Chicken bald back

[AndyRoo]

We're having a debate in our house about this (as we're thinking of picking one up for our plan flock!): how do you pronounce 'Coucou'? As in Coucou Maran.

 

Is it a) Coo-coo (like the noise a pigeon makes); or b) Coco? (as in the chocolate cereal); Or neither?

[Cat tails]

I think the colouring is named after the cuckoo (cou cou in french) Same pronunciation.

[emmalou]

Think it is cuckoo. Recommend them. Purs are very friendly and like cuddles and strokes. She is very attached to me and a very sociable breed.

[Cat tails]

Cuckoo is a onomatopoeia. Word that imitates the sound. A cuckoo in Dutch is a koekoek, and pronounced very similar.

Incidently the main reason we "know" the u in latin words was pronounced as oo from book and cuckoo. The latin name for cuckoo is cuculus.

[Beantree]

Even singularly they are called Marans AndyRoo, because that's the town in France they come from (just North of La Rochelle on the West coast). Coucou is also the word the French use for a familiar 'hello'. As said it is pronounced as the English Cuckoo, which is the noise the bird of the same name makes.

 

We had a Coucou Marans. She was a lovely docile hen but developed an egg laying problem, which she overcame, but then died very suddenly after developing excessive thirst. I think the basic problem was the breeder was using pullets, rather than mature hens, to produce hatching eggs. So you need to look carefully at your supplier if you do get one.

[AndyRoo]

Ah.

 

Je suis désolé! Je ne l'associe avec le Français immédiatement... I guess I should have looked into where they came from!

 

And I knew what an onomatopoeia is.