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I myself am a blue addict. Blue cochins / Blue Lav ameraucanas / Blue Marans / Coronation Sussex...anything blue and blueish
I love them all!!
I think he will be with the Blue & Splash girls to see if I can get a Blue birchen roo with no gold. Then I can work on Blue birchen
I wish this "work" could move faster though!!!
Not sure if anyone answered this further about Birchen and Blue/Splash.
Birchen Marans if they are pure, carry two silver genes (instead of two gold like BCM) and do not carry any mahogany genes like BCM. Otherwise they are genetically the same. You say your Blue Birchen carries gold, so he has gold showing through his silver (one gold and one silver gene). If you pair him with your blue and splash, if they are pure, then it would work as Pink said with the BCM. You could possibly get a pure Blue Birchen with two silver genes (no gold) after mating some of his hen offspring back to him.
The tricky thing is that hens only carry either one silver or one gold gene. Once you hatch your first generation, you might not know which is which, since the Blue/Splash genetics of your existing hens is stronger than the rooster's Birchen genetics. Any hens that hatch will have their birchen genes hiding, so they may not reveal if they are gold or silver. They cannot be both.
It's possible any hens hatched might show traces of gold like your rooster. But any of the hens you use in the second generation bred back to your Birchen rooster should not show any gold - if they do, they won't likely produce many pure Blue Birchens for you, and definitely not any roosters. So about half your hens from the first generation will be silver. If you know which ones these are, and you mate them back to your Blue Birchen rooster, 1/4th of this second generation could still be impure Birchen and have their Birchen genes hidden in the Black/Blue/Splash.
The remaining 3/4 of this second generation will be pure Birchen, about half of them will be roosters and if you chose the right hens with silver and not gold, they should all be pure Silver Birchen. If these hens you chose for this second breeding were blue and not splash, then half of these pure Silver Birchen roosters will be Blue, the other half will be splash or black. In real numbers, with average odds in this second generation, out of a hatch of 16, 12 could be pure Birchen. Half could be Roosters, of these 6, you could get 3 Blue, and the others will be either Black or Splash. Your blue to blue matings will always create blacks and splashes also. It doesn't always work this way - you could get all black, all blue or all splash... its a roll of the dice.
Your other "half" will be hens, but only half of them will be silver, the other half will carry the gold from their father. So out of 16 hatched, you might only get one blue birchen hen, the others could be black (standard) birchen or splash birchen. These standard birchen and Splash birchen are useful in your breeding program, you can keep them all together.
So after two generations, you have a 3 in 16 chance of getting a useful hen, and a 3 in 16 chance of getting a pure blue birchen rooster. Of these 6 birds, if any don't have the correct type, eye color, leg feathering etc. then they are probably not worth putting into a breeding program. If your Blue Birchen roo with gold didn't hatch from a darker egg, then this will also be hard to breed back into the line.
If your blue and splash hens don't lay especially dark eggs, then it's probably not worth starting any serious breeding program. But if you're doing it just for fun, just to get the right color combination, and if egg color isn't really a concern for you, then have fun with it! ... at least now you know what your odds are!
Thank you for that explanation Village! Your AWESOME!!!!!!!!
*Kimmee mutters to self* "Cannot add Birchens, cannot add Birchens!"
I myself am a blue addict. Blue cochins / Blue Lav ameraucanas / Blue Marans / Coronation Sussex...anything blue and blueish
I think he will be with the Blue & Splash girls to see if I can get a Blue birchen roo with no gold. Then I can work on Blue birchen
Not sure if anyone answered this further about Birchen and Blue/Splash.
Birchen Marans if they are pure, carry two silver genes (instead of two gold like BCM) and do not carry any mahogany genes like BCM. Otherwise they are genetically the same. You say your Blue Birchen carries gold, so he has gold showing through his silver (one gold and one silver gene). If you pair him with your blue and splash, if they are pure, then it would work as Pink said with the BCM. You could possibly get a pure Blue Birchen with two silver genes (no gold) after mating some of his hen offspring back to him.
The tricky thing is that hens only carry either one silver or one gold gene. Once you hatch your first generation, you might not know which is which, since the Blue/Splash genetics of your existing hens is stronger than the rooster's Birchen genetics. Any hens that hatch will have their birchen genes hiding, so they may not reveal if they are gold or silver. They cannot be both.
It's possible any hens hatched might show traces of gold like your rooster. But any of the hens you use in the second generation bred back to your Birchen rooster should not show any gold - if they do, they won't likely produce many pure Blue Birchens for you, and definitely not any roosters. So about half your hens from the first generation will be silver. If you know which ones these are, and you mate them back to your Blue Birchen rooster, 1/4th of this second generation could still be impure Birchen and have their Birchen genes hidden in the Black/Blue/Splash.
The remaining 3/4 of this second generation will be pure Birchen, about half of them will be roosters and if you chose the right hens with silver and not gold, they should all be pure Silver Birchen. If these hens you chose for this second breeding were blue and not splash, then half of these pure Silver Birchen roosters will be Blue, the other half will be splash or black. In real numbers, with average odds in this second generation, out of a hatch of 16, 12 could be pure Birchen. Half could be Roosters, of these 6, you could get 3 Blue, and the others will be either Black or Splash. Your blue to blue matings will always create blacks and splashes also. It doesn't always work this way - you could get all black, all blue or all splash... its a roll of the dice.
Your other "half" will be hens, but only half of them will be silver, the other half will carry the gold from their father. So out of 16 hatched, you might only get one blue birchen hen, the others could be black (standard) birchen or splash birchen. These standard birchen and Splash birchen are useful in your breeding program, you can keep them all together.
So after two generations, you have a 3 in 16 chance of getting a useful hen, and a 3 in 16 chance of getting a pure blue birchen rooster. Of these 6 birds, if any don't have the correct type, eye color, leg feathering etc. then they are probably not worth putting into a breeding program. If your Blue Birchen roo with gold didn't hatch from a darker egg, then this will also be hard to breed back into the line.
If your blue and splash hens don't lay especially dark eggs, then it's probably not worth starting any serious breeding program. But if you're doing it just for fun, just to get the right color combination, and if egg color isn't really a concern for you, then have fun with it! ... at least now you know what your odds are!
Thank you for that explanation Village! Your AWESOME!!!!!!!!
*Kimmee mutters to self* "Cannot add Birchens, cannot add Birchens!"
