Barred Rooster Combos

[Iluveggers]

I have a Barred Olive Egger cockerel, not sure what his parents are but he looks like a Cuckoo Marans.

I have a variety of pullets & hens. Black, white, red, buff, laced, partridge, blue, duckwing. All colors & patrerns.

I am wondering if the chicks from him will all look the same, or if there will be many colors. I have 3 other roosters, but he is the alpha so I’m sure his genetics will be in more than 25% of them.

If you need specific female breeds, let me know. Thanks!

 

[NatJ]

Short answer: they may look alike, or they may not. Part depends on him, and part depends on the hens.

Longer answer:
He might give white barring to all of his chicks, or he might give it to just half of them, depending on what cross he came from. The white barring would be in addition to whatever other colors the chicks have.

You will almost certainly get some black chicks (with or without white barring).

You might get some chicks with gold and black, or silver and black. This could be up to 50% of chicks from some hens, if the rooster carries the genes to allow it. Or it could be 0% of chicks, if your rooster is pure for the E gene (Extended Black.) These chicks might also have white barring, or they might not.

If any of your hens has the Dominant White gene, that would affect all black parts of any chick inheriting it from her (turns black to white.)

If any of your hens has the Blue gene, that would affect all black parts of any chick inheriting it from her (turns black to blue.)

 

[Iluveggers]

Short answer: they may look alike, or they may not. Part depends on him, and part depends on the hens.

Longer answer:
He might give white barring to all of his chicks, or he might give it to just half of them, depending on what cross he came from. The white barring would be in addition to whatever other colors the chicks have.

You will almost certainly get some black chicks (with or without white barring).

You might get some chicks with gold and black, or silver and black. This could be up to 50% of chicks from some hens, if the rooster carries the genes to allow it. Or it could be 0% of chicks, if your rooster is pure for the E gene (Extended Black.) These chicks might also have white barring, or they might not.

If any of your hens has the Dominant White gene, that would affect all black parts of any chick inheriting it from her (turns black to white.)

If any of your hens has the Blue gene, that would affect all black parts of any chick inheriting it from her (turns black to blue.)

Thank you! I was just hoping to have something besides a whole bunch of barred chicks, I like variety! Looks like they’ll most likely be some mix, just unable to guess how much!

Thank you so much for your response!

 

[NatJ]

Thank you! I was just hoping to have something besides a whole bunch of barred chicks, I like variety! Looks like they’ll most likely be some mix, just unable to guess how much!

Thank you so much for your response!

If you want to find out whether the rooster carries any other patterns, cross him to hens that show a lot of red or gold (laced, partridge, buff, etc.) If you hatch a bunch of black chicks and no other colors, you can be fairly sure he's pure for E (Extended Black.) But if he is not pure for E, then you should get a nice variety of chick colors and patterns from such crossings.

If he is pure for E (Extended Black), then apart from barred/not-barred, the only other colors you can get from him will be blue or white (from hens with Blue or Dominant White).

 

[NatJ]

This stuff is so interesting! I wish I knew what he was, but he hatched from a Meyers Olive Egger egg so I would guess half Cuckoo Marans (egg was very dark), and Legbar dad (he has a tiny crest like a legbar but not as high.) He has a straight comb.

In that case:

--Meyer hatchery says their Olive Eggers are F1 crosses (brown egger x blue egger)
https://meyerhatchery.com/products/Olive-Egger-Hatching-Eggs-p226404178

--If he must be a direct cross, then you are probably right about Cuckoo Marans mother and Legbar father. That is the only logical set of pure breeds that would produce the rooster you've described.

--If he is from that cross, he will be pure for the barring gene (white barring on all his chicks), but split for E (Extended Black). So he will give black to half his chicks, and e+ (wildtype/duckwing) to the other half of his chicks.

--If all that is true, you should get quite a few colors of chicks by crossing him with your hens who show any amount of gold or silver.

--Crossing him with black, blue, or white hens will most likely give black-based chicks (possibly turned to blue or white, depending on the mother.)

 

[Allsfairinloveandbugs]

Thank you @NatJ for all your detailed info. And thank you @MysteryChicken for your info and photos too! If ya'll cant identify her color, then I guess I will never know. I never gave her a name, but after yall's input, her name is now Mystery.

@Iluveggers , I too have always treated my Easter Eggers like a Forest Gump box of chocolates; mix em all up together and see what egg and feather colors I get! In fact, I mixed them up so much that I grew concerned I might have lost the blue egg gene from many of the EE roosters. So I sent feathers from 10 EE roosters with modified pea combs for DNA testing to determine if they were homozygous or heterozygous for the blue egg gene. (6 of the 10 tested homozygous for blue eggs, Yay!) I luv all egg colors, but definitely didn't want to lose the blues. I'm very interested to see what chick colors you get from your own "box of chocolates"!

 

[MysteryChicken]

Not, exactly the same as yours but she is lavender.

 

[Iluveggers]

If you want to find out whether the rooster carries any other patterns, cross him to hens that show a lot of red or gold (laced, partridge, buff, etc.) If you hatch a bunch of black chicks and no other colors, you can be fairly sure he's pure for E (Extended Black.) But if he is not pure for E, then you should get a nice variety of chick colors and patterns from such crossings.

If he is pure for E (Extended Black), then apart from barred/not-barred, the only other colors you can get from him will be blue or white (from hens with Blue or Dominant White).

This stuff is so interesting! I wish I knew what he was, but he hatched from a Meyers Olive Egger egg so I would guess half Cuckoo Marans (egg was very dark), and Legbar dad (he has a tiny crest like a legbar but not as high.) He has a straight comb.

 

[Iluveggers]

Thank you, so interesting! So the split E will not be overridden by a pure white hen?

I will have to document chick colors carefully and divide egg colors up at hatch to see which eggs gave me which chicks. No way to tell who lays what (especially with tons of brown eggs), but it will be very interesting! If I get non-barred chicks, it must be from on of the other 3 roosters, none who have barring, or possibly from a couple of the barred hens (we have one cuckoo and a couple barred rocks). Then we have columbian Wyandotte & Delaware, Legbar females, so there will probably be a significant amount of barring. So cool!

50 chickens with so much variety, I know there’s no way to tell, but it will be like a box of chocolates, never know what you will get!

 

[NatJ]

Thank you, so interesting! So the split E will not be overridden by a pure white hen?

If the hen is white because of Dominant White, that usually means she has the genes to be solid black, and then the black is turned to white. Her chicks will probably be white no matter what rooster she is mated with.

Edit to clarify: any chick that inherits e+ from the rooster will still be black if it inherits E from the mother, and white if it inherits E and Dominant White from the mother.

But if the hen has recessive white, it's almost impossible to predict the color of the chicks. Recessive white can turn any chicken white if they have two copies of the gene. But because it's recessive, any chick who has only one copy of the gene (inherited from just one parent) will not show any effects. That means you see the effects of whatever other color genes the chick has, including whatever other genes the mother was hiding but passed on to her chick.

I will have to document chick colors carefully and divide egg colors up at hatch to see which eggs gave me which chicks. No way to tell who lays what (especially with tons of brown eggs), but it will be very interesting!
... 50 chickens with so much variety, I know there’s no way to tell, but it will be like a box of chocolates, never know what you will get!

I agree, it should be very interesting indeed. I'm hoping to see some pictures once you have chicks