Will my Amerucana rooster always make Easter Egger babies?

[s678865567]

Question 3 (which is totally unrelated to the questions above), is:
I have a purebreed Lavender Amerucana rooster. He came from a hatchery. Does an Amerucana mixed with anything else become an Easter Egger and lay green eggs? For example, if I breed this rooster (my only rooster) with my ISA brown hens and my Black Australorp hens, will all the babies be Easter Eggers and will the hen version of those babies lay green eggs or do they have a 50/50 chance of laying brown eggs?
Next, Do RIR (production, not heritage) breed true. I know, if I purchase two sexlink birds and breed them, they will not be the true same bird because sexlinks are a mix of other birds so can I pure breed production RIR by buying a rooster and hen or are they a hybrid also?

 

[nuthatched]

Anything plus a blue egger is an ee. And they could lay brown.
I *think* production Rir breed true.

 

[s678865567]

Question 3 (which is totally unrelated to the questions above), is:
I have a purebreed Lavender Amerucana rooster. He came from a hatchery. Does an Amerucana mixed with anything else become an Easter Egger and lay green eggs? For example, if I breed this rooster (my only rooster) with my ISA brown hens and my Black Australorp hens, will all the babies be Easter Eggers and will the hen version of those babies lay green eggs or do they have a 50/50 chance of laying brown eggs?
Next, Do RIR (production, not heritage) breed true. I know, if I purchase two sexlink birds and breed them, they will not be the true same bird because sexlinks are a mix of other birds so can I pure breed production RIR by buying a rooster and hen or are they a hybrid also?

What I have read is that crossing a blue egg layer with a brown egg layer would give you a green egg layer. Is this true 100% of the time?

 

[s678865567]

This is the answer Facebook gave me: Is this correct? For the Ameraucana question I can help some. A true purebred Ameraucana (not from any of the big hatcheries, because they don’t breed pure) will have two blue egg genes. This means that rooster will give one blue egg gene to his offspring, no matter what.
Since your ISA Browns and Australorps lay a light tan/pink egg, and should be pure also, they will pass down one gene of the tan egg color. This means the offspring of this mix will ay green eggs, unless there is an underlying genetic variation that we don’t know about. These would be Easter Egger babies. An Olive Egger is defined as one blue egg gene and one dark brown gene (almost always from a Marans). Yours could also be called Green Eggers, but Easter Egger usually sells better because people know that term.
Also- I agree that the EEs tend to sell pretty quickly as everyone likes colored layers.

 

[The Birb King]

I think you could make an easter egger by breeding an Ameraucana to a white egg layer.

 

[s678865567]

Anything plus a blue egger is an ee. And they could lay brown.
I *think* production Rir breed true.

But why would they lay brown if they are an Easter Egger? Don't all Easter Egger's lay green eggs?

 

[The Moonshiner]

If it is a true Ameraucana then yes when bred with anything other then another Ameraucana it will produce EE offspring.
No they wouldn't lay brown eggs but they could lay blue if he was bred to a white egg laying hen.
Bred to any brown egg laying hen the offspring would lay some shade of green.

Yes production RIRs should breed true.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Don't all Easter Egger's lay green eggs?

This topic gets really messy because there are a lot of misunderstandings about what an EE is. The original blue egg layers were discovered in Chile. When they were originally exported the guy that introduced them to the rest of the world mixed them with different chickens that had pea combs, no tails, and growth on their faces so they were mixed up from the start. The original green or blue egg laying breeds were developed from these barnyard mix chickens. Some people think the EE's were made from these original breeds. The opposite is true. You can make an EE from one of those breeds but you don't have to.

Some people define an EE as a pullet or hen that lays a green or blue egg but is not a specific breed. Since a cockerel or rooster doesn't lay an egg how can you get an EE male if you use that definition? Some people define a chicken as an EE if its mother, grandmother, of one further back in its lineage laid a blue or green egg even if the hen in question lays a white or brown egg. Some use other definitions. I said it gets messy.

There are two genes at a certain gene pair that control whether the base egg shell color is blue or white. Since blue is dominant if just one of those two genes is the blue eggshell gene the base color will be blue. Brown or green pigment on the egg shell is controlled by other gene pairs. Brown or green eggs are simply brown pigment on top of the base white or base blue and is generally applied in the last half hour before the egg is laid. Think of it like this:

Base white + no brown = white egg
Base white + brown = brown egg
Base blue + no brown = blue egg
Base blue + brown = green egg.

There are a lot of gene pairs that influence the shade of brown, that's why you can get so many different shades of brown or green.

What I have read is that crossing a blue egg layer with a brown egg layer would give you a green egg layer. Is this true 100% of the time?

No, not 100% of the time. A blue egg layer may have two blue eggshell genes at that gene pair or they may only have one blue eggshell gene. Remember blue is dominant. If one of the parents has two blue eggshell genes then they will always give a blue eggshell gene to their offspring and any pullet will lay a blue or green egg. But if the blue egg layer only has one blue eggshell gene about half the female offspring will get the blue eggshell gene and half will not. So a blue egg layer does not always give you a blue or green egg layer.

Does an Amerucana mixed with anything else become an Easter Egger and lay green eggs? For example, if I breed this rooster (my only rooster) with my ISA brown hens and my Black Australorp hens, will all the babies be Easter Eggers and will the hen version of those babies lay green eggs or do they have a 50/50 chance of laying brown eggs?

If he is truly an Ameraucana rooster then by breed definition he has to have two blue eggshell genes at that gene pair. So yes, when crossed with those hens you will get pullets that lay green or blue eggs. Almost certainly green with those. The problem with that is that some hatcheries sell what they call Ameraucana but they really aren't. Some of them sell EE's and call them Ameraucana. Since roosters don't lay eggs you don't know for sure that he even has one blue eggshell gene. The only way you will know for sure is to hatch some eggs and see what color of eggs the pullets lay.

 

[Australorpfamily]

Hope this is okay to share, I found visuals on this it's fun

https://silverhomestead.com/genetics/

 

[BiggDeal]

But why would they lay brown if they are an Easter Egger? Don't all Easter Egger's lay green eggs?

No they lay green blue brown etc