Maran Breeding Question???

[mojomamma]

I hatched a Black Copper Maran Roo egg that I got from my pet chicken...He is 8 months old and is in with 4 hens, a buff orpington, dominique, 2 gold laced wyandottes. They are laying but was not planning on hatching any of the eggs, I really am not interested in having any mutts right now. I am going to a local breeder to pick up 3 more hens. He has black marans, blue copper , blue splash, and blue....Would any of these be okay to go with my roo for hatching? I tried to look into the genetics, but apparently am not smart enough to read the henk's chart!!! Someone please spell this out for me in English... Do I need to stick to Black copper or can I go with mixing the maran breeds, or is this a no no, if not, which 3 should I go with?

 

[RAREROO]

Well firstly, before the Marans police get you, you spell it with an 's' even if its only one, so you can have a Marans, or a flock of Marans, sorry but I just figured id point that out before someone else does.

But anyway, for your question. I would personally say to not cross coppers with pure black based BBS Marans because the coppering will show through in the offsping, buts more of an inbetween instead of pure copper so it just makes them look messy. Several have done this before and now its kinda hard to find pure black bbased BBS without the coppering, I wish I could find some but I won't have any with the messy looking copper leakage comming through.

But the Blue Copper hens would be fine, that will give your more blue coppers and black coppers.

 

[mojomamma]

Thank you!!! The guy I am getting them from said they come from bev's line! He was kind of a country boy and the listing read like this.... black co pper marans ,blue,blue splash and splash marans. So should I get the blue or blue splash, or is that different from blue copper splash? I appreciate the advice on here so much and I apologize for my ignorance! Thank you for taking the time to help me out!

 

[RAREROO]

There is no need to apologize for not already knowing something you are trying to learn about. None of us were born with this knowledge. Did it say blue splash or blue copper splash ? Things can get confusing when people say Blue Splash when they are referring to Splash, but they are two different phases of the andalusian blue gene ( one copy of the gene is Blue, and two copies makes Splash). But the difference in the regular blacks/blues/splashs and black copper, blue copper, and splash copper, is just the pattern they are based on. The regular BBS phase is based on solid extended black with the blue gene added so they are solid birds with no red patterns or markings. The BBS Coppers on the other hand are based on the Golden Birchin pattern (aka Brown Red and Black Copper...'they have a black body with gold hackle,saddle, and shoulder feathers' ) so the blue cop. and splash cop. are. Black copper with one or two copies of the blue gene. So you will be fine breeding any of the BBS Coppers together in their own group, and breeding the solid BBS together in their own group but I would say not to mix the coppers and solids together.

 

[mojomamma]

That is exactly what I needed to know! Thank you so very much!!!