Question about Genetics with Marans

[chickengr]

That makes sense! Thank you so much!!

Okay, so what would happen if I bred the offspring together? Would I still get sexable chicks? Or what if I bred the daughters back to the father?

barred hen and non barred roo produce barred cockerels and non barred pullets.

 

[TheChickenFanatic]

Ope, I meant Golden Cuckoo

No worries! I just wanted to clarify.

 

[TheChickenFanatic]

Well, that makes sense now. Thank you so much, everyone!!

 

[NatJ]

Okay, so what would happen if I bred the offspring together? Would I still get sexable chicks? Or what if I bred the daughters back to the father?

No. Most of what is going on is caused by the barring gene. How it works:

The barring gene is on the Z sex chromosome. Males have ZZ, females have ZW.

For your first cross:
Black Copper father has no barring. So he gives a not-barred Z chromosome to each chick. Golden Cuckoo mother has barring. She gives a barred Z chromosome to each son, and a W chromosome to each daughter (makes them female, does not have barring.)

If you breed the daughters back to the father, the daughters have no barring and the father has no barring, so no chicks have barring. They should basically look like Black Copper Marans.

But if you take those first sexable chicks and breed them together:
The male has one barring gene and one not-barred gene. So he gives barring to some of his chicks, both sons and daughters.
The female has no barring gene on her Z chromsome, and of course none on her W chromosome. So she gives Z to her sons and W to her daughters, with no barring going to either of them.
That means that some sons and some daughters have barring (inherited from their mixed father), while some sons and some daughters have no barring.
From that set, if you pick out females with barring and males without barring, you can use them to repeat the original color-sexable cross that gave barred males and unbarred females.

[I am considering Golden Cuckoo to be genetically the same as Black Copper except that the barring gene is added. I don't actually know if that is correct, so if I'm wrong, somebody please tell me!]

 

[Amer]

[I am considering Golden Cuckoo to be genetically the same as Black Copper except that the barring gene is added. I don't actually know if that is correct, so if I'm wrong, somebody please tell me!]

That is my guess as well...

 

[MysteryChicken]

@NatJ @MysteryChicken

Looks like @NatJ covered it. Was late on that one.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

this will be a sex link cross, males being single barred golden cuckoos and hens being unbarred black coopers.

 

[BlueTheBrahma]

No. Most of what is going on is caused by the barring gene. How it works:

The barring gene is on the Z sex chromosome. Males have ZZ, females have ZW.

For your first cross:
Black Copper father has no barring. So he gives a not-barred Z chromosome to each chick. Golden Cuckoo mother has barring. She gives a barred Z chromosome to each son, and a W chromosome to each daughter (makes them female, does not have barring.)

If you breed the daughters back to the father, the daughters have no barring and the father has no barring, so no chicks have barring. They should basically look like Black Copper Marans.

But if you take those first sexable chicks and breed them together:
The male has one barring gene and one not-barred gene. So he gives barring to some of his chicks, both sons and daughters.
The female has no barring gene on her Z chromsome, and of course none on her W chromosome. So she gives Z to her sons and W to her daughters, with no barring going to either of them.
That means that some sons and some daughters have barring (inherited from their mixed father), while some sons and some daughters have no barring.
From that set, if you pick out females with barring and males without barring, you can use them to repeat the original color-sexable cross that gave barred males and unbarred females.

[I am considering Golden Cuckoo to be genetically the same as Black Copper except that the barring gene is added. I don't actually know if that is correct, so if I'm wrong, somebody please tell me!]

A correctly bred golden cuckoo is exactly as you say, a black copper (gold birchen genotype) with barring. Some carry or are based on duckwing or wheaten patterns but they shouldn’t be like this, birchen is the correct one.

 

[NatJ]

A correctly bred golden cuckoo is exactly as you say, a black copper (gold birchen genotype) with barring. Some carry or are based on duckwing or wheaten patterns but they shouldn’t be like this, birchen is the correct one.

Thank you! I did not entirely trust my guesses based on internet photos