International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[Chooks man]

I believe the very darkest egg genes are male sex linked so hens only inherit it from their father. There are so many genes that determine egg colour I don’t even think they are documented, so you will likely still get some nice green eggs, just not the darkest possible. You will likely get a nice variety of green shades from each hen. However, the roosters will inherit their mother’s Z chromosome carrying the darkest egg genes, as well as one copy of the blue shell gene. If you used an F1 rooster to your F1 hens then
second breeding, you will pass on these genes and 75% of hens will lay green eggs, less than half of these being as dark green as possible. Alternatively, if you bred an FI rooster to marans hens, half will lay green eggs but a lot of these will lay superbly dark green eggs. For this to work best you should use a rooster from the egg of your darkest laying marans hen.

If you need to figure anything out just remember these three factors:

The Blue egg Allele is dominant to the white egg allele, meaning as long as it has one copy it will lay blue eggs (or would if it was female). The pure cream legbar will only pass on this so all F1s will have this gene. These F1s have a 50% chance (or more if the other parent also has this allele) of giving it to their own chicks.

The darkest egg genes are on the Z chromosome, hens have only 1 which is inherited from the father, Roos have two which they get from both parents.

Most over egg tone genes can be passed down from either parent, the legbar has no egg tone genes as it produces a blue egg, so you’re relying on the marans to have strong genes. The more egg tone genes they have the darker the egg will be, but not all of them are guaranteed to show if they only get one copy, that’s why F2 birds are good as they have a chance of inheriting these from both parents rather than just the pure marans side.

Sorry I start typing meaning to give a brief answer but always dump loads of information on you!

marans dark egg genes are not well studied , so we don t know if they are sex linked or not .
in my experience they are autossomal .they can be pass down from both parent .
the problem we have with dark egg gene are some time they do not appear in the next generation ( they go dormant ) but they reappear in the next generation if we don t outcross the line .

for me I always select the hens who lay dark eggs for as long as they live like my Dark Angel and breed from her /them .I keep both of her/they progeny cockerels and pullets .to cross them to other lines to enhance the egg colour .
peoples always prefer to give credit to a roosters because thy sire a lot progeny but that doesn t mean they pass down more dark egg genes to they progeny better then hens .I prefer hens , with hens I can see the progress of dark egg genes through they life .the rooster does not lay eggs .
if you want to breed marans who can lay dark eggs than incubate only dark eggs ,in few generation you wil have more and more dark egg layer .
one thing dillute the dark eggs genes is outcrossing the lines soo many times .. bad practice.
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

here the list of the roosters I lost in last 10 months . I still have a lot any way so I m not worring or some thing .
Blue Wheaten ,the only one I had .

SpringBuck

copper Nile ( SpringBuck true brother ) they where the best 2 from that line ,

DayWalker

Blade ( DayWalker s son )

chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

Enkido s son

Elvis bother

Frosted

No name

there is few more but they where not part of my breeding programs .
chooks man

 

[wrathsfarm]

So sorry for your lose, my friend. Beautiful boys, I remember a few from photos.

 

[Chooks man]

So sorry for your lose, my friend. Beautiful boys, I remember a few from photos.

it is ok .one rerason why I breed and keep a lot of roosters ,we never know .life has to contenue .does not stop for no one .
I still have a lot good looking rooster to breed from . ,2 X 49 eggs incubator are full and soon will be more . we loose one day ,we win one day .all fine by me .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

So sorry for your lose, my friend. Beautiful boys, I remember a few from photos.

I still have all marans genes I need to breed any pattern I like ,so all good
hopefully this breeding season will be kind to me I haven t bred chooks for over 2 years now and my flock getting older .and smller .
chooks man

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

What colour is Daywalker? He looks chocolate to me but I know you don’t get chocolate marans.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

marans dark egg genes are not well studied , so we don t know if they are sex linked or not .
in my experience they are autossomal .they can be pass down from both parent .
the problem we have with dark egg gene are some time they do not appear in the next generation ( they go dormant ) but they reappear in the next generation if we don t outcross the line .

for me I always select the hens who lay dark eggs for as long as they live like my Dark Angel and breed from her /them .I keep both of her/they progeny cockerels and pullets .to cross them to other lines to enhance the egg colour .
peoples always prefer to give credit to a roosters because thy sire a lot progeny but that doesn t mean they pass down more dark egg genes to they progeny better then hens .I prefer hens , with hens I can see the progress of dark egg genes through they life .the rooster does not lay eggs .
if you want to breed marans who can lay dark eggs than incubate only dark eggs ,in few generation you wil have more and more dark egg layer .
one thing dillute the dark eggs genes is outcrossing the lines soo many times .. bad practice.
chooks man

I see, that’s helpful to know. From what I’ve seen people like to say the best genes are sex linked, but I never really knew how that could be proven because the rooster doesn’t lay eggs to prove it.
I’m glad you’ve clarified that.

 

[Chooks man]

What colour is Daywalker? He looks chocolate to me but I know you don’t get chocolate marans.

he was Blue tail buff with some extra genes . I think he carry one copy of chocolate gene lot of his daughter have a chocolate tail .
here one his son is blonde . Yellow Emperor .his Dan was E/Ewh , with one copy of Blonde gene so I go a pullet and a cockerel

here one of his daughter with buff tail no black to be found in her body

here in Oz because of the luck of understanding peoples have mix marans with other breed .
I think I bought over 2000 marans eggs from all marans breeders of this country to build my flock .I still have some impurity in some line but I working on it to breed them out .
chooks man

 

[Chooks man]

I see, that’s helpful to know. From what I’ve seen people like to say the best genes are sex linked, but I never really knew how that could be proven because the rooster doesn’t lay eggs to prove it.
I’m glad you’ve clarified that.

my friend peoples out there speculate a lot .that is a problem we are having .
ost of my work is done with marans hatched 1000 and 1000 in last 10 years . I have taken lot and lot of note observed a lot of variation and traits expression .
I still finding more and more stuff as I m progressing deeper in marans breeding .
I m writing a book about them ,still have few chapters haven t finished yet .
chooks man