Thoughts on Crossing These Breeds?

So excited! I placed my chick order with Cackle Hatchery and this is what we'll be getting:

3 Female Salmon Faverolles
1 Male Salmon Faverolle
10 Female EE's
4 Black Ameraucanas (Not Sexed)


What we already have:

1 Cream Crested Legbar who lays a mint colored egg
1 Black Maran who lays a dark reddish brown egg (she MIGHT be crossed with Cochin, not sure)
1 Splash Maran (probably mixed) who lays a light brown egg


I am thinking about all the fun we can have hatching out their eggs once the chicks have matured and started laying!

Possibilities:

Black Maran hen + Ameraucana rooster = Olive Eggers?

Cream Legbar + Black Ameraucana rooster = Would that be a nice mix?

Salmon Faverolle + Black Ameraucana = "Fauvacanas"? I wonder what they might look like... Yay or nay?

Salmon Faverolle + Salmon Faverolle = Are they a high in demand breed?

Possibly EE + Ameraucana and/or EE + Salmon Faverolle.....


Would love some thoughts on the possible combinations! Thanks in advance.

With those breeds, you could sure have a lot of fun mixing and matching for a few generations . You've got a lot of fun things....colored eggs, dark eggs, beards muffs, extra toes, white skin, dark skin, feathered legs, barring from the CCL, the possibility of blue birds from your splash hen....lots and lots of fun things there!

The black Ameraucana rooster over the CCL hen should give you sex linked chicks. males will have a white head spot at hatch and feather out barred. Females will have a solid head and be non-barred. Offspring should be blue or aqua eggers.

Your Ameraucana x Marans should make Olive Eggers. Black birds that lay olive eggs.

I think your Favaucanas would be all black. Folks really seem to like that cross, I've not tried it yet myself (lost all my Faverolles pullets recently )

Faverolles are kind of a hit or miss as far as popularity, seem like. Depends on how your area/weather does with feathered feet.

donrae said:

With those breeds, you could sure have a lot of fun mixing and matching for a few generations

. You've got a lot of fun things....colored eggs, dark eggs, beards muffs, extra toes, white skin, dark skin, feathered legs, barring from the CCL, the possibility of blue birds from your splash hen....lots and lots of fun things there!

The black Ameraucana rooster over the CCL hen should give you sex linked chicks. males will have a white head spot at hatch and feather out barred. Females will have a solid head and be non-barred. Offspring should be blue or aqua eggers.

Your Ameraucana x Marans should make Olive Eggers. Black birds that lay olive eggs.

I think your Favaucanas would be all black. Folks really seem to like that cross, I've not tried it yet myself (lost all my Faverolles pullets recently

)

Faverolles are kind of a hit or miss as far as popularity, seem like. Depends on how your area/weather does with feathered feet.

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Thank you for your insight!! I am even more excited now! Would the fact that my Black Maran is likely a cross have no bearing on the possibility of getting olive eggers? How likely would olive egger offspring be? And my Splash Maran is probably also a cross; does that have no bearing on her ability to produce blue offspring with an Ameraucana rooster? My CCL might also be a cross, too... But I'm not sure. Would she still produce sex links? We got them from the same breeder who claimed they were all pure breeds, but a few clearly aren't.

I am so sorry about your Faverolle pullets! How did that happen?

Can you post pics of your birds?

If your black Marans lays a dark egg, she's probably not crossed with Cochin. Cochins lay light creamy tan eggs and that would probably dilute the Marans brown to a more regular brown. Since she's got genes for dark brown eggs, crossing her with a blue egger (pure Ameraucana) should give some shade of Olive green. Crossing any brown with blue will give green, it's just a matter of the shade of green you get. The dark brown from Marans, Welsummers, etc gives that extra richness of color to the green, making it the coveted olive shade.

You splash bird....if she's really splash colored, it doesn't matter what breed she is. Cross her with a black male and you'll get all blue offspring. With her light brown egg, putting her under the Ameraucana rooster will give you a light minty green laying pullet, most likely.

If your CCL has the barring gene, putting her under a black rooster should make sex links. I think the black rooster will make the chicks easy to sex at hatch, cause the down should be mostly black and the head spot will be easy to see. You'll get a chance of pure blue egg layers from that mix, with some green eggers also since her egg isn't pure blue.

donrae said:

Can you post pics of your birds?

