Breeding Blue to Wheaten

[wendychicklawyr]

If I breed a blue (say maran) to a wheaten maran will i get a blue wheaten maran. Same with ameraucana .. blue to wheaten??

 

[Ridgerunner]

It’s not quite that easy. There are different ways to make blue genetically. A common way is to use extended black, but birchen with melanizers will work too. Some people that know a lot more about it than I do have said there are other ways. I also don’t know if you mean solid uniform blue or if there are patterns involved.

One thing I do know if you are talking about the blue-black-splash type of blue (and I’m pretty sure you are) is that the chicken is split for the blue gene. That means the chicken has one copy of the blue gene, not two. If both copies of that gene at that gene pair are blue, the chicken is a splash. If it has no copies of blue, it defaults to black, assuming the chicken would be black to start with. If it has one blue gene and one not-blue gene, it is blue. It is also not a sex linked gene so it does not matter which parent is blue. So about half the blue chicken’s offspring will inherit a blue gene and half will not.

Blue only works on feathers that would normally be black, so what other genes are present and how they affect the black makes a difference.

Assuming your blue is based on extended black, the offspring would inherit an extended black from the blue parent. That extended black will trump most other things, including wheaten, so the odds are tremendously high that the first generation of that cross will be about half solid black and half solid blue.

If you cross the blue offspring back to a wheaten or with another blue from that cross, you have a reasonable chance of getting a blue wheaten, but you will also get several other colors and patterns.

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
Breeding Blue Maran to Wheaten Maran will give you 50% Blue Marans and 50% Black Marans..... but the birds will only look blue or black they will not be genetically pure for it, meaning they are hidden the wheaten gene(eWh) you see Extended black(E/E) and Birchen(ER/ER) are dominant over wheaten(eWh) and will mask its pressence, thats why you see some wheaten marans poping up from time to time on a black/blue copper maran or blue/black marans breeding

 

[wendychicklawyr]

But I wouldn't end up with a mess, meaning like an ee colors everywhere lol. Not to say I don't love EEs I have 2. I also want to breed blue ameraucana to wheaten And hope for blue wheaten ameraucana ..bet it's the same issue?

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
you cant expect a blue wheaten Ameraucana with that type of cross, all you will be getting is black and blue ameraucana, if you want blue wheaten you would have to cross the firs blue F1s(Blue x wheaten) back to wheaten and 50% of that cross will be wheaten and 50% of that will be blue wheaten...

 

[wendychicklawyr]

Oh that's awesome ..but of course with fresh stock so as to not interbreed ..thank u so much!!

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
thats right....

 

[wendychicklawyr]

Can it be blue copper maran roo to blue wheaten maran hen?

 

[nicalandia]

Quote:
yeah that will work too(infact it will be better than blue marrans).. as long as the bird has the blue gene it will work, but remember that the F1(the first cross) will no look wheaten, it will look like blue copper marans. its not untill you cross back to wheaten is that you will see 50% of them looking like blue wheaten...

 

[wendychicklawyr]

so egggciting.. i cant wait

thanks again