crossbreeding Marans & Cream legbar

[Thijs]

Has anybody experience in this?
I have some black copper Marans and a cream legbar Rooster.

does it matter in terms of egg color which is the hen which is the rooster? in otherwords, would the result be the same with marans rooster and cream legbar hen?

how about the appearance of the chickens?

 

[The Moonshiner]

Either way the cross will produce green egg layers. Most would say olive eggs but the color "olive" is in the eye of the beholder IMO.
IMO it takes some really dark brown egg genes to get close to olive. Its also said that some of the genes responsible for the darkest brown eggs are sex linked so when the marans is the rooster the cross produces a bit darker eggs then if the marans was the hen.
With the CL being the rooster all chicks will get a barring gene and be barred. If the CL was the hen you'd get sex links with the male offspring being barred and the female offspring not being barred.

 

[Thijs]

Ok thanks for that. I do have really dark brown laying marans. I can hardly inspect them with a good egg candling torch in a dark room up to day 14 and even then it is really hard to see anything.

On the internet there are some charts how to go to the desired egg color untill you get easter eggers. Just don't know if each chicken would be able to lay all the colors or rather that every easter egger would lay another color. I would gess the last?

https://www.pinterest.co.kr/pin/302515299969850436/

 

[GaryDean26]

I used the Legbar hens to test mate Black Copper Marans cockerels for recessive color genes when I was breeding Marans. Below is a Marans egg, "Olive" eggs from the Marans X Cream Legbar cross, a a Cream Legbar egg. This is what you can expect for egg color.

He is a comparison of the parent breeds and the cross breed. The Back is a Black Copper Marans Hen, the middle is a Cream Legbar Cock, and the front is a Marans X Legbar Cross. If you use Legbar Hens and a Marans Cock the female off spring will not be barred like ours is. They will be black with crested and red mossiness.

 

[Thijs]

can't wait. thanks!!

 

[Ted_Harrell]

Interesting , maybe some pics when they get a bit older?

 

[Jreneej]

I used the Legbar hens to test mate Black Copper Marans cockerels for recessive color genes when I was breeding Marans. Below is a Marans egg, "Olive" eggs from the Marans X Cream Legbar cross, a a Cream Legbar egg. This is what you can expect for egg color.

View attachment 2109977

He is a comparison of the parent breeds and the cross breed. The Back is a Black Copper Marans Hen, the middle is a Cream Legbar Cock, and the front is a Marans X Legbar Cross. If you use Legbar Hens and a Marans Cock the female off spring will not be barred like ours is. They will be black with crested and red mossiness.
View attachment 2109978

I just crossed a cream legbar roo with bcm hens. They are 4 weeks old. All of them have large very pink to red combs except one. Are they all Roos but one?? Does this cross usually create almost all males or is my luck just this bad?

 

[Shadrach]

The hen closest is a Marans/Crested Cream Legbar cross.
She lays smallish green/blue eggs and has feathered feet.

 

[GaryDean26]

I just crossed a cream legbar roo with bcm hens. They are 4 weeks old. All of them have large very pink to red combs except one. Are they all Roos but one?? Does this cross usually create almost all males or is my luck just this bad?

if you flip a penny five times the probability of you getting 4 heads and 1 tails is a lot higher than for you to get 400 heads and 100 tails out of 500 flips. The law of averages can get skewed if your sample population is too small. There are no lethal genes in a Marans x Legbar cross that would favor a cockerel heavy hatch. The probability is 50/50 for male/females. If you hatch enough your split will even out to something close to 50/50. Large pink comes at 4 weeks should be males. Females should still have small orangish combs at that age. I would give them another 1-2 weeks to be sure though.