Olive Eggers

[ahenchey]

I was thinking Of breeding my Copper Marans With my cream legbars to produce olive eggers. Does anyone know if the offspring would also produce offspring that also lay olive eggs or is it just a first generation thing ?

 

[EmmaRainboe]

The first generation would produce olive eggs.

If you crossed the first gen back to the dad (or any other brown laying bird) only ~50% would lay olive.

 

[ahenchey]

Thank you. I was told if I used black Copper roo and cream legbar hens that they are sexlink. Do you know if I would use a blue Copper roo and cream legbar hens If they would be sexlink also or would that mess up the outcome?

 

[3KillerBs]

Any barred hen with any non-barred male produces sexlinks.

All males will be barred and all females will be non-barred.

 

[ahenchey]

Any barred hen with any non-barred male produces sexlinks.

All males will be barred and all females will be non-barred.

I apologize I'm new to this. What do you mean by barred? I know I was told that the black Copper roo to cream legbar hen would produce sexlink where the male still had the dot and females were all black. Would that be the same with blue Copper then?

 

[3KillerBs]

I apologize I'm new to this. What do you mean by barred? I know I was told that the black Copper roo to cream legbar hen would produce sexlink where the male still had the dot and females were all black. Would that be the same with blue Copper then?

Barred and Cuckoo patterns -- light and dark stripes on the feathers like Barred Rocks and Cuckoo Marans -- are produced by the same, sex-linked gene. Cream Legbars are barred.

It doesn't matter what non-barred male you use. As long as he's not barred himself all the boys will be barred and all the girls will be solid.

The white spot on the head indicates barring.

See the white spot on the chick in the corner of this photo?

I know he's a boy because I have several barred pullets and no barred males so any barred chicks are going to be male.

 

[NatJ]

I apologize I'm new to this. What do you mean by barred?

There is a gene that makes white bars (stripes) across the feathers.
That gene is carried on the Z sex chromosome, so it can be used to create color-sexable chicks.

To make the trick work, the mother must have barring (Cream Legbar hen does) and the father must have no barring (Black Copper or Blue Copper rooster are both fine for this.)

I know I was told that the black Copper roo to cream legbar hen would produce sexlink where the male still had the dot and females were all black. Would that be the same with blue Copper then?

The Blue Copper rooster with the Cream Legbar hen should work just fine.

Some sons will be black with a dot on their head, and some sons will be blue with a dot on their head. They will all grow feathers with white barring.

Some daughters will be black, and some daughters will be blue. They will grow feathers with NO white barring.

The only tricky thing with using a blue rooster: the dot on the head of the males is easier to see on a black chick, and less obvious on a blue chick. You can probably still find it, but it won't stand out as clearly.

 

[Poultrybonkers]