Thought this was a cool cross! Pretty Young laying hen

[SamuelMcF]

This girl was a straight yellow chick, cute as can be. When she started feathering in I was like WOW! You're gorgeous! haha Her mother was a Black Copper Marans and her father was a buff orpington. I love how her neck is darker then her body. do you guys think that's because of the Black copper genes? and her buff color is obviously coming from her buff orpington father. What do you guys think? I'd like to know you're input from a genetics standpoint. And she inherited the white skin from the orpington in her. What puzzles me is I thought the father was what controlled the egg laying gene but she lays a dark egg. Not really as dark as her mothers but certainly not that of an orpington. here's some pictures! Ignore the RIR She just wanted to be in the spotlight as well

Just thought I'd share! Thanks guys

Her Egg

 

[speckledhen]

She's a lovely color!

 

[draye]

I don't know much about genetics, but that is a pretty hen.
I think I need to get some eggs from you for hatching.


Hatch some more of that cross and see if you continue to get all of them that color.

 

[SamuelMcF]

Well I didn't actually do that cross but I have Buffs and Marans so I could do it. It would just be kinda tricky because I keep small flocks. I'm gonna play around with it on the genetics calculator. Just anything with buff though is hard to do

 

[NYRIR]

Gorgeous egg

I am so addicted to eggs

 

[Illia]

Your Black Copper Marans has a Wheaten gene hidden in there.

She's a pretty Wheaten-esque color because Buffs are Wheaten based, and some Black Coppers have a hidden recessive Wheaten in there. Unwanted but it does happen. If the BC parent was pure Black Copper, she'd turn out like this -

This is a New Hampshire x Black Copper. New Hampshires aren't much different from Buffs.


Instead your girl looks just like what a Wheaten x Buff would look like, with some mahogany in there too.

 

[SamuelMcF]

hmmm I'll contact the person I got her from. Cuz I know my marans have never had a wheaten chick. But could it have been something to do with dun factor making the buff more dominant?

 

[flgardengirl]

Black tailed buff hides in some BCM lines as well.

 

[SamuelMcF]

That's true. I'm gonna find out more about the line she came from

 

[Illia]

Quote:
That bird has no dun

Dun is a diluter of black just as blue is, thus, would only appear where black is.


Even if you don't throw Wheatens that doesn't mean your birds don't carry it. Take for example -


I have a half Wheaten, half BC rooster and a bunch of pure BC hens. They all throw BC offspring, 50% of them are half Wheaten but I don't see it.

I breed my half Wheaten male to another Wheaten based bird, and 50% of them will end up looking like yours, since 50% will be pure Wheaten based.