blue marans

[Dewayne441]

I have been reading online about to produce blue marans. It is a bit confusing. I have a black marans with splash. I also have a black copper hen. I have a white marans rooster and white marans hens. It seems I can produce blue from the black splash rooster and the black copper hen. True? If not then how do I do it. I just like their look. I also have 2 blue marans too by the way.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Chicken color genetics can get pretty confusing. Perhaps this can help.

You probably know this already, but genes come in pairs. Usually you think of genes either being dominant or recessive but that’s not really the case with the blue feather gene. It’s more complicated. I’ll use “Bl” to be the Blue feather gene and “bl” to be the not-Blue feather gene. Maybe a visual like that will help.

When both genes in that gene pair are blue, the chicken is Splash. When one gene is blue and the other is not-blue, the chicken is blue. When neither gene is blue, it is black. So:

Bl, BL = Splash
Bl, bl = Blue
bl, bl = Black

So if you cross a Splash chicken with two blue genes (Bl, Bl) with a chicken that does not have any blue genes (bl, bl), the offspring will get a blue from one parent and a not-blue from the other. So the offspring will wind up Bl, bl and have blue feathers.

If you cross a Splash (Bl, Bl) with a Blue (Bl, bl), half the chicks will be Splash (Bl, Bl) and half will be Blue (Bl,bl).

If you cross two Blues, (Bl, bl) you wind up with ¼ Splash (Bl, Bl), ½ Blue(Bl, bl), and 1/4 Black (bl, bl).

If you cross a Blue (Bl, bl) with a Black (bl, bl) you get ½ Blue (Bl,bl) and ½ Black (bl,bl)

Of course these splits are just the odds for each chick. You have to hatch a lot of chicks for these averages to mean much.

With your mix of chickens with the blue gene you have lots of possibilities. But there is a complicating factor. There always is with chicken color genetics.

The Splash and Blue only affect the feathers that would be black otherwise. For example, if your Black Copper Marans hen had one blue gene, her red feathers would remain red and her black feathers would be blue. Or if one of your white chickens had a blue gene you would never know it by looking. There are no black feathers to turn blue.

I’m a little unsure what you mean by a Black Splash rooster. Splash shows black and white feathers so I’m guessing you mean a Splash rooster that has both black and white feathers like a Splash should but with no red feathers. Either way, I don’t know what other genes may be hiding under that Splash. It could be Extended Black, Birchen with melanizers, Silver Birchen, or something else. If you cross your Splash rooster with that Black Copper Marans hen you might get solid blue chicks, Blue Copper Marans chicks, or something else, but I would expect you to get chickens with some blue feathers.

Those white chickens present another possibility. There are two different ways to make solid white chickens, recessive white and dominant white. I don’t know which of these your white chickens have, maybe even both. And I have no idea what other genes are hiding under that white. It’s possible if you cross your Splash rooster with a white hen you could possibly wind up with chicks with some blue feathers. Not knowing what is hiding under that Splash on the rooster and the white on the hen, that is a pure crapshoot.

Hopefully this helps you understand some about what to expect with different crosses and the Blue gene. Where it really gets confusing is that you don’t know what other genes are hiding in the mix. But one way to find out is to hatch some eggs.

Good luck!

 

[Dewayne441]

Thank you so much for all that. Much more thorough than I expected. I have read slot online about this but your answer is the most articulate and best thing I have found . Thank you