Lavender Orpington Roo and White Marans hen

[shelly001]

For now, I have my White Marans hens in with my Lavender Orpingtons. I set some eggs from that group and ended up with my Lavender chicks and the following from the White Marans Hens. The coloring is confusing to me - and it appears all the black chicks are pullets and the other (Cuckoo or Barred Rock coloring) are cockerels. Any suggesting as to why this has happened? I had a white Rooster with the white marans before and got all white chicks, so unsure about this paring....thanks for any ideas you can give.

 

[Kev]

The white hen is a cuckoo under her "coat of white". White is not actually an color, it only "stops" whatever colors or patterns the bird has from showing up visibly.

the gene that makes the cuckoo or regular bars is sex linked.. you unintentionally did a sex linked pairing with this hen, as you are finding out.

Non barred roo bred with cuckoo or barred hens will always give barred cockerels, non-barred daughters. That is the very premise of how black sex links are bred- most often a RIR bred to a barred rock.

It has to be that way, because the other way around- barred rock over RIR hens will throw all barred chicks in both sexes.

The sex linked cross is basically an one time thing... you cannot get the same results using the cockerels, they will throw barred chicks in both sexes if bred.

with the crosses you have the potential to make lavender cuckoos. Either breed the cockerels to a lavender hen(will get solid blacks, cuckoos like those, solid lavenders, lavender cuckoos- all of them in both sexes) or to their sisters- same color possibilities but much lower chances of lavender showing up(25% compared to 50% out of a cockerel bred to a lavender)

 

[shelly001]

Thank you - my understanding was the White was from the Black Marans, and not the Cuckoos..

 

[Kev]

Thank you - my understanding was the White was from the Black Marans, and not the Cuckoos..

If white legs are required in Whites, then most if not all of them would be cuckoo. This is because the main genes that cause black color in chickens also lay down pigments on the legs, making them black. Cuckoo/barring also has the side effect of diluting the black pigment on the legs., an often used trick for clear white or yellow legs on white birds is to throw in cuckoo/barred. You can see this difference between the lighter legs on barred cockerels vs darker legs on pullets.

in genetics there is almost always a "but". occasionally there will be a black with light legs. The mechanisms for those cases are not too well known. It is also possible to create a black line with clear legs using whole other set of genetics,. however it is quite a challenge to do so. This is why many yellow or white leg breeds call for black legs on blacks.