The blonde hen being a RIR x BCM mix is an assumption. I originally obtained both blondes with a free group of chickens that includes Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, and a pair of BCM's (hen and roo). The mix has feathered legs, golden-ish hackle feathers, and part of the combs are flopped over - something that I think came from the Maran. The mix also has nearly identical tail feathers as the RIR, with black speckling and all (just a few shades lighter.) I could also see how the blonde color could possibly come from the RIR. Our Maran roo was the French type with feathered legs, could the French type have some different genes in there that could change things?
I would like to keep most of the characteristics from the RIR x BCM cross and maybe incorporate some golden barring somewhere in there. My roo has non-feathered legs, so the BPR gene for bare legs must be dominant to BCM feathers. I'm thinking that about 1/4 of the offspring should have feathered legs, right? I'm hoping to possibly get a new, dual-purpose breed out of this.
I was also thinking about crossing the rooster back with a BPR or other barred breed to try to get the gold more uniformly spread, and hopefully get rid of those plain BCM hackle feathers that appear here and there.
Preferably, I'd like to see what the roo looks like for the supposed RIR x BCM cross and what the hen looks like for the BCM x BPR cross, before I start crossing other things.
Oh yeah! The BCM had heavier coppering down his chest, could that influence things?
Seedo, I’ve been trying to figure out how to respond to you. That gold hen is not from a Black Copper Marans rooster over a Rhode Island Red hen. That cross will give you a hen with a black head, black back, solid black tail, red chest and maybe golden lower body. It’s possible the RIR hen is the mother but no way a pure Black Copper is the father. So either he is a cross or some other rooster is the father. Is it possible a Salmon Favorelle is the father? That would probably give you colors like that and explain the feathered legs.
I’m assuming you were awake in biology class and know how basic genetics work. Well, chicken genetics can still get confusing. There are different genes that can cause feathered legs. A couple of them are what is called incomplete dominant. What that means is that if both genes at that gene pair are the feathered leg gene, the legs are heavily feathered. If only one of that gene pair is the feathered leg gene, the legs are still feathered, but not as heavily. Then there is another gene that is recessive for feathered legs. So if both at that gene pair match up, the legs will be feathered, but if only one is not, then that gene will not cause leg feathering. Let me confuse it just a bit more. There are some different genes that inhibit feathered legs so even if some feathered genes are there the legs can be clean.
I can’t tell you what is going on with your chickens’ legs. Since your golden hen has them, I’d guess they are one of those dominant versions especially if she is out of a RIR hen. It sounds like your mixed rooster could be carrying the recessive version, or his daddy was not pure for one of the dominant versions.
The genetics of the barred rock are going to contribute black. The genetics of the Black Copper are going to contribute a lot of black. Neither of those are going to contribute to the gold. That’s what you have with that mixed rooster. Both those types of black are pretty dominant. Not knowing if your BCM rooster is pure makes it hard to say anything definite but if your mixed rooster has the genetics he should, your first generation for that cross with the gold hen will not be gold. Some will be black and some partly black. You will still get chicks with a lot of other colors on them, some that will surprise you and about half will be barred. Some of that other color will be gold along with the black. You could even wind up with a rooster that is mostly white or an off-white ivory color but he should have a black tail.
You are not going to get any gold chicks crossing that rooster back to a Barred Rock hen. That is just not going to happen. That black will dominate. Those gold feathers leaking through are called leakage. It’s pretty common on a mixed breed rooster and can be hard to get rid of.
If you really want a gold barred, you could cross your gold hen with your mixed rooster or any other barred rooster, then keep a barred rooster from that match and breed back to your gold hens. But the genetics are so mixed up, you might have to hatch 40 or more chickens to get one gold barred. Or you may get lucky and get one pretty easily.
A few years back I hatched four chicks. By the odds only half should have been barred, but all four were. Two of those were red barred, very pretty. A while later I hatched 17 chicks from the same flock, same rooster but the eggs came from those same hens plus some more. Nine of those 17 were barred, which is right, but zero were red barred. All nine were black barred. By the odds that should not have happened, but it did.
