Quote:
Just an added bit of info, the roos will be sex links and will NOT breed true. You will get pot luck on his off spring. Found that out the hard way, but it was a nice surprise in the long run. Got colors I would not have gotten if he were not a sex link
When I say he will not breed true, you will get some babies with barring and some will not. I don't even think his offspring will breed true, but I have not really figured that out yet. I think the pullets with barring will breed correctly, cuz they only have one copy of that gene, but any roos with barring can only have one copy and should also breed like a sex link.... I DON'T really know if this is right so if not please someone educated me in NONE genetic terms.
If he is from Copper parents then you will get gold or red leakage in the cuckoo males that are produced. They will be Marans but they will be Marans that are of crossed varieties and will not breed true. For example...if bred back to Black Copper.
Cuckoo are sex linked...even the females, but they can only pass along their cuckoo gene to their male offspring. Male cuckoo's pass along 1 copy of the gene to both female and male offspring.
Flgarden is right about breeding the Cuckoo male
It would produce all barred babies, but the males would still be heterzygous and only have one copy of the barring gene. If a non cuckoo/barred female is used..she doesn't have a cuckoo gene to pass on the to boys, they will only get one copy from the Cuckoo father, but could be bred back to a female cuckoo and then would produce males that have 2 copies (homozygous) as they should. A heterzygous male cuckoo (only carries one copy of the cuckoo/barring gene) will be colored like that of the female cuckoo's vs the lighter color of the homozygous males.
I know sex links roos don't breed true. I have a BSL and he throws, black, blue, black barred and blue barred with my blue and splash girls and EE. All genders of any of the other colors. In fact I get less than half barred with him. Can't wait to breed a real barred roo. A barred roo that carries two copies of the barring will pass it to ALL offspring. If he only has one copy in theory half will be barred.
It has its advantages, I got colors I didn't expect and LOVED it!
