Which cockerel would you keep?

[BerthaBoo]

Hi everyone! I have two separate broods of chicks growing right now. One set is 2 weeks old and with a momma hen, the other batch is 8 weeks old and was just weaned. All are with the main flock since I hate integrating birds.

The older chicks are all marans mixes (BCM and chocolate marans) and I believe I have two little cockerels from that group (1 for sure). The other set are mostly olive eggers, and one little blue ameraucana but I'm pretty sure that'll be a hen.

My current flock is a lot of cream layers (orpington, barred rock, bym cream layers), I have one olive egger, one cream crested legbar, and one BCM. If I keep a cockerel from either of these sets of chicks to hatch chicks from in the spring, would you go with a marans or an olive egger? or something else entirely? My goal is to diversify my egg basket

 

[Folly's place]

I'd keep both until you have more time with them growing up, so you can evaluate size, structure, and most especially temperament!
Who were their sires? Depending on the size of your flock two might get along with each other, or not. None of them may be 'keepers' anyway.
I like to observe my cockerels as long as possible, thinning out the group over time. Marans should give dark eggs, crossed on green egg layers producing olive eggers. Temperament is the first thing! Then structure, size, and last would be egg color here.
Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

We all have our own goals. Min3e would be different to yours and to Mary's but I also have temperament up really high. But to your specific question.

You have mixes. The genetics are not pure to start with but I don't know what is mixed with your Marans mix, the first ones. But Marans give you a chance to have darker eggs. If they are mixed with a lighter laying breed you can get some really different shades of brown from that. Some could be relatively dark, but not all Marans have really dark egg shell genetics.

I'll assume your olive eggers are a mix of Dark shell breeds and blue shell genes. On all of this I am making assumptions, I really don't know. That means you could get about half blue or green egg laying pullets and about half brown egg laying pullets. With the dark shell genetics from only one parent some of those pullets could lay dark brown or olive eggs and some could lay light green or light brown eggs.

As I said I'm making a lot of assumptions here, I don't really know the genetic background of the parents of any of those potential boys but with what little I know and with your desire for a diverse egg basket I'd go with an olive egger if all else is equal.

 

[Folly's place]

Not always; our first rooster, a small Belgian d'Uccle, maybe 1.5 pounds, would fly up to my eyeball level every day, trying to take me out. Miserable little beast!
Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

Curious what you would aim for a varied egg basket?

Interesting question. For hens you have several cream or light brown egg layers and "one olive egger, one cream crested legbar, and one BCM." The hens are going to provide the diversity, not the rooster. Having only one rooster will reduce diversity in your eggs from the daughters.

I'm torn on what rooster to recommend if I have to pick just any breed. A boy from a white egg laying flock would let the girls shine through but you might not get any real dark eggs, even from the BCM cross. A rooster from a blue egg laying breed would change all eggs to blue or green but probably not a lot of different shades of green except for the OE and BCM. If your Legbar lays blue her daughter would also lay blue from a blue boy.

A quick way to get a varied egg basket would be to get new hens. That's how I would approach it.

 

[McChooky]

Not always; our first rooster, a small Belgian d'Uccle, maybe 1.5 pounds, would fly up to my eyeball level every day, trying to take me out. Miserable little beast!
Mary

I'm a big fan of roosters as long as they aren't mean lol

 

[BerthaBoo]

I'd keep both until you have more time with them growing up, so you can evaluate size, structure, and most especially temperament!
Who were their sires? Depending on the size of your flock two might get along with each other, or not. None of them may be 'keepers' anyway.
I like to observe my cockerels as long as possible, thinning out the group over time. Marans should give dark eggs, crossed on green egg layers producing olive eggers. Temperament is the first thing! Then structure, size, and last would be egg color here.
Mary

Thank you for your perspective! Temperament is important too.

We all have our own goals. Min3e would be different to yours and to Mary's but I also have temperament up really high. But to your specific question.

You have mixes. The genetics are not pure to start with but I don't know what is mixed with your Marans mix, the first ones. But Marans give you a chance to have darker eggs. If they are mixed with a lighter laying breed you can get some really different shades of brown from that. Some could be relatively dark, but not all Marans have really dark egg shell genetics.

I'll assume your olive eggers are a mix of Dark shell breeds and blue shell genes. On all of this I am making assumptions, I really don't know. That means you could get about half blue or green egg laying pullets and about half brown egg laying pullets. With the dark shell genetics from only one parent some of those pullets could lay dark brown or olive eggs and some could lay light green or light brown eggs.

As I said I'm making a lot of assumptions here, I don't really know the genetic background of the parents of any of those potential boys but with what little I know and with your desire for a diverse egg basket I'd go with an olive egger if all else is equal.

The Marans mixes are Marans, the roo was a BCM, and the hens are either BCM or Chocolate Marans. So still marans, just not pure chocolate, and cant say for certain pure BCM since I can't be certain which egg came from which hen.

The olive eggers I don't know origin breeds - the eggs came from another local farmer who has a mix of F1 and F2 olive eggers.

Thank you for your response! I'm leaning toward an olive egger too, but like Mary mentioned, I'll likely keep a few and weed out based on temperament.

 

[Ridgerunner]

With that information I think your chances of getting a really varied basket is not great no matter which you choose, but I'd still lean toward the OE. And I'll repeat, temperament is important.

 

[BerthaBoo]

With that information I think your chances of getting a really varied basket is not great no matter which you choose, but I'd still lean toward the OE. And I'll repeat, temperament is important.

Curious what you would aim for a varied egg basket?

 

[McChooky]

I chose 2 crested cream legbar roosters because of their temperament and size. The only thing worse than a mean rooster is a big mean one.