What will I get?

[Circle D Enterprises]

I have a pen with black Marans hens, buff Orpington hens, and Cuckoo Marans hens. My roosters are a black copper Marans, a golden laced Cochin, and a muffed red colored that I'm not sure what he is. Back in the late summer, the Cochin and one of the buffs mated and resulted in a buff Cochin (not sure of the sex yet). This brings up my question. If the Cochin is mated with the Marans, will it result in Cochins that are the color of the mother? Also, what will the Marans rooster and the black hens or the cuckoo hens throw?

 

[sylviethecochin]

Black is almost always first generation cross dominant. Cuckoo is sex-linked, and is basically a white overlay on black feathers. Barred hens with a solid rooster should have barred sons and black daughters.
Have fun.

 

[drumstick diva]

when you have one breed rooster and a different breed hen, you will not get pure breeds of either sex. You will have cochin x orpington mixes. The chicks may resemble one breed or another but, they will not breed true.

 

[Circle D Enterprises]

Black is almost always first generation cross dominant. Cuckoo is sex-linked, and is basically a white overlay on black feathers. Barred hens with a solid rooster should have barred sons and black daughters.
Have fun.

Thank you for the insight. So if Cuckoo is sex linked, what parings result in Cuckoo? I'm trying to thin out the herd and trying to decide what of those to keep to get the best results. The marans rooster is a black copper. I got him at a sale barn and am finally getting him gentled down. Not there yet but getting quite a ways along. I have 8 or 9 black hens, and about a dozen barred or Cuckoo. Here is my dilemma: I will have some reds and barred rocks in one pen for my egg layers. Those will be my egg money chickens. Then I will have another pen for the "fancy" chickens. For me the "fancy" chickens will be something along the lines of Marans, Cochins, Olive Eggers, or such. I'm not interested in exotics or game birds. Then I will have a third pen for buying and selling. That will be those that I can pick up at one sale barn, then sell later at another after quarantine. I also plan to rotate stock every year or two. My only thought in having the Orpingtons is the broodiness. Do Marans go broody? If I decide to keep just those for my "fancy" chickens, could I count on some of them to cover eggs and not have to have an incubator?

 

[junebuggena]

Thank you for the insight. So if Cuckoo is sex linked, what parings result in Cuckoo?

The only way to produce purebred Cuckoo Marans is to breed a Cuckoo Marans rooster to a Cuckoo Marans hen. Anything else results in a mixed breed/variety. Same goes for breeding any other breeds. Even crossing varieties of a breed will not produce anything other than mixes. Chicken breeds are not determined by pedigree and ancestry, but by whether or not a bird meets a specific breed standard (including recognized plumage coloring), and will reproduce in a predictable manner.

 

[sylviethecochin]

Thank you for the insight. So if Cuckoo is sex linked, what parings result in Cuckoo? I'm trying to thin out the herd and trying to decide what of those to keep to get the best results. The marans rooster is a black copper. I got him at a sale barn and am finally getting him gentled down. Not there yet but getting quite a ways along. I have 8 or 9 black hens, and about a dozen barred or Cuckoo. Here is my dilemma: I will have some reds and barred rocks in one pen for my egg layers. Those will be my egg money chickens. Then I will have another pen for the "fancy" chickens. For me the "fancy" chickens will be something along the lines of Marans, Cochins, Olive Eggers, or such. I'm not interested in exotics or game birds. Then I will have a third pen for buying and selling. That will be those that I can pick up at one sale barn, then sell later at another after quarantine. I also plan to rotate stock every year or two. My only thought in having the Orpingtons is the broodiness. Do Marans go broody? If I decide to keep just those for my "fancy" chickens, could I count on some of them to cover eggs and not have to have an incubator?

X2, junbuggena.

Barred of either sort (Cuckoo is "smudgy". The smudge is because the birds are fast-feathering and this causes uneven coloration. Barred birds, such as the plymouth barred rock, have a crisper coloration because they're slow feathering) is sexlinked.

Hens have a W and Z sex chromosome pair. Because it's smaller, Z holds fewer genes than the W chromosome. Roosters have two W sex chromosomes. Barring is on the W chromosome. Z does not contain barring. Hens, therefore, can have only one copy of the barring gene.

If the parent rooster is non-barred and the hen is barred:

A male chick inherits the mother's W chromosome, which contains barring, and the father's W chromosome, which has no barring. He has one copy of the barring gene and is barred.

A female chick inherits the mother's Z chromosome, which has no barring, and the father's W chromosome, which also has no barring. The female chick is not barred.

For the same reason, a slow-feathering hen and a fast-feathering rooster will have fast-feathering pullets and slow-feathering cockerel chicks.

A lot of Marans go broody. Hatchery stock generally is less likely to go broody than breeder stock is. Cochins are also very broody.

 

[Circle D Enterprises]

X2, junbuggena.

Barred of either sort (Cuckoo is "smudgy". The smudge is because the birds are fast-feathering and this causes uneven coloration. Barred birds, such as the plymouth barred rock, have a crisper coloration because they're slow feathering) is sexlinked.

Hens have a W and Z sex chromosome pair. Because it's smaller, Z holds fewer genes than the W chromosome. Roosters have two W sex chromosomes. Barring is on the W chromosome. Z does not contain barring. Hens, therefore, can have only one copy of the barring gene.

If the parent rooster is non-barred and the hen is barred:

A male chick inherits the mother's W chromosome, which contains barring, and the father's W chromosome, which has no barring. He has one copy of the barring gene and is barred.

A female chick inherits the mother's Z chromosome, which has no barring, and the father's W chromosome, which also has no barring. The female chick is not barred.

For the same reason, a slow-feathering hen and a fast-feathering rooster will have fast-feathering pullets and slow-feathering cockerel chicks.

A lot of Marans go broody. Hatchery stock generally is less likely to go broody than breeder stock is. Cochins are also very broody.

Thank you as well for your insight. Now that raises even more questions. Why would hatchery stock tend to be less broody? Would it be because of the way the hens are used? Getting as much out of the hens as they can and not allowing them to go through the natural process? "Forced laying" so to speak? Or do you mean day old chicks from the hatchery when raised tend to be less broody?

Let's take a hypothetical situation. Let's take my Black Copper Marans rooster and mate him to both the Cuckoo hen and the Black Marans hen. What will the resulting colors be in each case?

 

[junebuggena]

Thank you as well for your insight. Now that raises even more questions. Why would hatchery stock tend to be less broody? Would it be because of the way the hens are used? Getting as much out of the hens as they can and not allowing them to go through the natural process? "Forced laying" so to speak? Or do you mean day old chicks from the hatchery when raised tend to be less broody?

Let's take a hypothetical situation. Let's take my Black Copper Marans rooster and mate him to both the Cuckoo hen and the Black Marans hen. What will the resulting colors be in each case?

Hatcheries select purely based on production. The more eggs a hen lays, the better. Broody hens don't lay while brooding, so they are removed from the breeder pens as much as possible. Brooding is an inherited trait. Therefore, hatchery bred birds do tend to be less broody than their bred to standard (show quality) counterparts.

 

[junebuggena]

Let's take a hypothetical situation. Let's take my Black Copper Marans rooster and mate him to both the Cuckoo hen and the Black Marans hen. What will the resulting colors be in each case?

The Cuckoo Marans hen will produce black sexlinks. Cockerels will have a single copy of cuckoo/barring, and look similar to female cuckoo marans, but they will develop leakage as they mature. The pullets will most likely be solid black, some may have some copper through the head and neck.
Black Copper Marans to Black Copper Marans produces purebred Black Copper Marans.