If your black Marans lays a dark egg, she's probably not crossed with Cochin. Cochins lay light creamy tan eggs and that would probably dilute the Marans brown to a more regular brown. Since she's got genes for dark brown eggs, crossing her with a blue egger (pure Ameraucana) should give some shade of Olive green. Crossing any brown with blue will give green, it's just a matter of the shade of green you get. The dark brown from Marans, Welsummers, etc gives that extra richness of color to the green, making it the coveted olive shade.

You splash bird....if she's really splash colored, it doesn't matter what breed she is. Cross her with a black male and you'll get all blue offspring. With her light brown egg, putting her under the Ameraucana rooster will give you a light minty green laying pullet, most likely.

If your CCL has the barring gene, putting her under a black rooster should make sex links. I think the black rooster will make the chicks easy to sex at hatch, cause the down should be mostly black and the head spot will be easy to see. You'll get a chance of pure blue egg layers from that mix, with some green eggers also since her egg isn't pure blue.

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Here are some pics. Did my best to capture them while they were moving. Hope they're clear enough. Would you say my "Splash" is truly a splash? After looking at pics of other splash chickens I now have my doubts.

We'd also gotten a few "Cochin" chicks that turned out to be roosters. We're going to have to give our remaining roosters away because they are too rough on the hens (hence their missing feathers).. We think the Maran hens are mixed with Cochin as well because of their slightly feathered feet... But we're still new to chickens so we're not sure. The black hen was sold as a pure Black Copper Maran but they don't have feathered feet, do they? She doesn't even look like a Black Copper Maran. She is black with some greenish feathers. And we think our rooster, Vader, looks like a Black Copper Maran even though he was sold to us a a Cochin. Chewbacca looks like a pure Cochin but I'm not even sure. That is why I think they may all be mixed... I don't even know. Thoughts?



Skywalker, our "Splash Maran" (medium light brown egg)






Amidala, our "Crested Cream Legbar" (light green egg)







Leia, our "Black Copper Maran" (large reddish brown egg)













Roosters:


Darth Vader, our "Cochin" (yeah, right) whose name is very fitting.... He's mean!





Chewbacca our "Cochin" who is very timid and flighty...

You've got quite a flock there!

I don't think the splash bird is really splash. She looks more like a white bird crossed with a colored bird, giving a white base with those flecks of color. Splash is a soft grey with flecks of darker blue.

Your black Marans may be just that. Does she have white skin? Check the bottoms of her feet to get the true skin color. Marans should have feathered legs, so she may be pure bred. Her body shape does not look like she has any Cochin blood, they're round and fluffy.

Your CCL is definitely mixed, not pure. Dark legs, and she doesn't look to have any barring. So, she won't make sex links for you.

I think Darth Vader may be a wheaten Marans rooster. Wheaten often hides in the black/black copper lines. He's a pretty bird.

Chewie could be a Cochin, it's hard to tell from the pic. But he looks to have the rounded, fluffy body shape.

No matter who you chose to mate and hatch, with those birds plus the new chicks you're getting, you're going to have a fun flock!

donrae said:

You've got quite a flock there!

I don't think the splash bird is really splash. She looks more like a white bird crossed with a colored bird, giving a white base with those flecks of color. Splash is a soft grey with flecks of darker blue.

Your black Marans may be just that. Does she have white skin? Check the bottoms of her feet to get the true skin color. Marans should have feathered legs, so she may be pure bred. Her body shape does not look like she has any Cochin blood, they're round and fluffy.

Your CCL is definitely mixed, not pure. Dark legs, and she doesn't look to have any barring. So, she won't make sex links for you.

I think Darth Vader may be a wheaten Marans rooster. Wheaten often hides in the black/black copper lines. He's a pretty bird.

Chewie could be a Cochin, it's hard to tell from the pic. But he looks to have the rounded, fluffy body shape.

No matter who you chose to mate and hatch, with those birds plus the new chicks you're getting, you're going to have a fun flock!

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Yes, our Black Maran does have white skin. I really thought she might be mixed but that's cool! I cannot wait to breed Olive Eggers from her!

I am sad that Amidala is not a pure CCL but I suspected it since CCLs are supposed to lay a blue egg from what I've read... I will not be purchasing chicks from those people again, but I don't regret it since they are very sweet hens.

Unfortunately we will need to give Vader and Chewbacca away. I am hoping to find them a good home here in NY! I'd really like to give them a chance. We just can't have them anymore.

Thank you SO much for your insight!!! I've learned a lot!

Did you mix your breeds before you had to give away the roosters? We got a chick that was supposed to be a Golden Comet & has since been identified as a Salmon Faverolle mix - possibly with Golden Comet or a white Ameraucana, so I was thinking you might have gotten some similar birds.