Ameraucana Breeders Club

The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club => Ameraucana Marketplace => Topic started by: bryngyld on September 17, 2007, 12:29:28 PM

Title: Maran x blue egg experiment
Post by: bryngyld on September 17, 2007, 12:29:28 PM

I think Michael crossed some Marans with Ameraucana and got olive drab colored eggs.  I was wondering if anyone has kept those 1st generation crosses to see what the blue will be in the 2nd or 3rd generation.

Title: Maran x blue egg experiment
Post by: bantamhill on September 18, 2007, 10:29:17 AM

I was shocked that the egg color is almost blue on the hen I have kept currently. She is 75% Ameraucana.

Michael

Title: Maran x blue egg experiment
Post by: Guest on September 18, 2007, 03:49:10 PM

Greg in Jonesboro has some crosses (he raises gold & silver Cuckoos), but I do not know if he has 2nd gen.s. He has told me and I have read that the egg color of the maran is impossible to get back after outcrossing so it must be quite a complicated genome.

Title: Maran x blue egg experiment
Post by: bantamhill on September 19, 2007, 10:14:58 PM

I was totally surprised at the result. I currently do not have any Marans, but I may try again some time to see what happens . . . my birds obviously did not inherit any modifiers.

Michael

Title: Maran x blue egg experiment
Post by: Guest on September 22, 2007, 09:39:01 PM

Michael, when you are ready for some Marans please let me know. I now have five varieties [Brown-Red (the French call them Black Copper, two varieties of Silver Cuckoo (feathered shank and clean shank, bantam Silver Cuckoo and Yellow Cuckoo (very early in the creation of this variety)] in them and three in the Ameraucana breed looking to add more.

Ya\'ll, Rose is correct. The dark brown of the Marans is unlike the Ameraucana and more like the other brown layers, the color is on the outside of the shell. The pigment is produced in the liver and the older the hen gets the more pigment she deposits on the shell. Even as pullets they a larger than expected egg and the bantams are very prolific with eggs that rival the large fowl of other breeds in size. The bantams however do not have the egg color of the large fowl. The English breeders have been working on the bantams for over 70 years and still the egg color is at the RIR level.

Moderator please excuse me for promoting another breed on the board, it is not my habit, in my defence I praise the Ameraucana to the Marans group.

I have never crossed the breeds just to see what happens. Unimaginative of me but that is not what I am in the hobby for. I plan my breeding pens very carefully.

Greg