The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: SheepMad95 on September 12, 2012, 10:50:04 am
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I have 8 maran chicks at home, they are about 7 and half weeks old now, and have grown quite big! ive been looking up online about how to tell them apart - the web says that the paler ones with more colouring are the males, while the darker ones are the hens?
this is the first time i have kept chicks so i dont really know how to sex them otherwise.
Any information would be helpful! Thanks :D :chook:
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I'm of the wait and see persuasion. I had a single chick earlier this year that at first I thought was going to be a lovely big hen....It started to look a bit more like a boy and the began crowing....at least it got big enough to go in the pot. He was rather striking in the end but upset the status quo of my little very mixed flock.
(Ive had...and bred...hens for 10 years or so
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I'm pretty sure Marans can be sexed at day old which would mean that they are marked differently, could be something like the cream leg bars, the boys have white/cream splodged on their heads and the girls look like chipmunks (marking wise!) ? Someone will be along shortly who knows for sure
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At two days, you can tell many breeds apart by wing feather length. Then, in those breeds, of which Marans are some, the pullets feather up faster - they get their tail and back feathers faster.
Once they're past that, you're into 'wait and see' - comb and wattle size tend to relate to how well developed they are, as well as pullet and cockerel, at the age yours are.
Yes, you can Marans as described, while they're 'in their fluff'.
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Thank you for all the replies, guess i will have to wait and see like you all say!
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I've got some five week old marans and there is a big difference already in the size of their combs and wattles. Why don't you post some pictures and we might be able to help. :thumbsup:
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Okay, ill do that tomorrow, :)
I have 4 that all look the same, and then 3 that look the same and then one that is in between, so i hope i have more hens! ;D
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Are they English Cuckoo Marans, or one of the French varieties?
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Ive no idea! ill try and find out
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Believe it or not a friend of mine does it with a magnet on a piece of string.. It will swing of go round in a circle.. Not sure which is boy or girl now but he did it to our ducks and 4 out of 4 he got them all rite
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If they've got feathered legs, they're French marans.
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Hey everyone thanks for the help, i asked the person who i got them off and they are speckled marans! He also told me how to tell the difference, so now i am in the process of building another chicken house for them to go in! :)
Thanks! :) ;D
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If its a Speckledy it will be a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Cuckoo Marans cockerel, in which case all the females should take the fathers feather colour, and all the males the mothers colour, which makes them very easy to sex, though of course they will lay an egg colour somewhere between the two breeds, but should be vigourous birds because of the cross, and good layers. Whew, that was a long sentence :D
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If its a Speckledy it will be a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Cuckoo Marans cockerel, in which case all the females should take the fathers feather colour, and all the males the mothers colour, which makes them very easy to sex, though of course they will lay an egg colour somewhere between the two breeds, but should be vigourous birds because of the cross, and good layers. Whew, that was a long sentence :D
Ah thats interesting - sorry to hijack thread but.... is that true of all Cuckoo marans crosses? We have some 10 week old 'chicks' from friends who have light sussex and cuckoo marans hens and a sussex cockrel. We seem to have some pure sussexy looking ones, a grey speckled one (complete mixture?) and some black ones - does it follow that the black ones are maran/sussex cross hens and the grey speckeled is a maran/sussex cockrel? Is there a 'what do you get if you cross a ----- with a -----' chicken breeding site/book?
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If its a Speckledy it will be a cross between a Rhode Island Red and a Cuckoo Marans cockerel, in which case all the females should take the fathers feather colour, and all the males the mothers colour, which makes them very easy to sex, though of course they will lay an egg colour somewhere between the two breeds, but should be vigourous birds because of the cross, and good layers. Whew, that was a long sentence :D
Ah thats interesting - sorry to hijack thread but.... is that true of all Cuckoo marans crosses? We have some 10 week old 'chicks' from friends who have light sussex and cuckoo marans hens and a sussex cockrel. We seem to have some pure sussexy looking ones, a grey speckled one (complete mixture?) and some black ones - does it follow that the black ones are maran/sussex cross hens and the grey speckeled is a maran/sussex cockrel? Is there a 'what do you get if you cross a ----- with a -----' chicken breeding site/book?
Doh - Hens and Cockrels are very different according to this [size=78%]http://www.omlet.co.uk/breeds/chickens/maran/ (http://www.omlet.co.uk/breeds/chickens/maran/)[/size] So we have 2 hens and I cockrel according to this picture - I am just surprised that they look as close to this given that their 'dad' was a light sussex.
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oh - I'm cross. I just typed a long answer and decided to use spell check which I don' usually do and it lost my reply :rant: >:( :rant:
Anyway - much more briefly. Birds which look like Cuckoo Marans can be anything unless you have sourced them from a really reliable breeder. Contact The Marans Club for leads if you are serious.
The sex links only work between "brown" and "black" birds, so if either line is not pure, even at some time in its past it is not certain as to what the pullets will look like.
Genetics are pretty complicated, and I am only just getting my head round some of it. But this is a link to a genetics calculator - but again it will only work if you know exactly what you are putting into it.
http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm (http://kippenjungle.nl/Overzicht.htm)
There is so much interbreeding and even if they are sold as such to the first purchaser they sometimes do not let on further on down the line, and so many people purchase from auctions, and assume from the look of the bird what they are buying. Which is not a problem except when you get further on down the line of wanting to breed for certain characteristics :)
And if there are any spelling mistakes in this put it down to crossness at having to re-type.
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Many thanks DBE. I hate it when that happens! No our chicks are just hatched by us from some friends eggs - in no way am I expecting them to be pure (nor will we ever be selling any)! However they are looking EXACTLY like the pics which I am surprised about given they are crosses. My only concern currently is ID ing the cockrels so that I can not get too attached and fatten up to eat!! If we ever decide to go purebreed, we'll be knocking on your door! Many thanks, Fi xx
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I watch for growth in the combs and particularly the wattles. If a smallish bird has pronounced and slightly reddening wattles it is "almost" always a cockerel.
Other ways to check is cockerels stand taller and more vertical, pullets more horizontal, and tend to drop their head when a hand is approaching. Also cockerel have bigger feet and thicker legs, and the little buds which will be the spurs show more quickly.
Good luck with it - I tend to give most things the benefit of the doubt just in case - pure bred Marans are notoriously difficult to sex. :-\