Marans Thread - breed discussion & pictures are welcome!

[chevgrl]

So if I bred this black copper maran to my solid blue girls. And got a couple solid blue chicks and bred them back to a rooster that didn't have and copper showing but had the gene then bred it back to a carrier of copper but was solid blue eventually wouldn't the copper gene just disappear?

 

[gilavina]

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it will pop out....probably when you least want it to. those chicks from the cross of a BCM boy to your solid blue girls would carry the copper gene, even if it doesn't show. If you cross them to a boy that doesn't show copper, but carries the gene...that is two sets of birds crossed together with the gene. Copper is hard to eliminate...it takes quite a bit of time to fully eliminate the copper...and some say even if the birds show solid, that there is not guarantee that later down the line copper won't rear its head again.

 

[chevgrl]

So...then here's a question... can blue truely ever be solid...100% of the time?

 

[gilavina]

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are you talking in terms of just the Marans or in general?

 

[chevgrl]

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are you talking in terms of just the Marans or in general?

For marans... it would be nearly impossible to REALLY know if a maran is truely blue and has never been crossed with anything other then another solid that has never been crossed with anything other then a solid.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
are you talking in terms of just the Marans or in general?

For marans... it would be nearly impossible to REALLY know if a maran is truely blue and has never been crossed with anything other then another solid that has never been crossed with anything other then a solid.

I believe the solid blues and blacks came out of the coppers...at least I think I remember reading that somewhere...so don't quote me.

It can be done, but it takes significant time and know how to get it done. That's where test mating and making sure they breed true and are consistent are a must. That is where working with birds that have previously bred true for successive generations are worth looking at seriously for me. I've helped my dad with his blue wyandottes and breeding out any leakage when i was growing up...so the blue and black or BBS are still a project in the Marans I really want to work on. Just finding the stock is holding me up

 

[chevgrl]

Quote:
For marans... it would be nearly impossible to REALLY know if a maran is truely blue and has never been crossed with anything other then another solid that has never been crossed with anything other then a solid.

I believe the solid blues and blacks came out of the coppers...at least I think I remember reading that somewhere...so don't quote me.

It can be done, but it takes significant time and know how to get it done. That's where test mating and making sure they breed true and are consistent are a must. That is where working with birds that have previously bred true for successive generations are worth looking at seriously for me. I've helped my dad with his blue wyandottes and breeding out any leakage when i was growing up...so the blue and black or BBS are still a project in the Marans I really want to work on. Just finding the stock is holding me up

Frustrating...

if someone asked me about Horse genetics I could give all the right answers probably 98% of the time but chickens seems so frustrating.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
I believe the solid blues and blacks came out of the coppers...at least I think I remember reading that somewhere...so don't quote me.

It can be done, but it takes significant time and know how to get it done. That's where test mating and making sure they breed true and are consistent are a must. That is where working with birds that have previously bred true for successive generations are worth looking at seriously for me. I've helped my dad with his blue wyandottes and breeding out any leakage when i was growing up...so the blue and black or BBS are still a project in the Marans I really want to work on. Just finding the stock is holding me up

Frustrating...

if someone asked me about Horse genetics I could give all the right answers probably 98% of the time but chickens seems so frustrating.

chicken genetics can indeed be frustrating. I still don't know half of what I'd like to know and some of the people on here are insane with the stuff they can just rattle off like its nothing.... There are just so many factors at play

 

[chevgrl]

Quote:
Frustrating...

if someone asked me about Horse genetics I could give all the right answers probably 98% of the time but chickens seems so frustrating.

chicken genetics can indeed be frustrating. I still don't know half of what I'd like to know and some of the people on here are insane with the stuff they can just rattle off like its nothing.... There are just so many factors at play

Illia is crazy knowledgable about the whole genetic thing.

 

[gilavina]

Quote:
chicken genetics can indeed be frustrating. I still don't know half of what I'd like to know and some of the people on here are insane with the stuff they can just rattle off like its nothing.... There are just so many factors at play

Illia is crazy knowledgable about the whole genetic thing.

yup...she is one of the ones I was referencing