What's the difference between a cuckoo maran and a Barred rock?

[pattgal]

they look identical to me, both lay brown eggs....

 

[punky rooster]

Marans should lay dark brown eggs. Rocks are bigger, have yellow legs also sharper barring.

Now somebody post a pic of a marans

 

[punky rooster]

here

Better?

 

[Debbi]

Cuckoo Marans should also have whitish/gray leg color and feathered shanks and outside toes, still many do not. If you are talking about hatchery birds, they will lay a pitifully colored egg, more the color of a BR's egg. To get better colored Cuckoo eggs, you need to start with better stock, from a breeder who breeds for the dark egg gene. Here is the link to the Marans Chicken Club Usa: http://www.maransusa.org/

Also, the breed name is Marans, with an S at the end. That goes for one bird or 100. Marans is the name of the town where they originated.

 

[pattgal]

yeah I was really disappointed with the ones I got. from your descriptions they are maran's. but the egg color is a joke. it's just a regular brown egg
I thought maybe I ended up with barred rocks but they don't lay very good and their legs are grey but no feathers
I got them off kijiji so I have no clue where they are really from

 

[Debbi]

You may want to check out the egg page here: http://www.maransusa.org/eggs.html

Most of the very dark eggs are produced by the Black Copper Marans; although the Blue/Blue Copper, and Wheatens are getting pretty good here lately. Generally, Cuckoos do not lay a very dark egg when compared to the other varities of the breed, but there are some breeders that are changing that, and are producing some very nice eggs. Check around and see if there are any breeders near to you, look at the birds, and ask to see egg color. I love going out to the coop to find the eggs! My pullets are laying a nice red/russet color (5-6), and the size of the eggs are large to a few jumbos!

 

[averytds]

Are you sure they're laying the eggs in question or could they be laying somewhere you haven't found and/or not laying yet? All the BRs we've ever had lay a light brown almost pinkish egg and are easy to pick out vs other brown egg layers. We got a couple of Cuckoo Marans for some variety. Their eggs aren't the dark chocolate brown that I've seen in pics, but a brick or terra cotta red. We can easily pick them out from just the general brown eggs and no comparison to the BRs.


Are your's new to laying? I wasn't impressed with our pullet eggs, but they did darken up.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Barred barring looks like it was drawn with a marker using a straight edge, cuckoo barring looks like it was drawn freehand with a crayon. Thnik of that description as you look at the photos posted and you should notice the difference.