should never show large amounts of gold (buff, red, and brown are all "gold" for this purpose.)

But if that male must be the father, he must have something different genetically, as compared with what is normally found in a Cuckoo Marans. Maybe he's a mix of some sort, who could be carrying a recessive gene that allows other colors to show.

You're sure he's the father?
No other rooster in the month or so before the eggs were collected?
No young cockerels? Occasionally they start mating at a much younger age than expected.
No new hens, who might have mated with a rooster at their previous home?

The pics I added last are the only chickens that are in that area. He’s supposed to be pure cuckoo marans, but he wasn’t from an hatchery- got locally so you never know. All his chicks with the cuckoo marans hen turn out like they should.

 

[Shipgirl]

Here are her chickens…

@NatJ

 

[NatJ]

The pics I added last are the only chickens that are in that area. He’s supposed to be pure cuckoo marans, but he wasn’t from an hatchery- got locally so you never know. All his chicks with the cuckoo marans hen turn out like they should.

How many chicks has he produced with hens other than the Cuckoo Marans?

 

[Shipgirl]

How many chicks has he produced with hens other than the Cuckoo Marans?

I’m not sure. I’ll have to ask this afternoon. I know that she usually doesn’t incubate them except the pure marans, but she wanted a couple extra chicks, so she threw them in. Might need to do an experiment

 

[NatJ]

Might need to do an experiment

If you can identify who lays which eggs, I would do the experiment with the eggs from the Red Sexlink (brown with white tail) and the Columbian-colored bird (white with black at the neck and tail.)

If you are able to track which chicks came from each of those hens, it would be even more informative than if they were mixed.

 

[Shipgirl]

That's definitely weird.

If the rooster is a purebred Cuckoo Marans, every chick he produces should have a black base color. That may be changed to blue or white by genes inherited from the mother, but chicks should never show large amounts of gold (buff, red, and brown are all "gold" for this purpose.)

But if that male must be the father, he must have something different genetically, as compared with what is normally found in a Cuckoo Marans. Maybe he's a mix of some sort, who could be carrying a recessive gene that allows other colors to show.

You're sure he's the father?
No other rooster in the month or so before the eggs were collected?
No young cockerels? Occasionally they start mating at a much younger age than expected.
No new hens, who might have mated with a rooster at their previous home?

The marans is the only in the pen, he was purchased from Murray McMurray hatchery as a cuckoo marans.

the only thing I can think of is maybe the hen is one of the others? There is the Colombian, the ameraucana, the cuckoo marans, and I think an Easter egger in there too. No other birds introduced.

The red hen: dozen hatching eggs were purchased from a local co-op. She was one that hatched out. Assuming she’s a red sex link of some sort, so we really don’t know her origins.