HELP For The Classroom, Do you have my crosses?

Bayerfooted

In the Brooder
Mar 7, 2024
10
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Hi everyone, I am reaching out here for some help. I have scoured all corners of the internet, or so it feels for pictures of chicks, juveniles and adult birds resulting from the breeds I have.

The back story: I set up an incubator in my daughter's classroom on Tuesday March 5th with 42 chicken eggs from my coop. I made a visual on a tri-fold foam board with an interactive calendar for them to have a daily countdown for the incubation period (let's hope this results in some chicks and isn't a bust LOL). I will be periodically stopping in to do little things here and there with the kids as the eggs develop. I was asked by their teacher what the chicks may look like and what the combination of breeds may be. 😳 It never occurred to me to include that in this project. Now this becomes my weekend project that I absolutely need help with.

The Roosters are a French Black Copper Maran, and a Bielefelder. The hens are Black Copper Maran, Bielefelder, Easter Egger, Sapphire Gem and Black Star.

Thanks to MountainWoman73 on here who had an old post in 2021 I do have the Bielefelder over BCM hen combination.

Please, if you have any of the above combinations that you can share with me for the classroom I would be forever grateful!!! Clearly, I have any purebred combination (Bielefelder and BCM).

Also, bonus points if anyone could tell me if the chicks could possibly be sex linked from the BCM roo over the Sapphire Gems, Black stars or Bielefelder? I'm thinking no, but I am brand spanking new to chicken genetics. Super duper bonus points if anyone could tell me the egg color of the females resulting from the cross (I'm thinking the BCM over the EE would be olive but the rest I don't know)

This is the tri-fold I made for the kids:
trifold.jpg
 
Hi everyone, I am reaching out here for some help. I have scoured all corners of the internet, or so it feels for pictures of chicks, juveniles and adult birds resulting from the breeds I have.
I don't have photos, but I have answers to some of those questions.

Please, if you have any of the above combinations that you can share with me for the classroom I would be forever grateful!!! Clearly, I have any purebred combination (Bielefelder and BCM).
You could give a fairly good representation with photos of:
pure Black Copper Marans chicks
pure Bielefelder chicks (male and female)
Sapphire Gem chicks
Barred Rock or Cuckoo Marans chicks

That will not represent quite all the options perfectly, but it will give a pretty good idea of what is most likely.

For a more thorough rundown of what to expect:
The Roosters are a French Black Copper Maran, and a Bielefelder. The hens are Black Copper Maran, Bielefelder, Easter Egger, Sapphire Gem and Black Star.
Of course you could get chicks that are pure Black Copper Marans and pure Bielefelders. I gather you know what those look like.

Black Copper Marans rooster with Bielefelder hen: daughters will look about the same as Black Copper Marans chicks, sons will have a light dot on top of their head but otherwise look about the same.

Black Copper Marans rooster with Easter Egger hen: depends on the color of the hen, but chicks will most likely look more-or-less like Black Copper Marans chicks.

Black Copper Marans rooster with Sapphire Gem hen: chicks will be either black or blue. "Black" chicks look a bit like penguins (look online for chicks of Black Jersey Giants or Black Australorps. Those will be close enough.) "Blue" chicks will look like Sapphire Gem chicks (like black chicks, but with the black diluted to a gray shade.)

Black Copper Marans rooster with Black Star hen: chicks may look like "black" chicks (see the cross with Sapphire Gem hen) or may look like Black Copper Marans chicks.

Bielefelder rooster with Black Copper Marans hen: chicks should have a light dot on top of their head, but otherwise look similar to Black Copper Marans chicks. Both male and female chicks will have the light dot when you do the cross this direction.

Bielefelder rooster with Easter Egger hen: depends on the color of the hen. Chicks may look like Bielefelder chicks, or may look like what the Easter Egger did when young, or may not look much like either one. There is a good chance of light-colored dots on top of their heads, but not a certainty (Bielefelder females don't have a light dot on their heads at hatch, either.)

Bielefelder rooster with Sapphire Gem hens: chicks should all have a light dot on top of their heads, and the other colors should be either black or blue (see BCM x Sapphire Gem cross). That will make chicks that look like Barred Rock chicks (black with light dot on head) or like Blue Cuckoo Marans chicks (blue with light dot on head.) There is a chance of some chicks looking chipmunk-striped or red/gold in color (same as one option from Bielefelder rooster with Black Star hen.)

Bielefelder rooster with Black Star hen: half of chicks should be black with a light dot on top of their head (see Bielefelder rooster with Sapphire Gem hen). The other half of the chicks will probably look like Bielefelder female chicks (chipmunk stripes, no light dot on head), although they may look a bit like Rhode Island Red chicks (more red, less striping.)

Also, bonus points if anyone could tell me if the chicks could possibly be sex linked from the BCM roo over the Sapphire Gems, Black stars or Bielefelder? I'm thinking no, but I am brand spanking new to chicken genetics.
BCM rooster with Bielefelder hens will produce sexlinks. Sons will have white barring, daughters will not. White barring shows when they grow their feathers, and the same gene often causes a light spot on the head (usually easy to see on dark-colored chicks, hard on light-colored ones, and doesn't appear at all on chicks of some colors, presumably for some genetic reason I don't understand.)

You will only be able to tell the sex of those chicks if you know which parents they came from. The sons will look like male & female chicks from some of your other crosses, and the daughters will look like male & female chicks from some others of the other crosses.

Super duper bonus points if anyone could tell me the egg color of the females resulting from the cross (I'm thinking the BCM over the EE would be olive but the rest I don't know)
Black Copper Marans rooster crossed with any hen that lays brown eggs: daughters will lay brown eggs, probably a shade midway between the mother's shade and Marans shade.

Black Copper Marans rooster crossed with Easter Egger: yes, daughters are likely to lay olive eggs, but there is also a chance of daughters laying brown eggs. It depends on whether the Easter Egger has one blue egg gene (lays blue/green eggs and gives that trait to half her daughters but not the other half) or whether she has two blue egg genes (still lays blue/green eggs, but gives that trait to all of her daughters instead of just half of them.)

Bielefelder rooster crossed with any hen that lays brown eggs: daughters will lay brown eggs, probably a shade midway between the mother's shade and Bielefelder shade.

Bielefelder rooster crossed with Easter Egger: daughters will probably lay green eggs, but not dark enough to be called olive, with a chance of some daughters laying brown eggs (same genetic explanation as the BCM/EE cross daughters, that the EE mother may not give all of them a blue egg gene.)
 

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