Who is my mom?! (pic heavy)

[superchemicalgirl]

I attempted to do the Trader Joe's experiment. Being the nerd that I am, I stuck in a refrigerated "control egg" from my own flock. I grabbed it out of the fridge because it was nice and speckled and pretty. I have no idea who laid it. I get them like this from time to time.

Unfortunately all of my Trader Joe's eggs were duds. But the mutt from my flock persevered and hatched this morning. I'm trying to figure out who the momma is. To make it more interesting I just noticed that the chick has half-feathered legs! I only have 2 feather legged girls in my coop and one is not laying and the other is a banty (and I can easily identify her egg, this was not it).

I've hatched out chicks before with my rooster, around 2 dozen, and no feathered legged chicks except when the mom was one of the two listed above. The rooster is:

The egg was:

The chick:

As the egg was large fowl and brown the possible mothers are (and all Murray McMurray with one exception; I've also marked the ones I'm fairly certain didn't lay it):
RIR
Black Star
Red Star
Barred Rock
Buff Orphington (pretty sure they are were not laying at the time)
Cuckoo Marans
Black Giant
Partridge Rock
GLW (who was not laying as she was raising chicks)
Speckled Sussex (who hasn't laid an egg and is almost a year old)
Dark Brahma (not laying)
NN (not laying)
NN (not from Murray McMurray but clean shanks)

What do you guys think?! Who is the mommy?!

 

[akcountrygrrl]

What kind of comb does it have? Are you sure your Brahma isn't laying? That's the hen I'm leaning toward at this point.

 

[MissD'uccle]

If your Brahma isn't laying for sure I'd say maybe the marans? They do come in clean and feather legged so perhaps yours is carrying the gene somewhere in there? Just a thought, but I'm no expert

 

[Illia]

Hatchery Cuckoo Marans are clean legged. . . . The Dark Brahma may and most likely may not throw that sort of color. Look at the chicks' comb. It is very small, but you will see it. Is it single, or lumpy or smooth looking?

 

[bantamsrmyfav]

My guesses are..if the rooster isn't a delaware cross, he's probably a light brahma cross where the feather legs come from.

or, the dark brahma hen laid just that one special day

or (my # 1 guess) is that it was a cuckoo marans that laid the egg. Perhaps the original hatchery stock were descendants of feather legged birds.

The comb will help determine the truth.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Thanks for your ideas. The chick has a single comb:

And my brahma definitely wasn't laying. I took this picture on 01.26.11 (not a very good picture but shows her comb isn't red):

I was thinking that the cuckoo marans might be it, but again she's hatchery and doesn't have feathered shanks.

 

[Baymule]

That was a gorgeous speckled egg that hatched into a pretty black chick. WhozyerMommy?? A space alien hen that swooped in for a landing and left you a present.

 

[bantamsrmyfav]

 

[Chris09]

Your Cuckoo Marans hen is the Mother and by the little White spot on the head I would say it was a Rooster..

Chris

 

[Featherland]

I think the Cuckoo Maran is the mom. Sometimes dark eggs layers will paint their eggs kind of spotty like that egg.

There can be feather legged genes somewhere in your Marans background.