It\'s interesting that this topic should come up. I have been hatching some (very deliberate) Ameraucana x Marans crosses, working to obtain what we call Olive Eggers (please don\'t yell at me about this, I do not sell them and would never do so as anything other than mutts.)
Normally, an Olive Egger has Cuckoo coloring with a pea comb and are generally out of Amer hens, sired by Marans cocks. But in my last two hatches, two with really odd coloring came out of Marans eggs, meaning their sire was the Amer cock, and dam a Marans hen.
I am pretty sure the hen is one I have who has a golden cast to her feathers. She came from a local breeder who did not know the bloodline, so who knows what genetics are in there, and I may well sell her due to this. But now, some photos:
Here is a link to a purebred Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameraucana chick:
And here are links to the Olive Egger who hatched out of a Marans egg:
Here\'s the same chick at about four weeks:
And here\'s the chick now, at about six weeks
:
It\'s pretty obvious his father was my Wheaten cock, but his hackles are a lighter gold than wheaten, and his feathering is odd. I don\'t know enough poultry genetics to comment, perhaps someone else can? I do know I\'ve gotten two other chicks who look just like this, with luck one will be a pullet and I can try breeding them together to see if it breeds true. At any rate, a fun experiment in genetics...
