BCM hen x Welsummer roo outcome?

[Eliselove]

Hello folks I am wondering if anyone else has already done this cross and raised the offspring? I have a welsummer roo that I am sitting for a friend and wondering about hatching some eggs from my BCM ladies. I am a little leery of inventing chicken breeds after an experiment I did last year and wonder if anyone has done this one. Thanks!

 

[Rose the Legbar]

@NatJ

 

[NatJ]

Hello folks I am wondering if anyone else has already done this cross and raised the offspring? I have a welsummer roo that I am sitting for a friend and wondering about hatching some eggs from my BCM ladies. I am a little leery of inventing chicken breeds after an experiment I did last year and wonder if anyone has done this one. Thanks!

BCM is what kind of Marans?
Black or Blue? Copper or Cuckoo?

I don't have any personal experience with that cross, but if the hens are Black Copper Marans, you will probably get chicks that look like Black Copper Marans.

If the hens are Black Cuckoo Marans, then the chicks will be sexlinks: sons will have a light dot on top of their heads when they hatch, daughters will not. Daughters will grow up to be solid black, possibly with some gold or red leakage. Sons will grow up to be black with white barring, possibly with some leakage of other colors too. The barring gene in the males is what makes the light dot on their heads when they hatch, as well as the white bars in their feathers as they grow.


Blue Copper hens will produce chicks just like what Black Copper hens produce, except that half the chicks will show blue instead of black.

Blue Cuckoo hens will produce chicks just like what Black Cuckoo hens produce, except that half the chicks will show blue instead of black.

No matter which kind of Marans you have, the chicks will probably have white legs (not the yellow of the Welsummer). If the Marans have some feathers on their feet, the chicks might have that too.

Daughters should lay eggs that are dark brown (probably between Welsummer color eggs and Marans color eggs.) I've heard that Welsummers are prone to laying eggs with dark speckles on them, but I don't know enough about the genetics of that to make predictions for the chicks.

 

[Eliselove]

Thank you that is amazing information NatJ. These are Black Copper Marans I am sorry that I didn't clarify that, and I was thinking about switching to a sex link breed anyway so a sex link cross sounds great.

Any info about the characteristics of the cross? Like they will likely be a dual-purpose bird? These welsummers this line actually had a strangely light egg with some speckles and these Marans also have speckles sometime, so maybe the eggs will be medium brown. I hope they are good layers and decent size.

Thank you everyone again if anyone wants to share any more info!

 

[NatJ]

Thank you that is amazing information NatJ. These are Black Copper Marans I am sorry that I didn't clarify that

I know it's easy to use an abbreviation, and forget that the same letters can stand for something else as well

I was thinking about switching to a sex link breed anyway so a sex link cross sounds great.

Sexlinks can be fun

You could use a Welsummer rooster or a Black Copper Marans rooster with a Cuckoo Marans hen to get sexlink chicks.

Other breeds with white barring can also work for the hen (Barred Rock, Dominique.)

The rooster needs to have no barring.

It often works best if at least one parent is black so the barring will be easy to see on the chicks. If you crossed a Delaware hen (who has barring) with a Columbian Wyandotte rooster (who has no barring), the genes would work perfectly to produce sons with barring and daughters without barring. But trying to see white barring on the mostly-white chicks would not be particularly easy!

Any info about the characteristics of the cross? Like they will likely be a dual-purpose bird?

If both parents are dual purpose breeds, the chicks should generally be dual-purpose types too.

 

[Eliselove]

Thank you so much @NatJ!!