what breed is this rooster? marans, orpington? something else? HELP

[DreamCatcherNC]

This rooster was sold to me as a blue copper marans. I bought him sight unseen and when I first saw him, I thought. blue marans.He has grown to be huge and does not seen to fit the bill as a marans. his eyes are not orange . I thought blue Jersey giant, but the bottom of his feet are pink. I hope these pics can yield some insight. any and all help is welcome.

 

[SIMZ]

He sure is pretty, whatever he is.

 

[my sunwolf]

Looks like a Blue Marans to me (maybe with some gold leakage, it's hard to tell from the pictures). Not sure if blue without the copper is a recognized color in the U.S., but for copper the eyes are "preferred" red or orange, which does not mean that if it doesn't have red/orange eyes it's not a Marans, it just means it doesn't fit breed standards. I think that your bird just happens to be a Blue Marans with the dark eyes.

 

[hdowden]

marans

 

[sourland]

Compared to the hens that he is pictured with he seems awfully large for a Marans.

 

[DreamCatcherNC]

that is why I started wondering. he is the biggest rooster in the yard. His comb seems a little different too. That is why I wondered if he might be an american blue orpington

 

[hdowden]

you should see my parents marans, hes a black copper and looks just like that if not a bit bigger. marans are not small birds they are fairly big

 

[pinkchick]

Could be a Marans.....sometimes some Marans will have dark brown eyes even though it is not what is called for for standard.

I believe that the bottom of Jersey Giants feet are yellow. Marans should be pink.


The only way to tell for sure is to test mate him over a non- Marans female that lays a light brown egg or a white egg (I would use female birds like a Barred Rock, Buff Orp or even a Leghorn).......when the female offspring from this pairing mature and start laying they should lay a darker than the egg they hatched from. If the eggs are darker then the parent eggs then the rooster above is a Marans.

I test mate all of my Marans roosters and cockerels for the dark egg gene this way. I used to use a Barred Rock hen that I had, but she got too old and now I am using a Blue Laced Red Wyandotte to test my males on. The hard part is the waiting for them to start laying eggs to see what color they will be.