Blue Copper Marans

[Bakersusanne20]

I purchased Blue Copper Marans hens and rooster from a hatchery. I am hatching them out in the incubator. Why am I getting Black and Splash chicks?

 

[gimmie birdies]

Blue doesn't breed true.

 

[gimmie birdies]

I don't know what your chicken parents looked like.
But going forward if you breed your black and splash together you will get a ton of blue.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Because Blue is one of the fun genes. Blue is a partially dominant gene that modifies what would normally be a black feather or the black part of a feather in case of a pattern. If you have zero Blue genes then the feather is black. If you have one Blue and one not-Blue gene at that gene pair then anything that would have been black is blue. If you get two Blue genes at that gene pair then what would have been Black is Splash. Since your chickens would normally be Black without the B/B/S gene the entire chicken is affected, not just some pattern feathers.

The Blue parents each have one Blue gene and one Not-Blue gene. When you breed Blue chickens about half of the chicks are Blue, 1/4 are Black, and 1/4 are Splash if you get enough chicks for averages to mean anything. This is shown by the top line of that graph. The other lines show what happens with other combinations of the parents.

There are other partially dominant genes like this but the Blue/Black/Splash gene is probably the most dramatic.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I purchased Blue Copper Marans hens and rooster from a hatchery. I am hatching them out in the incubator. Why am I getting Black and Splash chicks?

Hello and welcome to BYC!

The graph in post #2 pretty much sums up the answer to your question.

Happy hatching!

 

[Bakersusanne20]

I don't know what your chicken parents looked like.
But going forward if you breed your black and splash together you will get a ton of blue.

Thank you

 

[Bakersusanne20]

Because Blue is one of the fun genes. Blue is a partially dominant gene that modifies what would normally be a black feather or the black part of a feather in case of a pattern. If you have zero Blue genes then the feather is black. If you have one Blue and one not-Blue gene at that gene pair then anything that would have been black is blue. If you get two Blue genes at that gene pair then what would have been Black is Splash. Since your chickens would normally be Black without the B/B/S gene the entire chicken is affected, not just some pattern feathers.

The Blue parents each have one Blue gene and one Not-Blue gene. When you breed Blue chickens about half of the chicks are Blue, 1/4 are Black, and 1/4 are Splash if you get enough chicks for averages to mean anything. This is shown by the top line of that graph. The other lines show what happens with other combinations of the parents.

There are other partially dominant genes like this but the Blue/Black/Splash gene is probably the most dramatic.

Thank you. Genetics confuse me, but I love the colors.