Cuckoo Marans Flock

I have a trio of clean legged Cuckoo Marans.  The girls came from Welp hatchery and the roo from Privett.  They are hatchery birds, but lay nice dark eggs anyway!  They were hatched in 2010.  The roo is named Raptor and is a very nice boy.  His girls are nice as well, very dependable layers even in winter!

 Here are a pic of their eggs.  The dark ones of course.  The others are for comparison.

That's Raptor and his ladies. I have 5 hens and the roo.  They are all in my large laying flock because I can pick their dark eggs out of the bunch easily.  Below is a pic of their chicks.  This is a hardy breed that is laid back and easy to hatch.

The great thing about these guys is they are autosexing.  That means you can tell their sex, pretty reliably as soon as they hatch!  The big solid white spot on the head is a boy.  The girls have a smattering of white, like you wiped a paint brush across their head.  Then a little later the boys get the wider white wing bars.  Like the center two chicks in the picture.  These chicks are 2 weeks old.