Ameraucana/Maran Mix question

[Koko Acres]

Hi! I have purchased some purebred Ameraucana hatching eggs that are doing very well in the incubator as we speak. They are BBS Ameraucana from a breeder who is on the board for the Ameraucana breeders club, so I am very excited to see how beautiful they will be when they hatch!

My question is this: I want to have most of the purebred Ameraucanas together in their own coop, with the exception of one or two Ameraucana roosters that I’d like to house with my existing hens to breed some Easter eggers, and eventually some moss eggers down the line. My existing birds are barred rocks, black Jersey giants and a mix of the two. I already get an array of brown egg colors from them so I expect a variety of greens from the offspring. I would like to add some Welsummers and some chocolate layers for even more variety. Since I already have black chickens, and I believe black would be the dominant feather gene passed on to offspring from them (please correct me if I’m wrong), which type of Marans could I add to allow for more feather diversity in the offspring?

I guess to make my confusing question, er uh, less confusing, which dark egg laying hen is the best one to breed to a BBS Ameraucana Rooster to make sure I don’t get a ton of black Easter eggers. I am hoping for some fun and diverse feather colors.

 

[Skyle]

From the barred rocks you will get barred (black and/or blue, depending on the rooster) males and non-barred black and/or blue females (also depending on the rooster).
From the Jerseys you will get black and/or blue chicks, depending if you use a black, blue or splash rooster.

From black/blue copper and wheaten Marans hens you will likely get chickens that will be mostly black, blue or splash with some red leaking.
If you get cuckoo Marans, you will get the same results as with the Barred Rocks.
White Marans are usually recessive white based, they could hide any of the other patterns underneath the white (depending on the stain, they could all have the same pattern or be a mix), you will likely get the same results as previous said, but they would carry recessive white.

I'd say to go with the cuckoo ones and use a blue rooster, you will get sex-linked chicks that are black, blue, black barred and blue barred.

 

[Koko Acres]

Thank you!

I had thought of cuckoo, and creating a sex link, but then I was not wanting to have more of the same barred birds. Now I am thinking that would actually be a fun experiment to see the difference between the lighter greens from the barred sex links as opposed to the darker olives from the cuckoo sex links.

What feather colors do you think I could expect from Welsummer hens? Would it be more probable to get a variety of feathering with Welsummer/Ameraucana chicks?

 

[nicalandia]

What feather colors do you think I could expect from Welsummer hens? Would it be more probable to get a variety of feathering with Welsummer/Ameraucana chicks?

Welsummer are wildtype so recessive to the BBS of the Ameraucana.. some may show some leakage as adults but not much

 

[Koko Acres]

Welsummer are wildtype so recessive to the BBS of the Ameraucana.. some may show some leakage as adults but not much

So if they are recessive to the BBS of the Ameraucana that means they will have the Ameraucana colors and show Welsummer leakage..or show Mostly Welsummer colors and have BBS leakage? Sorry, I have been really been studying genetics recently but I have so much still to learn.

Also, another question to add…I just realized that Welbars exist. If I bred the Welbars instead of Welsummers with the Ameraucanas, wouldn’t I get sex linked green laying offspring?

 

[Carrot_Mama]

Hi! I have purchased some purebred Ameraucana hatching eggs that are doing very well in the incubator as we speak. They are BBS Ameraucana from a breeder who is on the board for the Ameraucana breeders club, so I am very excited to see how beautiful they will be when they hatch!

My question is this: I want to have most of the purebred Ameraucanas together in their own coop, with the exception of one or two Ameraucana roosters that I’d like to house with my existing hens to breed some Easter eggers, and eventually some moss eggers down the line. My existing birds are barred rocks, black Jersey giants and a mix of the two. I already get an array of brown egg colors from them so I expect a variety of greens from the offspring. I would like to add some Welsummers and some chocolate layers for even more variety. Since I already have black chickens, and I believe black would be the dominant feather gene passed on to offspring from them (please correct me if I’m wrong), which type of Marans could I add to allow for more feather diversity in the offspring?

I guess to make my confusing question, er uh, less confusing, which dark egg laying hen is the best one to breed to a BBS Ameraucana Rooster to make sure I don’t get a ton of black Easter eggers. I am hoping for some fun and diverse feather colors.

How did your hatch go? Would love to see the babies!

 

[Koko Acres]

How did your hatch go? Would love to see the babies!

Well I had a classic case of counting my chickens before they hatched. When I candled at day 10 they were all infertile. The breeder kindly replaced them with another batch of 13 and I just threw away 11 of those this morning that were also infertile. I have two in the incubator right now, only one showing proper development. I’m in denial about the second one. It looks like I’m going to have a lonely little Ameraucana if she/he hatches. I took a picture of that one “$100 egg” this morning. I’ll keep that picture to look at the next time I think I’d like to order expensive hatching eggs. lol!

 

[Carrot_Mama]

Well I had a classic case of counting my chickens before they hatched. When I candled at day 10 they were all infertile. The breeder kindly replaced them with another batch of 13 and I just threw away 11 of those this morning that were also infertile. I have two in the incubator right now, only one showing proper development. I’m in denial about the second one. It looks like I’m going to have a lonely little Ameraucana if she/he hatches. I took a picture of that one “$100 egg” this morning. I’ll keep that picture to look at the next time I think I’d like to order expensive hatching eggs. lol!

I’m just so sorry to hear this. Is there any way you could get live chicks?

 

[Koko Acres]

I could, but the breeder really is a very nice and honest lady. She hasn’t started up her incubators for the season yet and she said she’d keep me posted when she does. I have a feeling she will provide me with chicks to compensate for the infertility. Her birds really are so beautiful, so it is a sad disappointment.

I think I need to go to tractor supply to pick up a few random brooding buddies for this little chick when she/he hatches. Hopefully it won’t feel lonely.

 

[Slothinc]

I have been there many times, it is so hard I hope you are able to get more babies soon!