Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[BullChick]

Isn’t it midnight yet?!

 

[BullChick]

 

[Blarneyeggs]

Happy New Year PEEPS!

 

[fisherlady]

Happy New Year everyone! I hope it is as happy, healthy and prosperous as you could wish for!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Happy New Year everyone!!

 

[feliciadawn]

@dheltzel

Dennis -- some genetics questions for you. I plan to put up some of my own eggs to test my incubator mid to late Jan. I have the brooder all ready to go.

So

Black Ameraucana x Copper Marans (both chickens split for lavender) --

I should expect:
3/4 Black chicks, feather feet, rose comb, no way to sex
1/4 Lavender chicks, feathered feet, rose comb, no way to sex

Eggs: green/olive
Question: Will they have copper coloring on neck at all?

Black Ameraucana x Heltzel Olive egger (Welbar x Cream Legbar)
I should expect...
all black chicks? Or will some have coloring?
You mentioned them being sexilinked -- how do I sex them?
Eggs: ?? lighter green?

Thanks!

 

[dheltzel]

@dheltzel

Dennis -- some genetics questions for you. I plan to put up some of my own eggs to test my incubator mid to late Jan. I have the brooder all ready to go.

So

Black Ameraucana x Copper Marans (both chickens split for lavender) --

I should expect:
3/4 Black chicks, feather feet, rose comb, no way to sex
1/4 Lavender chicks, feathered feet, rose comb, no way to sex

Eggs: green/olive
Question: Will they have copper coloring on neck at all?

Black Ameraucana x Heltzel Olive egger (Welbar x Cream Legbar)
I should expect...
all black chicks? Or will some have coloring?
You mentioned them being sexilinked -- how do I sex them?
Eggs: ?? lighter green?

Thanks!

I love these kinds of questions!
You are right on the first cross. Some variations should be expected with the feathering and combs, but I would expect some feathering on their legs. The combs will be "pea combs". Rose combs are different than pea, but look somewhat alike. Rosecombs have a spike at the back. Look up Dominiques or Wyandottes for examples of that. Both are dominant over single combs, and they are not the same gene, so a chicken can have both comb types at once, a "walnut" comb, like silkies.

As for copper color, I think some will and some won't.

The Ameraucana X Olive Egger is much more interesting because the pullet has the gene for sex-linked barring. She also has the wild-type chick down, which is recessive to the extended black chick down of the Ameraucana, so no chance of "chipmunk stripes" on those chicks. Sex-linked barring means the pullets have exactly 1 copy of the barring gene and they only pass it along to their sons. The daughters will not get any of the sex-linked genes from their mother. If the father had a barring gene (he does not, or he would be barred/cuckoo) then some (or all, depending on how many copies he had) of the daughters of that cross could be black barred (like a barred rock). Since he is free from barring, all his daughters will also be free of barring (all black), but his sons will get a single copy of barring from their mom (the autosexing olive egger), so every male chick will be black barred. At hatch, the barred chicks have a large white spot on top of their heads, while the non-barred (female) chicks have no spot (or a tiny spot). If you are unsure of the spot, wait about 5 - 7 days for their wing feathers to sprout. Barring is very obvious on the wing feathers, if any are striped, that is a male, if they are solid black (or sometimes a feather will be solid white at this age) then it is a female.

Hard to say for certain what the egg color will be, probably not as dark as their mother, but certainly not a clear blue of their maternal grandmother (legbar), just some shade of green. I suspect all your chicks will have dark legs, and at least some amount of beard and muffs, like their father.

As you can see, I could go on and on about this stuff . . .

 

[feliciadawn]

Thanks so much -- I am a newbie but find this very interesting as well.

Oops sorry I did mix up pea combs and rose combs. To be honest they look kind of alike to me, at least from a distance. I guess both are hard to distinguish/gender at a young age.

Will the adult hens of the Ameraucana x Olive egger be all black at maturity? I assume the lavender split will have no effect on that cross since the olive eggers have no lavender gene and it is recessive. But it would be nice to have some color on the hens...

Also it sounds like there would be some danger of not being able to tell the two type of chicks apart if I don't mark them right as they leave the egg. Do I need to get little leg bands?

 

[dheltzel]

Thanks so much -- I am a newbie but find this very interesting as well.

Oops sorry I did mix up pea combs and rose combs. To be honest they look kind of alike to me, at least from a distance. I guess both are hard to distinguish/gender at a young age.

Will the adult hens of the Ameraucana x Olive egger be all black at maturity? I assume the lavender split will have no effect on that cross since the olive eggers have no lavender gene and it is recessive. But it would be nice to have some color on the hens...

Also it sounds like there would be some danger of not being able to tell the two type of chicks apart if I don't mark them right as they leave the egg. Do I need to get little leg bands?

Pea and Rose combs are a lot alike, yet different. Both make it take longer to sex young birds than single combs, though not all single combs allow for early sexing. I had a strain of Lavender Orpingtons that took nearly as long to sex out as Lav Ameraucanas.

It is hard for me to say that the hens will be completely black. Some birds that are genetically "extended black" (EB - the normal sort of black color with chicks that look like little penguins) have varying amounts of other colors leaking through. Two very extreme examples are Black Ams and Copper Marans, both are EB for chick down and so dominant over other chick colors like wild type and wheaten. However, the adults do not look at all alike, especially the roos. A Copper Marans cock looks more like a Welsummer cock (Welsummers are wild-type, no EB at all) than a Black Ameraucana, though as chicks they are very similar.

I think you will be able to tell which chicks have a Marans as their mother because of the feathers on their legs. You would still do well to separate the eggs by color when hatching to confirm that.

To separate eggs when hatching, I recommend these from Dollar Tree:
https://www.dollartree.com/off-white-non-slip-shelf-liners-60-rolls/205939
https://www.dollartree.com/small-rectangular-slotted-plastic-baskets-3ct-packs/235879

Dollar Tree used to sell mesh laundry bags with zippers. I cut a piece of shelf liner to fit the bottom of the plastic basket, then put in the eggs that are ready to hatch, then put it all inside a mesh bag and zip it shut.

 

[VictoriaTemple]

Hey Dennis, as long as we are discussing genetics, any idea where these poofy crests came from in your nieces’ Silkie/Cochin hybrids? It’s awesome!! The father is the barred 3/4 Cochin/ 1/4 Silkie, and I’m not sure about the mothers. I have very little understanding of genetics, I just love them.❤

Blossom:

Pepper:

P.S: Blossom had a huge white head spot, so I thought for sure it was a cockerel, but now I just don’t know. I also think “his” mother was the dark gray Granny Silkie. Any thoughts? Thanks!