[curries]

I have been studying my three chicks for 6 weeks now and still can't decide, does anyone have a clue, it's probably really obvious, but not to me 

Photo 1

[curries]

Photo 2

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Last one 

[joyfull]

they all look dark coloured to me so I would say hens as I think cockerels are lighter (however I have been known to get this wrong  ).

[AL Hathaway]

They look like mine did at that age.

the best person on the forum to ask about CuKoo Marans would be Sue of Dark brown eggs as she is a breeder of the Cukoo Marana's with a very dark egg strain.

but they all look like little young pullets

little boys The roos are lighter in color than the pullets....plus the comb and red wattles would be showing by now.

[darkbrowneggs]

Hi there - I would agree that they have the darkness I would expect from a pullet and also look well feathered up.  Is that the mother with them ?  If so there looks just a bit of the hybrid "Speckledy" about her in the neck feathers, but of course each strain is different, and I really only know about my own Marans. 

One of the problems is that since the late 60/70's when the English Marans began to get really popular folk tried to improve the quantity of eggs they got and the possibilities of easy sexing as day olds.  This was done by surreptitious crossing with various other breeds. 

This added to the show breeders crossing to improve the "cuckooing" of the feathers has resulted in a wide variety of birds, which as the cuckoo gene is dominant all look pretty much like Cuckoo Marans

Lord Greenway who imported some French birds in the 1920 and who improved the utility qualities of the breed and was the person who got the English Cuckoo Marans to a suitable standard to be accepted by The Poultry Club in 1935, wrote in his booklet on the breed published in the 1950's ..

"It is possible to tell the most precocious of the cockerels even at eight weeks old, but you cannot be certain....till quite ten or twelve weeks old."

That is quite a long time (and you notice there is no mention of "head spots" which is a favourite "trick" of telling male from female, and probably is a result of the mixed breeding from later on).  I find the purer they are the more difficult to be certain

But these are my tips to tell girls from boys ...
Boys have bigger feet, thicker legs, stand taller, more feisty, feather more slowly especially on their backs, have bigger head gear, and once the wattles begin to show and redden a little I feel more confident.  If the fertilizing cockerel was a paler ie double barred cuckoo then there will be a noticeable white banding on the wing feathers of the boys at two to three weeks, but if the male was an even Cuckoo all over then this will not happen

Girls are generally daintier, with thinner legs and smaller feet.  They feather more quickly especially on their backs and will show a little tufty tail quite quickly, whereas the boys are very slow in the tail department

My guess would be yours are pullets going on the thickness and evenness of their feathering at such an early age, but I am surprised at the lack of tail, unless they were feeling a little "down in the dumps" when you took the piccies and normally their tails are perkier and more prominent

What a Cuckoo Marans bore I am   I can't help it ....I just love my English Cuckoo Marans

all the best
Sue
Dark Brown Eggs

[curries]

Thank you all, I hope you are right and they are all little girls.

From day one I was suspicious that the one on the left in the top pic was a boy as it had a large white splodge on its head and seemed paler and it was a little slower to feather up.  Now that it has feathered up it seems to have more 'stripes' on it's wings and more colourful chest feathers which made me think it might be a boy too.  However on the other hand the other two are a bit bigger than this one which i thought was a boy thing 

Personality wise i would say the little one seems to be more aloof and will wander off and have a sit down on it's own but they all seem to walk the same and behave pretty similarly.

I guess only time will tell.

Sue.....fascinating not boring and thank you for taking the time for such a lovely reply.  Mum is a speckledy, but they aren't really her babies (don't tell her though!) 

[joyfull]

Sue I agree with the mother hen not being a cuckoo Marans, I have both a Spekledy and a Cuckoo Marans and she looks like my speckledy. The tail feathering and back feathering are the way I also sex my araucanas and it works most of the time - the odd one slips through  .
As for you being a bore then your not - you specialise in that breed and as such it is good to have your knowledge  .