Weird looking black copper marans chick

[Rod-T]

Must be a mixed breed

 

[donrae]

It's not blue. Blue would look just like a black chick as far as markings, just with a grey down instead of black.

I think you'll just have to grow it out and see what happens. Your birds are apparently carrying something recessive. It does have the appearance of a mottled chick, but that's pretty unlikely in Marans. It may just be oddly marked and mature into a perfectly black bird. I'd love to see pics as it grows, how things turn out.

 

[NatureChica]

Hello
I recently hatched 6 marans eggs frim my breeder black copper marans birds
The chicks look good (black back ,grey/white belly ,feathered feet etc)
Except for 1 that looks a little different
I am very confused as to why this one came out different than the others
I know He is a black copper marans becuase he hatched from a black copper marans egg

I know the parents have blue genes could he be half blue or something?
Here are the pictures

This is how all the chicks look like

And this is the weird looking guy or girl

There's no way he came from another egg or that his mom bred with a different roo?

 

[RIR0BCM]

Nope no way i only incubated black copper marans eggs and the marans hens and rooster are seperated from all the other chickens

 

[NatureChica]

That's weird then! I have messaged my breeder of origin for questions like that before if they came from someone you could do that with?

 

[RIR0BCM]

No i dont personally know the breeder
But the person who bought them from the breeder told me that they have blue genes so maybe this one has mixed genes splash/blue/cuckoo.....
Becuase im sure the chick hatched from a marans egg

 

[NatureChica]

Unfortunately there aren't any recognized varieties of Marans on the APA website that want yellow feet. It's a disqualification

their two biggest no no's are yellow feet and no feathers on the legs... I wonder what the breeder had mixed with their flock of Bcm... there are several birds I got from a breeder that weren't even close to as advertised so you aren't the only one..in one instance a kind lady made an honest mistake and stuck in a spare from a different breed. Turned out to be one of the only females in the batch.

 

[donrae]

A bird doesn't "hide" either the blue or cuckoo genes. If they carry blue, they're blue, or splash. You wont' get blue when breeding black birds to each other.

Same for cuckoo. It's a dominant gene, not recessive.

Either way, that chick doesn't have blue or splash or cuckoo.

 

[JaeG]

It could just be an anomaly. There's a member on here that got some Orpington eggs posted to them from a breeder to hatch for a Hatchalong. Two of the chicks that hatched out were albino (just look up albino orpington). The breeder had never had an albino chick hatch out in over 100 eggs. Once he knew that gene was there he was able to hatch some out, so these strange things do happen sometimes. And not all chicks are going to be up to standard with black legs, especially if the breeder is breeding for some other quality and doesn't show their birds. I have a beautiful Houdan who is absolutely perfect, except for her bright yellow legs. The breeder was quite upset about those legs and named her Dorothy (like from the Wizard of Oz - follow the yellow brick road). So she's now my lovely backyard egg layer. I also have an odd coloured (very light wheaten) OEGB with blue legs. The breeder I got her from has beautiful, quality birds, but he's not quite sure where that one came from! We love our tiny Ana, and she is tiny.

 

[RIR0BCM]

Wow very interesting!!!
I guess you can never be sure what youll get
I am trying to breed them and ill take the best ones for breeding but i wont get rid of the others ill add them to my layers flock
who knows maybe this chick will be the one to give me the dark egg ive been dreaming of !!