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The mossy hen probably has the partridge gene too. She was probably not a dark black chick, but had a reddish hue to her chick fluff when she was hatched. I have one of those too. She could also have the wheaten gene. She's going to go into my layer pen this spring, but I did hatch some eggs out of her because she lays rediculously nice eggs.
As far as the wheatens, yes, a rooster and a hen both have to carry the recessive wheaten gene. I've understood that if BC x BC delivers any wheaten chicks at all:
1/4 wheaten
1/2 are BCs that carry recessive wheaten
1/4 are BCs and won't carry wheaten at all
I have heard, and now I see in my own, that Wade Jeane birds tend to notorious for carrying the wheaten recessive gene than some of the other lines. Teasdales sometimes do as well, but I only have wheaten teasdales any more and no black copper teasdales, so I haven't had that issue. I believe mine have all had the wheaten fluff with the black line on the head and the two black side spine shadow stripes as well - not like a standard wheaten with all yellow fluff. Black copper breeders and some wheaten breeders consider this a fault. Black copper breeders don't want the recessive gene and will cull heavily to rid it, the wheaten breeders are a mixed bag - some cull it because of the other undesirable genes that were passed from the black coppers (a true wheaten wouldn't have the black in the fluff), others believe it is the path to darker eggs and the black in the fluff is immaterial.
BCM's can either carry wheaten OR partridge, but not both. There's only room for two possibilities, and ONE of them has to be Birchen or they wouldn't be BCM at all.
I think that the black chick stripe could be evidence of the Melanotic gene that BCM's are supposed to have, but Wheaten's don't. It is a dominant gene. It is possible that the black chickstripes on wheaten fluff is evidence that the chick originated from BCM/Wheaten crosses that give the wheatens unwanted genes from their BCM ancestry. I believe this is what may also cause the overly dark hens. BCM's carry Mahogany, Wheatens do not. Some folks try to bring in the darker egg laying capabilities of BCM into Wheaten lines without realizing all the genetic baggage that comes with it.
Pink- Bresse chickies are doing well. Same size as the RIR crosses who are 2 days older.
I meant either Partrigde or she could have the Wheaten. I should have been more clear. But that is an interesting thought. I am going to have to test her against a wheaten rooster to see what I get. All black then not wheaten. Some wheaten, then she carries the wheaten and looks partridge. She looked partridge as a baby but I am certainly not sure where the wheaten is coming from then as the rest of the hens are standard black copper phenotypes. I think most people agree that we don't fully understand the chicken gene pool, and even more so, the marans gene pool. There are a lot of genes that result in the same phenotypes, but are derived from very different genotypes.
Pip! He runs from the lowest pullet in the pecking order, and I am his ONLY allie in the whole world, and he chooses to pick a fight with me??? He got a nice little whack from my cane, and then got stalked all around the run, he was screaming like a little girl all the way. I believe he got my point but good! Sheesh, what is it with these males?
