Needing a crash course in Blues! (and Olive eggs... and Splash...)

[mandelyn]

Moved some birds around yesterday and then sat and watched them for awhile, that's when it hit me. The rooster I put in charge over the Olive Egger mish-mash flock is different than I thought he was!

I thought he was Niderrheiner/EE because of the barring he picked up, the Niederrheiner I had was lemon barred and lord only knows what the EE had hidden. I had ended up scrapping the Nieds since feathers were coming out of their feet, which wasn't supposed to happen with them. I originally thought that's how he came to have feathered feet.

Turns out, at hatch time I did have a Splash Marans cockerel in that pen. So he's Marans/EE. A grandson from an AWESOME rooster I had. I see his grandpa in his temperament and way of being too. That's where the barring came from!

So is he a Barred Blue Birchen? Is Blue called blue until it's a true black?

This is a Marans pullet in that pen, is there a term for the shading her feathers have? I pulled her from the pure blue Birchen group because of the inconsistency and lack of silver around her neck.

This was grandpa rooster on mother's side to that rooster...

This is dad, carries blue & black and throws blue most often.

This is mom.

I'm the most excited about this little group in the flock, the Splash hens lay a true olive egg. If he's Marans/EE and they're Silverrud/Marans, that Olive egg should hold true? Good odds for B/B/S feathers or could the rooster's other color history come through from the EE side?

It's going to be a regular "box of chocolates" hatching out of this pen! That cockerel is going to be huge, he's only 6 months old!

 

[Sneebsey]

Those splash hens are lovely, as is the barred Cockerel. If you choose to make sex-links with these next gen, keep all his barred daughters and put them to a non-barred Cockerel.

Your barred Cockerel may or may not carry the blue egg gene; as he is mixed, there's no way of knowing. Remember that the hens likely only have one copy of the gene, therefore if you get half blue eggers, you'll know he has it, 1/4 and he doesn't. Unfortunately you're going to be unable to tell until the offspring start to lay.

Regarding BBS genetics. Blue is the single factor dilution of black pigment, whilst splash is the double factor. A black bird has no gene for blue. As you are putting him to splash hens, you will likely get about half blue, half splash. If you were putting him to blue hens, it would be half blue, 1/4 black and 1/4 splash. Half his offspring will be single barred.

 

[mandelyn]

If you choose to make sex-links with these next gen, keep all his barred daughters and put them to a non-barred Cockerel.

Thanks for that little tidbit! It hadn't even occurred to me since I have a separate flock where I'm playing with that through Legbar hybrids.

They're young yet, the first to lay was a disappointing cream color like the other parent breed, not the blue of the Legbar. 7 more pullets to wait on. They're smaller than I hoped but very active and silly.

This guy is about 16 weeks old, from the first cross.

These two are older now, haven't updated pictures lately on them. The darker one laid the cream egg.