INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Pollitos6]

Hello

I have an update on my eggs and a question. I candle the eggs last night and I have three green eggs for sure fertile, and baby chicks moving inside. My question is if the mom is a green egger and the dad is a blue egger, what will I get? I mean if one of soon to hatch chick happens to be female, would she lay green or blue eggs?

Thanks

 

[pginsber]

Hello

I have an update on my eggs and a question. I candle the eggs last night and I have three green eggs for sure fertile, and baby chicks moving inside. My question is if the mom is a green egger and the dad is a blue egger, what will I get? I mean if one of soon to hatch chick happens to be female, would she lay green or blue eggs?

Thanks

An olive egger has brown and blue egg genes in it. I’d guess blue eggs.

 

[Faraday40]

Hello

I have an update on my eggs and a question. I candle the eggs last night and I have three green eggs for sure fertile, and baby chicks moving inside. My question is if the mom is a green egger and the dad is a blue egger, what will I get? I mean if one of soon to hatch chick happens to be female, would she lay green or blue eggs?

Thanks

My guess is green or blue depending on which genes get passed down.

 

[racinchickins]

Hello

I have an update on my eggs and a question. I candle the eggs last night and I have three green eggs for sure fertile, and baby chicks moving inside. My question is if the mom is a green egger and the dad is a blue egger, what will I get? I mean if one of soon to hatch chick happens to be female, would she lay green or blue eggs?

Thanks

Short answer - The combo above will most likely give you green eggs, or possibly (but not likely) some shade of brown eggs. True blue is almost a zero possibility.

Long answer - (I am fascinated by genetics, so only geeks like me need to read further)
Egg shell color genetics can be complicated as you are dealing with multiple set of genes. But there are two main ones to work with:

1 - blue vs white. This is the true color of the shell and goes all the way through the shell, so if you rub the shell with an abrasive, you can't remove the blue or white coloring. Blue is dominant and white is recessive. Birds with one blue and one white gene will lay eggs with a lighter blue tint than eggs with two blue genes.

2 - brown. This is a color layer applied to the surface of the shell and can be rubbed off the shell when it is still wet right after the egg is laid. You can also buff off the brown color from the shell with an abrasive after it dries. There are actually a couple of genes at work here that determine the amount and thickness of the layer. The more intense and thick the layer, the browner the egg. This accounts for the variety of brown tints you can find from no brown all the way up to chocolate-looking.

Now when you combine the two it gets complicated.
If you have no brown layer, then the full base color of the shell is shown.
If the base shell color is white, then whatever brown layer is added is what color the egg appears.
If there is a blue shell color present, that is where you get mixing of the colors. If the brown layer is light, you get green egg color. If the brown layer is dark, you get olive egg color.

In your mix above, there are a lot of possibilities, but we can limit them down some. The mother must have genes for some light brown layering as she has green eggs. She will pass this on to her offspring. The question is with base shell color. If she has only blue egg base color genes, she will pass on blue. This combined with the brown layer will give you green eggs no matter what genes the father has. This is the most likely scenario.

If she has mixed white and blue genes then she will pass 50% white and 50% blue to her offspring. If she passes blue, then you are back to green eggs, no matter the males genetics.

If she passes white color onto her her offspring, then here is where the males genetics have a say. If he has only blue egg genes, then the offspring have one white and one blue gene. The blue is dominant and you are back to green eggs......

If he is mixed white and blue and passes on the white gene, then the offspring will get white from the mother and white from the father and have two white egg genes with a white base color. This means the brown layer gene will determine the shell color and the eggs will be some sort of brown, probably of the lighter brown variety.

If the male has any sort of brown genes in his background, he will also pass on genes to add a brown layer and you will have green eggs, possibly of a darker green than what the mother lays.

 

[Pollitos6]

Short answer - The combo above will most likely give you green eggs, or possibly (but not likely) some shade of brown eggs. True blue is almost a zero possibility.

Long answer - (I am fascinated by genetics, so only geeks like me need to read further)
Egg shell color genetics can be complicated as you are dealing with multiple set of genes. But there are two main ones to work with:

1 - blue vs white. This is the true color of the shell and goes all the way through the shell, so if you rub the shell with an abrasive, you can't remove the blue or white coloring. Blue is dominant and white is recessive. Birds with one blue and one white gene will lay eggs with a lighter blue tint than eggs with two blue genes.

2 - brown. This is a color layer applied to the surface of the shell and can be rubbed off the shell when it is still wet right after the egg is laid. You can also buff off the brown color from the shell with an abrasive after it dries. There are actually a couple of genes at work here that determine the amount and thickness of the layer. The more intense and thick the layer, the browner the egg. This accounts for the variety of brown tints you can find from no brown all the way up to chocolate-looking.

Now when you combine the two it gets complicated.
If you have no brown layer, then the full base color of the shell is shown.
If the base shell color is white, then whatever brown layer is added is what color the egg appears.
If there is a blue shell color present, that is where you get mixing of the colors. If the brown layer is light, you get green egg color. If the brown layer is dark, you get olive egg color.

