Trying to understand wheaten-blue Marans Genetics.

[aaknight]

Hi, I have a small wheaten-blue wheaten flock, I have a 3 wheaten/blue-wheaten and 2 blue birchens. I have a rooster and hens of each, and they are different pens/blood lines. When I bought them, the breeder told me that the Wheaten/blue-wheaten were a hybrid and did not breed true. I'm just wondering what to expect if I should breed a Blue Rooster with a Wheaten/blue-wheaten hen or perhaps a Wheaten/blue-wheaten rooster with a birchen hen.

Any advice or links you could help me out with would be appreciated. I did try a few searches but came up short, so thought I'd ask the crowd. Cheers.

 

[Fuchsia]

@Pyxis might be able to help you with that, I don't know.

 

[Pyxis]

A bird is either wheaten or blue wheaten, it can't be both. Blue wheaten is wheaten plus one copy of the blue gene. It's not really a 'hybrid', and it does breed 50% true - that is, a blue wheaten bred to another blue wheaten will produce 50% blue wheaten offspring. 25% will be wheaten, and the remaining 25% will be splash wheaten.

When you say a blue rooster, do you mean just a blue? Not blue wheaten, not blue birchen, etc, just blue?

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The genetics of blue is explained many times here on BYC. What you'll be dealing with is wheaten crossed with birchen and one variety being gold based with other being silver based. That's a bit more involved. Knowing your end goal would aid in any help as to how to get there.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I agree, Blue Wheaten will behave like the Andalusian Blue gene in other varieties of chickens. I'm not at all sure what the breeder was trying to tell you and either they don't know what they are talking about, or did a very poor job of explaining it.

Here is a thread here on BYC devoted to breeding Wheaten and Blue Wheaten Marans.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/wheaten-and-blue-wheaten-marans-discussion-thread.426622/

And a page on breeding many varieties of Marans According to a club in Australia:

http://frenchmaransclubaustralia.yolasite.com/notes-on-breeding.php

And another on Backyard Poultry:

http://forum.backyardpoultry.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=8015860

Blue Wheaten Marans were created by crossing a Blue bird onto a Normal Wheaten. Blue is a dilution of black, thereby turning the black feathers on Wheaten birds blue. Blue birds carry one copy of the black gene and another copy of blue. When breeding two Blue Wheatens together, you can statistically expect to get 25% Normal (Black Wheatens), 50% Blue Wheatens, and 25% Splash Wheatens. The Normal (Black) Wheaten doesn't have any blue genes. The Blue Wheaten has one blue and one black. The Splash Wheaten has two copies of the blue gene. A Splash Wheaten bred to a normal Wheaten will give 100% Blue Wheatens.

What is a "Blue Rooster"? A Blue, Blue Copper, Blue Birchin, Blue Cuckoo, Blue Wheaten Marans, etc? What is the goal of crossing the Wheaten line with a Birchin line? Generally egg color suffers when outcrossing in Marans, and you're going to get a mess of genes at play there. Perhaps once you've defined what you have @nicalandia could help...

 

[nicalandia]

Perhaps once you've defined what you have @nicalandia could help...

I agree

 

[Sheryll_woods]

Hi, I have a small wheaten-blue wheaten flock, I have a 3 wheaten/blue-wheaten and 2 blue birchens. I have a rooster and hens of each, and they are different pens/blood lines. When I bought them, the breeder told me that the Wheaten/blue-wheaten were a hybrid and did not breed true. I'm just wondering what to expect if I should breed a Blue Rooster with a Wheaten/blue-wheaten hen or perhaps a Wheaten/blue-wheaten rooster with a birchen hen.

Any advice or links you could help me out with would be appreciated. I did try a few searches but came up short, so thought I'd ask the crowd. Cheers.

There is a few on BYC that know the science of color really well. You might post that question. I'm in a simular situation with blue Australorps. I didn't get a roo because they wouldnt breed true. I would get 50% blue, 25% black an 25% splash. I have 8 an only 1 true blue. I have 2 considered blue black. 3 blue gray an 2 splash.

 

[The Moonshiner]

What is "blue black" and "blue gray"? Never heard those terms in blue, black and splash breeding.

 

[Sheryll_woods]

A bird is either wheaten or blue wheaten, it can't be both. Blue wheaten is wheaten plus one copy of the blue gene. It's not really a 'hybrid', and it does breed 50% true - that is, a blue wheaten bred to another blue wheaten will produce 50% blue wheaten offspring. 25% will be wheaten, and the remaining 25% will be splash wheaten.

When you say a blue rooster, do you mean just a blue? Not blue wheaten, not blue birchen, etc, just blue?

Thats how the blue australorp coloring works too. I have 2 blue girls 3 blue splash an 3 blue/gray. These came from a hatchery so they are not show stock by no means. They have missing waddle an short and long waddle on the same bird.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Thats how the blue australorp coloring works too. I have 2 blue girls 3 blue splash an 3 blue/gray. These came from a hatchery so they are not show stock by no means. They have missing waddle an short and long waddle on the same bird.

Any blue variety of any breed will behave that way