Wheaten and Blue wheaten Marans Discussion Thread

[3riverschick]

I have several Wheaten chicks coming out white. One is a little yellow. A couple of them have stripes. Fellow I got the Wheaten hens from had them with an americauna rooster. Now they are with my Splash Rooster.

Wheaten shouldn't have stripes. That's the e+ or wildtype allele which has stripes. So those chicks are probably heterozygous for eWh/ e+ . The eWh chicks should be some form of solid yellow. I can see a pure eWh chick coming out almost white looking.
Best,
Karen

 

[Shadow722]

Wheaten shouldn't have stripes. That's the e+ or wildtype allele which has stripes. So those chicks are probably heterozygous for eWh/ e+ . The eWh chicks should be some form of solid yellow. I can see a pure eWh chick coming out almost white looking.
Best,
Karen

I don't quite understand the e+ or eWH. The fellow I got the hens from had an Americauna rooster and some of those chicks are probably from his rooster. I also have some that are all yellow and some that are white. I have a Splash rooster and the Splash chicks are white. They usually have grey beaks with a dark spot and grey legs. None of the Wheaten chicks have the grey legs or beak.

 

[3riverschick]

I don't quite understand the e+ or eWH. The fellow I got the hens from had an Americauna rooster and some of those chicks are probably from his rooster. I also have some that are all yellow and some that are white. I have a Splash rooster and the Splash chicks are white. They usually have grey beaks with a dark spot and grey legs. None of the Wheaten chicks have the grey legs or beak.

Hi,
e+ is wildtype. It is the original color of the Red Jungle fowl . From whom it was long thought all chickens descended until the Green Jungle Fowl and the Grey Jungle Fowl were also found to have participated in the origins of the domestic chicken.
Because of this idea of "origin", e+ is called "wildtype". The chicks are always chipmunked striped. In fact, the chick down is absolutely definitive for wildtype. It can only look one way and be correct. See here:
https://ixquick-proxy.com/do/show_p...m_aus.jpg&sp=f36af01cd7dfdbddda57bde42f7dcb00
the above chicks are Golden Salmon Marans chicks. Golden Salmon is the French hobby name for wildtype.
Why is the chick down definitive? Because wildtype is a completely recessive color pallet. There are no other color genes, or modifiers. It is just e+/e+ ( copies of e+) and s+/s+ (2 copies of the gold gene in the male and one copy of the gold gene in the female which is written as s+/s- . There are no hypostatic genes in wildtype. It just is what it is.
Now Wheaten is a lovely color. The solid colored chicks usually are a yellow or cream color but can range from a light cream to a nice light yellow. Correct pure Wheaten is a solid color.
So when your chicks start showing a yellow ground color with faded or intermittent stripes , we know the chick is part wildtype and part Wheaten. Wheaten chicks would not have grey legs or beak.
Best,
Karen

 

[Shadow722]

The wheaten hens I have probably from my Splash rooster all have the yellowish colored legs and beaks are kind of peachy colored. Whereas my Splash chick has the grayish white legs and beak.

 

[berkeleysprings]

Been a wile since I checked in...houdy all

 

[XxMingirlxX]

 

[snowbird]

Been a wile since I checked in...houdy all

Hey Randy, How are you doing down in the woods. I set 120 BC Marans eggs last week. Don't plan on hatching any Wheaten this year, what we have left are out on the Farm running around. Behave yourself.

 

[snowbird]

The wheaten hens I have probably from my Splash rooster all have the yellowish colored legs and beaks are kind of peachy colored. Whereas my Splash chick has the grayish white legs and beak.

I do not know any Marans color that is allowed to have Yellow Legs.

 

[berkeleysprings]

Hey Randy, How are you doing down in the woods. I set 120 BC Marans eggs last week. Don't plan on hatching any Wheaten this year, what we have left are out on the Farm running around. Behave yourself.

nice hearing from you. it's been a whileim still working Wheaton's but down to 7 hens il do ahatck in the spring, I have ave a darker hen I'd like to try test hatch

 

[chickadoodles]

Hi, I got some chicks a few months ago and I have a couple that I am still trying to figure out what they are. I was hoping you all might be able to tell me if this pullet is a Splash Maran?
She does have feathered shanks and feet. TYIA