Can someone help me decide breed

[Lhazc]

So this chick is 2 days old , it is either a ee (roo) x barred rock/ee mix (blue egg layer ) (hen)
Or could it be a cockoo maran? I don't have cockoos but do have a fbcm roo and blue and black copper marans hens in that pen. Could I even get a cockoo from them? I'm not sure thanks for any insite , it has a twin except the other has no white spot on its head

 

[keesmom]

You can't get a cuckoo from your Marans pen.

I assume your mix hen is barred? If so, and your EE male is not, then it is a sex linked chick. And male.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Agree...not Cuckoo Marans as your FBCM rooster and your BCM hen or Blue M hen will not produce barring....so not from Marans.

So this is from your EE/BR hen, which has 1 barring gene, and your EE roo. So this is a male sexlink EE/EE/BR. Chances are he will have blue genetics as you are using an EE/EE crossing from a known blue laying hen...but no guarantees.

He will not breed true for either blue shell or barring as he will only have 1 barring gene, and 50/50 if he got the blue shell gene, so it will depend on who you put him over if you keep him. You could recoop blue genes (if he has one) and barring genes, with double barring on males and single barring on females, if you place him with your EE/BR hen.

LofMc

 

[Lhazc]

Thank you for the clarification, so breeding him back with his mom to produce more blue layers , and it's OK to do that? Sorry ..I'm learning how the breeding works.

 

[Lhazc]

And their offspring would be sex linked? Males would have dots and female dont?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Breeding him back to his mom is fine, just always use healthy stock. You can do that for 3 generations. It is called line breeding to fix the line...or break it if you use poor stock.

Offspring will be doubled barred males and single barred females which should be larger head dot for males, smaller head dot to possibly faint whisk for females. It depends on your underlying base colors how well the difference can be seen as well as some barring genetics. Ideally breed forward from only those offspring which are obvious.

As to laying, let's assume your boy has 1 blue gene (statistically he has a 50/50 chance to receive 1 blue gene from mom as she is already a 1 blue gene hybrid).

1 blue boy bred to 1 blue mom gives statistically offspring of:
25% 2 blue gene (darkest layers)
50% 1 blue gene (lighter blue layers)
25% no blue gene

As you've got a brown layer, the BR, in the background likely you will get green layers as brown wash over blue shell produces green. Get enough brown wash, as say from Marans, and you get olive.

If your boy did not inherit a blue gene from mom, then your stats go down to 50% 1 blue gene and 50% no blue gene in first gen offspring. F1.

The best way to see if your boy has any blue genes is to breed him over a regular white or brown layer to see if you get any blue layer hens. That of course takes time, so a short cut, with no guarantees, is to breed to mom and watch colors. If you start getting some darker blue layers from mom/son, you can be fairly certain son has a blue gene.

Breed those darker blue daughters back to son, and you begin to set your blue line as well as potentially auto sexing....if you are careful only using best stock with clear colors and obvious single to double barring.

The darker blue should have 2 blue genes so that offspring bred back to son will all be 2 blue gene.

Set truest blue, and you can begin to weed out green, but expect throwbacks.

Great project, just takes space and time. The more you set of the best, the faster you can statistically meet your goals.

It is how auto sexing Rhodebars, Cream Legbars, and breeder quality Barred Rocks work.

LofMc

 

[drumstick diva]

agree