Blue/Black maran genetics

[Izzy Dietzler]

Hi, I breed black marans and im wanting the most variety of color I can get on my farm so I was thinking of adding some blue maran hens in with the black roo. I breed Blue laced red wyandottes as well and im wondering if its sorta the same thing, If I breed a blue maran with a black maran will I get 50% blue chicks and 50% black chicks? also will it mess up color at all because I dont want to ruin my black maran show birds.

 

[Willawong Hill]

Yes, you will get 50% blue and 50% black chicks, generally speaking it shouldn't' mess up the colour- most breeds will have black/blue/splash together. However I know with Marans some lines have more feathering, different egg colours etc than others so the types may be slightly different which might cause issues. Hopefully someone with more Marans experience will help you out!

 

[The Moonshiner]

In the show world it is a very common thought that blacks from a BBS line are never the quality color wise as a black from a black only line.
It is thought that they tend to dull some in comparison.
It's something you'll have to decide for yourself or try it and see what you think.
Myself I never saw a real difference or any difference that made a bird do poorly at a show.
Lots of hardcore show breeders have ideas that they picked up somewhere that they'll stick to till the end of time.

 

[Minky]

Can I ask if its 50% blue, 50 % black- where do the cuckoo marans come from?

 

[NatJ]

Can I ask if its 50% blue, 50 % black- where do the cuckoo marans come from?

Cuckoo has white bars on the feathers. It's controlled by a different gene.

So you can have black cuckoo or blue cuckoo, just by adding the barring gene to a bird that would otherwise be solid black or solid blue.

 

[Minky]

Cuckoo has white bars on the feathers. It's controlled by a different gene.

So you can have black cuckoo or blue cuckoo, just by adding the barring gene to a bird that would otherwise be solid black or solid blue.

Ok, so if I like black, blue and splash, but I do not like cuckoo (Im not a fan of the barring) what could I do to not breed any more cuckoo?

Can I breed blue with black? how do I get splash.. I like splash and blue the best.

Thanks

 

[NatJ]

Ok, so if I like black, blue and splash, but I do not like cuckoo (Im not a fan of the barring) what could I do to not breed any more cuckoo?

Can I breed blue with black? how do I get splash.. I like splash and blue the best.

Thanks

Barring is a dominant gene. If you have no birds with barring, you will never produce birds with barring.

For the blue gene:
--no copies of blue gives a black bird
--one copy of blue gives a blue bird
--two copies of blue gives a splash bird

For a bird to be splash, it must get a blue gene from each parent. So two splash parents, two blue parents, or one of each.

If you cross a blue bird with a splash bird, you will get about half blue and half splash, with no blacks at all.

Edit: forgot to mention, crossing two blue birds will give about 1/4 black birds, 1/2 blue birds, 1/4 splash birds. So if you can get blue but want splash, just cross two blues and hatch a bunch of chicks.