Copper Maran Breeding

[Griffith23]

Just curious to how a blue copper Maran is made, is it made by crossing a black copper Maran with any blue hen, or blue wyndotte? Any info would be greatly appreciated thank you.

 

[bhaugh]

My understanding is that they are their own color just like the black/black copper. So if you want blue then you would have to buy blue. Staying within the breed, I don't think you can breed for a true blue by using black or birchen. You can darken blue by using black but you'd still have to start with blue hens and breed from a black roo.

Hopefully others will chime in.

 

[Griffith23]

Okay thank you!

 

[ColtHandorf]

BBBS Copper Marans are a variety. You wouldn't get pure Blue Copper Marans by breeding a Black Copper to a random hen carrying Blue. You'd dilute the egg color and also have to deal with other unwanted traits. It would be best to purchase birds from a BBS flock. The Andalusian blue gene behaves with Marans just like any other breed so a Black Copper x Splash Copper would yield all Blue Copper offspring.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Read this to answer your questions:
https://www.hobbyfarms.com/understa...etics, the genetic,splotches of black or blue.

 

[Griffith23]

BBBS Copper Marans are a variety. You wouldn't get pure Blue Copper Marans by breeding a Black Copper to a random hen carrying Blue. You'd dilute the egg color and also have to deal with other unwanted traits. It would be best to purchase birds from a BBS flock. The Andalusian blue gene behaves with Marans just like any other breed so a Black Copper x Splash Copper would yield all Blue Copper offspring.

So with that being said, if I were to take my Black Copper Maran roo, and breed black australap hens for example, they would produce a 50/50 mix. If I were to take the50/50 mix chicks And bred them to 100% copper Maran roo. Would that give me a 3/4 blood copper Maran? I’m just curious to how the genetics would work.

 

[ColtHandorf]

At the most basal understanding, yes. Just like if I took a Brahma bull and crossed him over an Angus cow, their offspring would be 50% Brahman and 50% Angus. Technically, Brangus are 5/8 Angus and 3/8 Brahman, but I’d have to check. Another similar cross would be the Charbray a Charolais x Brahman cross. I think the percentage for these is 3/4 Charolais and 1/4 Brahman, but there’s something I’m not remembering.

So If you bred a Black Copper Marans male to Black Australorp females, your offspring would get 50% of their DNA from each parent, thus making them, technically, 50% Black Copper Marans and 50% Black Australorp.

I'm not sure what the purpose would be for that cross unless you were just wanting to make more chickens. The egg color would be lighter than the Marans. The body shape would be somewhere in between the two breeds and the color would be black with red leakage.

 

[ColtHandorf]

At the most basal understanding, yes. Just like if I took a Brahma bull and crossed him over an Angus cow, their offspring would be 50% Brahman and 50% Angus. Technically, Brangus are 5/8 Angus and 3/8 Brahman, but I’d have to check. Another similar cross would be the Charbray a Charolais x Brahman cross. I think the percentage for these is 3/4 Charolais and 1/4 Brahman, but there’s something I’m not remembering.

There, for those that wanted to know.

 

[Griffith23]

At the most basal understanding, yes. Just like if I took a Brahma bull and crossed him over an Angus cow, their offspring would be 50% Brahman and 50% Angus. Technically, Brangus are 5/8 Angus and 3/8 Brahman, but I’d have to check. Another similar cross would be the Charbray a Charolais x Brahman cross. I think the percentage for these is 3/4 Charolais and 1/4 Brahman, but there’s something I’m not remembering.

So If you bred a Black Copper Marans male to Black Australorp females, your offspring would get 50% of their DNA from each parent, thus making them, technically, 50% Black Copper Marans and 50% Black Australorp.

I'm not sure what the purpose would be for that cross unless you were just wanting to make more chickens. The egg color would be lighter than the Marans. The body shape would be somewhere in between the two breeds and the color would be black with red leakage.

That makes sense I didn’t know if the genetics worked the same as cattle. Reason being is to make more chickens and didn’t know if I could eventually get back more towards the Black copper Maran Characteristics the more I breed out the Australap. More curiosity than anything. Thank you for the feedback

 

[ColtHandorf]

I mean yes, you could. But if the end goal is more Marans, then why dilute the genes in the first place by hybridizing with something else. Even crossing different lines of Marans can sometimes negatively impact the color. I'd just source more Black Copper (or Blue if that was the goal) Marans and hope for the best rather than outcrossing to something else and trying to breed back to the Marans SOP. There are times when outcrossing may be necessary to preserve a breed or to bring in a certain characteristic that's needed, but I'd avoid it unless I had no other options.