Cuckoo Maran versus Barred Rock

[tiffanyh]

Hello everyone,
I got my chicks Friday morning. I actually split an order with another BYC member. All but one arrived well and healthy.

My question is that in teh order, we had barred rock chicks AND cuckoo marans chicks. The barred rocks were supposed to be marked, as well as some other lighter colored chicks. When they arrived, there were no marks on any. How can I tell the difference between the cuckoos and rocks?

Two different hatcheries gave me two different answers; one said you cant the other said cuckoos have more white on their head. Besides waiting until they lay, and ideas on how I can tell them apart? The barred were supposed to be split from the cuckoos...

Thanks everyone.

 

[speckledhen]

Cuckoo Marans have pinky white legs and Barred Rocks have yellow legs with some black wash down the front, more so on the pullets. That is the most obvious way. Barred Rocks are supposed to have more distinct barring, but with hatchery birds, that is most often not the case.

 

[mlheran]

Speckledhen is right, the legs are usually the surest bet at that age.

However, if you scroll to the bottom of these pages, you will see that there are some Cuckoo chicks that have very yellow legs -it all depends on the stock the breeder is using. If you can wait until they feather out a bit more it is usually easy to see that Barred Rocks have very clear black and white lines, whereas Cuckoos look "softer" or more blurry (again, you can kind of see that in the following chick pics). You'll also see that the size of the white spot varies a lot within each breed, so I would think there would be no way to tell by that.

One thing that is conveninent in both breeds is that the cocks are usually always lighter than the hens.

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGP/Rocks/BRKRocks.html

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGK/Marans/BRKMarans.html

Good luck with them though, I have two CM and they are huge gorgeous girls!

 

[speckledhen]

The "clear and distinct" lines are not a sure fire way to assess your breed with hatchery birds. For example, the only way I know the hen in the pic below is a badly-barred Barred Rock and not a Cuckoo Marans is her yellow legs (sorry, Ivy, I love ya, but...):

 

[mlheran]

Quote:
Wow, yeah! Boy, those hatcheries really mess stuff up for us chicken folk!

I've noticed that most BR also have narrower stipes and CMs tend to have wider stripes, does that hold true in your experience? It's probably one more thing that varies from breeder to breeder! Now I can see why some CM breeders keep the feathered legs that are the norm in the French birds.

Either way tiffanyh, you're sure to get some lovely brown eggs from them!

 

[speckledhen]

Well, not with my BR hen, Lexie. She and her first baby hatched have VERY wide white bars. The young cockerel's are double the width of two other BR cockerel's I hatched from a friend's flock. Some just dont follow the rules, do they?
Both breeds are very nice, but I do think that Barred Rocks are better layers all 'round, from others' experiences with the CMs.

 

[tiffanyh]

Thanks so much guys--really either way we lovethem but we thought maybe we could work it out prior to laying--but well probably just wait and see!

 

[tooeytew]

Hi I am new to the group. I am impressed with Cindy's knowledge of the different breeds. She is Right about the legs. Although it is true that if you get a bad breeder or hatchery they can be mixed and end up with yellow legs. Another interesting fact about Cuckoo Marans is the males are hatched with a white spot on the back of their heads and flesh colored beaks...females are all black and have black beaks and darker legs. I don't know if this is true in Rocks or not. My 15 wk old Maran/Welsummer crosses had the Maran markings and legs when hatched. Hope this helps.

 

[chatham400]

Here is a recent pic of the two chicks in question.

We split the order, and as Tiffany said, they did not mark the chicks, so it was difficult to tell who was who. Now we are fairly confident I ended up with one Cuckoo Maran and one Barred Rock. Fortunately, everyone involved is very understanding and we are going to leave all the chicks where they are. My 10 year old son had claimed the two black ones as his, so he would have had a tough time separating them. Thanks Tiffany! Not sure I am going to get this photo posting thing right, but here goes.