In your mix above, there are a lot of possibilities, but we can limit them down some. The mother must have genes for some light brown layering as she has green eggs. She will pass this on to her offspring. The question is with base shell color. If she has only blue egg base color genes, she will pass on blue. This combined with the brown layer will give you green eggs no matter what genes the father has. This is the most likely scenario.

If she has mixed white and blue genes then she will pass 50% white and 50% blue to her offspring. If she passes blue, then you are back to green eggs, no matter the males genetics.

If she passes white color onto her her offspring, then here is where the males genetics have a say. If he has only blue egg genes, then the offspring have one white and one blue gene. The blue is dominant and you are back to green eggs......

If he is mixed white and blue and passes on the white gene, then the offspring will get white from the mother and white from the father and have two white egg genes with a white base color. This means the brown layer gene will determine the shell color and the eggs will be some sort of brown, probably of the lighter brown variety.

If the male has any sort of brown genes in his background, he will also pass on genes to add a brown layer and you will have green eggs, possibly of a darker green than what the mother lays.

wow very informative...

Thanks

 

[Pollitos6]

Chick identification assistance please.

Hello I bought this chick with a few silkies. They were all in the bantam bin. However, when I got home I noticed that this chick does not have feathered feet. his/her legs are dark color and the beak as well. Can someone tell me what breed this is? I took a few pictures of him/her.

Thanks

 

[Faraday40]

Chick identification assistance please.

Hello I bought this chick with a few silkies. They were all in the bantam bin. However, when I got home I noticed that this chick does not have feathered feet. his/her legs are dark color and the beak as well. Can someone tell me what breed this is? I took a few pictures of him/her.

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Thanks

Looks like a lavender (self blue). I don't know many of the bantam breeds. (My orpingtons are far from small!)

 

[Pollitos6]

What a disappointment with rural king !!!
My daughter got me 3 silkies at rural king as a present . Well she was told they were silkies and RK were selling them as silkies . My daughter saw the feathers feet and didn’t have a second though . Well, i was auspicios of their breed because they didn’t have black beak or toes . I usually try not to touch too much baby chicks (to avoid getting them sick with germs etc ) until they are a little older. They are a couple weeks old now and today I decided to count their toes and OMG they don’t have 5 toes and their skin is light so they are definitely not silkies . I am so upset that RK is misleading their customer as far as chicken breed . So right now I don’t have a clue what I have , they all have feather feet . Can someone tell me what breed these three chicks have please ? I took three photos of each chick
Thanks

 

[Faraday40]

What a disappointment with rural king !!!
My daughter got me 3 silkies at rural king as a present . Well she was told they were silkies and RK were selling them as silkies . My daughter saw the feathers feet and didn’t have a second though . Well, i was auspicios of their breed because they didn’t have black beak or toes . I usually try not to touch too much baby chicks (to avoid getting them sick with germs etc ) until they are a little older. They are a couple weeks old now and today I decided to count their toes and OMG they don’t have 5 toes and their skin is light so they are definitely not silkies . I am so upset that RK is misleading their customer as far as chicken breed . So right now I don’t have a clue what I have , they all have feather feet . Can someone tell me what breed these three chicks have please ? I took three photos of each chick
Thanks View attachment 2147532View attachment 2147533View attachment 2147534View attachment 2147535View attachment 2147536View attachment 2147537View attachment 2147539View attachment 2147540

I agree. None are silkies. Perhaps cochin? They're supposed to be a very sweet breed for pets and broody hens. I really like the frizzled chick. (1st one)

The problem with feed store chicks is that they're often being sold by reg store associates. Someone probably told them silkies have feathered feet, so all feather footed chicks were labeled as silkies.

I was in Farm and Fleet when they were unboxing theirs. Two young girls opened a box of chicks. It was their job to separate them into the store's chick bins. They had the Cackle catalog and the store's order sheet. Here they were holding a black chick flipping through the catalog.... Is it a Barred Rock, a black sex link, a dominique, an australorp, etc? They were doing the best they could, but obviously didn't own chickens.

 

[Pollitos6]

I agree. None are silkies. Perhaps cochin? They're supposed to be a very sweet breed for pets and broody hens. I really like the frizzled chick. (1st one)

The problem with feed store chicks is that they're often being sold by reg store associates. Someone probably told them silkies have feathered feet, so all feather footed chicks were labeled as silkies.

I was in Farm and Fleet when they were unboxing theirs. Two young girls opened a box of chicks. It was their job to separate them into the store's chick bins. They had the Cackle catalog and the store's order sheet. Here they were holding a black chick flipping through the catalog.... Is it a Barred Rock, a black sex link, a dominique, an australorp, etc? They were doing the best they could, but obviously didn't own chickens.

You have a very good point... Well if they are cochins, these will be my first ones and they are very cute.
Thanks