Cockerel or Pullet

[JedJackson]

Ok....this is where I'm confused.
I'm understanding that female Midnights will not breed true from all my limited research, but that's as far as they say.
I just assumed (there it is), that BCM x BR would pass barring to both sons and daughters.

So if the daughter from that cross has no barring gene what will it produce from backcrossing back to a BCM roo? Just odd copper leakage?

And if no progeny from that cross shows barring then I'm test mating wrong and wonder how I can find out, if you have any thoughts on that.
I apologize to the OP for the misinformation and @JedJackson thank you for the correction.

What they mean is that if you breed male and female Midnight Majesties together you will not get sex linked chicks. Crossing for sex links only works in the first generation.

The only difference between Midnights and regular old black sex links is that a BC Marans male is used whereas in regular black sex links a production Rhode Island red male is used. Barred rock hens are used for both.

How it works: for barred and cuckoo varieties, purebred males have two copies of the barring gene whereas females can only have one. For some reason, when a barred or cuckoo hen is crossed to a rooster without either of those genes, she will always pass her one barring gene only to her male offspring, and never to her female offspring. This is why this type of sex link works. The males will have the white head spot associated with barring, and the females will not because they have no barring gene, and so they can be sexed at birth.

So a male Midnight will have one barring gene, from his mother. He will be darker than a purebred, double barred rooster. In fact, his coloring will be closer to that of a barred hen. Since he just has the one gene for barring, he will pass the barring gene only to half of his offspring, and he can give it to both males and females. So if you cross Midnights together, both males and females can be barred or non barred. No way to tell. No sex links.

I am not really sure how you could test whether a particular hen is a Midnight or a pure black copper Marans. We're talking about hatchery birds, and they are variable even when purebred.

If you cross a Midnight hen to a black copper Marans rooster you'll get birds that are 3/4 Marans and then it would be really difficult to tell the difference.

It's really only important if you plan to sell the chicks, in which case you'd just include the possible parentage in the advertisement when selling them. If you're intent on breeding and selling purebred BC Marans, I would start over with new stock and not spend lots of time and energy trying to figure it out when there is no surefire way that I know of. Maybe someone else will know, though, so stay tuned or maybe post about it in the genetics forum.

 

[wrathsfarm]

What they mean is that if you breed male and female Midnight Majesties together you will not get sex linked chicks. Crossing for sex links only works in the first generation.

The only difference between Midnights and regular old black sex links is that a BC Marans male is used whereas in regular black sex links a production Rhode Island red male is used. Barred rock hens are used for both.

How it works: for barred and cuckoo varieties, purebred males have two copies of the barring gene whereas females can only have one. For some reason, when a barred or cuckoo hen is crossed to a rooster without either of those genes, she will always pass her one barring gene only to her male offspring, and never to her female offspring. This is why this type of sex link works. The males will have the white head spot associated with barring, and the females will not because they have no barring gene, and so they can be sexed at birth.

So a male Midnight will have one barring gene, from his mother. He will be darker than a purebred, double barred rooster. In fact, his coloring will be closer to that of a barred hen. Since he just has the one gene for barring, he will pass the barring gene only to half of his offspring, and he can give it to both males and females. So if you cross Midnights together, both males and females can be barred or non barred. No way to tell. No sex links.

I am not really sure how you could test whether a particular hen is a Midnight or a pure black copper Marans. We're talking about hatchery birds, and they are variable even when purebred.

If you cross a Midnight hen to a black copper Marans rooster you'll get birds that are 3/4 Marans and then it would be really difficult to tell the difference.

It's really only important if you plan to sell the chicks, in which case you'd just include the possible parentage in the advertisement when selling them. If you're intent on breeding and selling purebred BC Marans, I would start over with new stock and not spend lots of time and energy trying to figure it out when there is no surefire way that I know of. Maybe someone else will know, though, so stay tuned or maybe post about it in the genetics forum.

Thank you for the in depth info.

I do know which hens are questionable so until I hear any different I won't use them as breeders and sell what progeny I have off with disclosure.

I appreciate your insight.