Need help guessing mixes properly

[SunHwaKwon]

So, my chicks haven't hatched yet (they are due Sunday), but I am trying to figure out ahead of time the potential breed indicators to look for. The eggs include one VERY olive egg, four green (EE) eggs, and three Marans eggs. Potential fathers are EE, Marans, Wyandotte, and a huge Brahma. The olive egg will be an olive egger no matter what, just the brown may go down slightly depending on who the parent is, so I'm good with that one. The Marans eggs will have feathered legs regardless, so any with muffs will be from the EE males. The real guessing game is with the green eggs. They should all have muffs, and feathered legs would leave me guessing whether they are sired by a Marans or the Brahma. Brahmas have recessive yellow skin and the Marans have dominant white skin. So, regardless of the EE mothers' skin colors, the chicks with a Marans father should have white skin, correct? Yellow skinned feathered legs would have the Brahma father, and featherless legs would have a Wyandotte or EE father. I am just trying to get it straight in my mind so I can best ID the chicks and sell them accurately. I am mainly only hatching because I have a persistent broody and I would like an olive egger myself and got a dozen eggs locally for only $2. I plan to advertise any clean legged ones or feather legged with no muffs right away and keep potential olive eggers until they are old enough to sex and I can choose my keeper.

ETA: Correction - the other rooster is a LF Cochin, not a Brahma. I just remembered her referring to him as "Cochey", which reminded me.

2nd ETA:

Blue/Green Egg -> Feathered Legs + White Skin -> Marans
-> Feathered Legs + Yellow Skin -> Cochin
-> Clean Legs + Walnut, Rose, or Single Comb -> Wyandotte
-> Clean Legs + Pea comb -> Wyandotte or EE

Chocolate Egg -> Muffs -> EE
-> No muffs + rose comb -> Wyandotte
-> No muffs + straight comb -> Marans or Cochin

 

[donrae]

Sounds right to me.

When I sell mixed chicks, I write down what I think the mix is, but always with the disclaimer I may be wrong. Most folks who are buying mixed aren't that particular. They like to know, but understand the guessing is half the fun

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Yeah I've sold mixes before too (I generally only keep purebreds besides the EEs and future OE) but it would be nice for them to know what the parents are, as a selling point lol, but also so I can hang onto the right ones to grow out.

 

[drumstick diva]

Please post an update when the chicks are hatched. Sending good hatching vibes your way

 

[summerb123]

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Six out of 8 made it. I have pics but have to wait until I'm on my computer. I'm going to try to get them posted before work tomorrow. The diversity in looks is great! I am very pleasantly surprised that the olive egg chick is yellow! Considering she uses black copper Marans for them, I am shocked.

 

[donrae]

Six out of 8 made it. I have pics but have to wait until I'm on my computer. I'm going to try to get them posted before work tomorrow. The diversity in looks is great! I am very pleasantly surprised that the olive egg chick is yellow! Considering she uses black copper Marans for them, I am shocked.

It's my understanding some lines of black copper Marans harbor recessive Wheaten genetics, so the random yellow chick isn't unheard of. Not especially desired when breeding pure black coppers, but since you're dealing with a probable mix it's no biggie.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

I'll need to get better pictures but here are some I took real quick yesterday before putting them with the broody. Both chicks from the Marans eggs seem to be having issues with locomotion. One is a flipper and the other might have splayed leg. One of the EE egg chicks was born with fluid under the skin by his head but that seems to be gone. ETA: All but the last two (lightest and black skinned EE) have feather legs. I will be checking muffs when I get home.


Olive Egg (1):







Marans Eggs (2):






Green/Blue Eggs (3):

 

[SunHwaKwon]

It's my understanding some lines of black copper Marans harbor recessive Wheaten genetics, so the random yellow chick isn't unheard of. Not especially desired when breeding pure black coppers, but since you're dealing with a probable mix it's no biggie.

That is interesting. I have wheaten, blue and splash Marans myself. I don't really care for the black coppers so I haven't read much about their genetics and such. I didn't look very closely at hers to see if any have lighter colored legs. She doesn't seem all that knowledgeable about Marans and I didn't think they were of that great of quality. I did go back through her facebook page and noticed that she has cuckoo Marans as well, which I guess I forgot somehow. So these could be from BC or Cuckoo.

 

[SunHwaKwon]

Everyone is fluffed up now

Olive Egger:






EEs (the light one and first black one are clean legged):