White…Cuckoo Maran?

[Ashleyboz]

We hatch all of our chicks and have a passel of cuckoo Marans. We got this guy out of the bunch. Is he just considered “lighter” than the rest?

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

That is not a Cuckoo Marans, he has the wrong color and no feathers on his legs, which means he must be a mixed breed.

 

[Ashleyboz]

That is not a Cuckoo Marans, he has the wrong color and no feathers on his legs, which means he must be a mixed breed.

That’s what I’m trying to understand. He is lightly feathered on his legs. The only other option is our black mottled cookies and cream rooster with the Maran girls. I just don’t understand the white.

 

[SwampPrincessChick]

That’s what I’m trying to understand. He is lightly feathered on his legs. The only other option is our black mottled cookies and cream rooster with the Maran girls. I just don’t understand the white.

He has some other genetics going on, he is not exactly mottled because I see barring as well. Either way, he is still a mixed breed. What breeds are in your flock?

 

[Ashleyboz]

He has some other genetics going on, he is not exactly mottled because I see barring as well. Either way, he is still a mixed breed. What breeds are in your flock?

At the time we had Isa Browns, Smokey pearls, cuckoo Marans, a black Australorp and blue Cochins. First two wouldn’t be because of them being dom white.

 

[Ashleyboz]

He has some other genetics going on, he is not exactly mottled because I see barring as well. Either way, he is still a mixed breed. What breeds are in your flock?

Also with the Smokey pearls they do have ghost baring which you see on his tail but with either of our roosters and a Smokey pearl they give paints.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

That is not a Cuckoo Marans, he has the wrong color and no feathers on his legs, which means he must be a mixed breed.

He does have feathered legs

 

[Auntiejessi3]

@NatJ

 

[JedJackson]

I'm not sure what's going on with him, but that coloring is very cool! The color genetics of Smokey Pearls are a mystery because no one knows what breeds/varieties were used to create them as far as I know, and it could be the same situation with the Cookies n Creams. But I suspect one of those two breeds was crossed with a cuckoo Marans to create this guy. The only other possibility is that he's a color mutation.

 

[NatJ]

At the time we had Isa Browns, Smokey pearls, cuckoo Marans, a black Australorp and blue Cochins. First two wouldn’t be because of them being dom white.

ISA Browns usually have one Dominant White gene, and one gene for not-Dominant White. So half of their chicks can show black. The same may also be true for the Smokey Pearls, but I don't know for sure.

Also with the Smokey pearls they do have ghost baring which you see on his tail but with either of our roosters and a Smokey pearl they give paints.

The only other option is our black mottled cookies and cream rooster with the Maran girls. I just don’t understand the white.

He definitely has white barring.

I can see two possible explanations for his coloring:

#1, he could be Extended Black (=black all over) with lots of Silver leakage. That could come from any combination of parents, but is most likely to happen with an ISA Brown mother. Half of her chicks would have Dominant White turning black to white or Paint, but he would come from the half of her chicks that have no Dominant White.

#2 Or else he is showing some pattern of black & silver, which would mean inheriting that gene from both parents (it would be recessive to the Extended Black gene, so any of the black-based chickens could be carrying it without showing any effects.)

If this is the case, the ISA Brown is still the most likely mother, because she is the only parent that does not have Extended Black. That would mean his father would be the Cuckoo Marans (because of the barring), and it would mean the Cuckoo Marans rooster would be carrying some gene recessive to Extended Black. If that is true of the Cuckoo Marans, then crossing Cuckoo Marans with the ISA Brown hen would give chicks that split into three visually distinct groups: half would be white or paint with white barring (Dominant White), 1/4 would be black with white barring (Extended Black, no Dominant White), 1/4 would be other colors/patterns with white barring (no Extended Black, no Dominant White: like this cockerel.)

If the cockerel has a pattern of black & silver, but his mother is not the ISA Brown, that would mean both his father and his mother carry a gene that is recessive to Extended Black. Chicks from such a cross would have a 3 in 4 chance of showing Extended Black, and a 1 in 4 chance of showing the other pattern (like this cockerel does.)


As regards exactly which birds in the flock could be his parents:

He does have white barring, which rules out any pairing of Cookies & Cream rooster (no barring) with unbarred hens (ISA Brown, Black Australorp, Blue Cochin.)

The Blue Cochin would probably produce chicks with heavier leg feathering than he has, so I would guess she is not the mother, but I would not be certain of that. Half of her chicks would show blue, but he could be in the half that do not.

I don't think I can completely rule out any of the other combinations of possible parents (Cuckoo Marans rooster with any hen you have, or Cookies & Cream rooster with any hen that has white barring.)