Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[WHmarans]

Well I ordered some so I guess I'll see what I get for egg color and hatch. If they aren't any darker than what I've got I'll just be the sucker that over paid for more of what I all ready had.

 

[berkeleysprings]

dark eggs that hatch do not = dark egg laying hens . ive hatched light eggs and some times they grow up to lay dark some times not. its a crap shoot .....its just not that that easy .as many know iv been breeding for a wile .. ive back bred the same line many times over and lifes not that easy. theres no tricks .... its a crap shoot.

 

[berkeleysprings]

wheatens lay the darkest eggs at beginning of laying season and lighten the most just before thay take a few months off . and as they grow older they loose color....and if dark is what u want get black copper or blue

 

[WHmarans]

I know.. I seem to know how to ask all the wrong questions.. but what happens when you run wheaten and blue wheaten marans together? Do you get a genetic mess?

 

[Bangarang64]

Not a bad question at all.

As I understand it, you have a chance of getting either one, depending more (or less) on which one is the roo.

 

[WHmarans]

I'm confused about it because I thought all blue was a heterozygous color. In other words you'd cross a black looking bird and a splash looking bird to get blue. So a blue wheaten rooster cross wheatens... 50% genetically "blue"? But I was looking at "Bev's Marans" website and it says:


~~Blue Wheaten Genetic code = eWh/eWh Bl/Bl Id/Id w+/w+ Pti1-L/Pti1-L

so that looks like blue birds carry homozygous blue BI/BI genes.. but I'm probably just not understanding it.

 

[Bangarang64]

A bit off topic, but things are slow here so I thought I'd share this.
One of my Wheatens went broody in December, so I placed some eggs from my Red Star hens under her. The pen the Reds are in is where I keep my spare Wheaten Roo. I have no idea what the result will end up like, although I have read that a RIR (which red stars share 1/2 linage) covered by a Marans male results in a Blue Belle or Blue Ranger. That would be cool. Really though, I have no idea.

Tomorrow (Jan 16th) they will be one week old.

 

[WHmarans]

A bit off topic, but things are slow here so I thought I'd share this. One of my Wheatens went broody in December, so I placed some eggs from my Red Star hens under her. The pen the Reds are in is where I keep my spare Wheaten Roo. I have no idea what the result will end up like, although I have read that a RIR (which red stars share 1/2 linage) covered by a Marans male results in a Blue Belle or Blue Ranger. That would be cool. Really though, I have no idea. Tomorrow (Jan 16th) they will be one week old.

I hope you will give an update and let us see how they look feathered out. Is your rooster blue wheaten?

 

[WHmarans]

Ok, sorry to just keep with the questions.. but do you think blue wheaten marans are generally darker layers than non-blue wheaten? Do you think darker layers produce fewer eggs?

 

[Bangarang64]

A new crop of Wheatens for 2014 in my house! Here's the first one out of the egg as of 5 mins ago:

Ok, sorry to just keep with the questions.. but do you think blue wheaten marans are generally darker layers than non-blue wheaten? Do you think darker layers produce fewer eggs?

I'm no expert, but in my experience, the feather color of the Marans has had little to no effect on how dark the egg is. Also, my darker layers actually are beating out the ones laying lighter colored eggs. I think it's just the time of the year though.