Cream Legbar that lays a CREAM colored egg??!?

[Guinea Math]

I have a Cream Legbar that I just discovered lays a cream colored egg and I’m not sure how this is possible or what to do about it. !#?$@

I have 3 CL Roos, 6 Hens and 1 White Roo and 1 White Hen, all from the same breeder. My intention is to sell autosexing blue laying pullets and cross breed with them to make a colorful egg basket.

But with this discovery it feels like those plans are in jeopardy, how do I sell “Blue egg layers” when they might actually not be blue?? I’ve waited 7 months for these pullets to start laying and now I’m so disappointed and am concerned I’ll have to get new birds and start my breeding flock all over again.

Where does the cream egg, not white, come from? Aren’t purebred Cream Legbars all carrying a double blue egg gene?

Is there anything I can do to correct this? My other 5 hens and 1 white all lay pretty blue eggs.

 

[NatJ]

Where does the cream egg, not white, come from? Aren’t purebred Cream Legbars all carrying a double blue egg gene?

They are supposed to, but obviously one of yours did not. I think you are right to doubt the others as well, since they came from the same breeder.

Is there anything I can do to correct this? My other 5 hens and 1 white all lay pretty blue eggs.

how do I sell “Blue egg layers” when they might actually not be blue?? I’ve waited 7 months for these pullets to start laying and now I’m so disappointed and am concerned I’ll have to get new birds and start my breeding flock all over again.

There is a test for the blue egg gene. You could test each of your birds, to see which ones have two blue egg genes and which have one. There is no point in testing the one who lays cream eggs: she has no blue egg gene.

One you know what you have, you can figure out the next step.

https://iqbirdtesting.com/blueegg
(Note: when it mentions "egg shell sample," that means the egg a chick hatched from, that has bits of goo inside, which can be tested to tell about that chick. You probably do not have that available for any of your current birds.)

 

[Guinea Math]

They are supposed to, but obviously one of yours did not. I think you are right to doubt the others as well, since they came from the same breeder.




There is a test for the blue egg gene. You could test each of your birds, to see which ones have two blue egg genes and which have one. There is no point in testing the one who lays cream eggs: she has no blue egg gene.

One you know what you have, you can figure out the next step.

https://iqbirdtesting.com/blueegg
(Note: when it mentions "egg shell sample," that means the egg a chick hatched from, that has bits of goo inside, which can be tested to tell about that chick. You probably do not have that available for any of your current birds.)

Well, I was hoping to hear it was some kind of fluke genetic anomaly that simply pops up at random....a white egg AND a pigment. Otherwise how could the breeder ‘not’ know?! But alas, no such luck.

A test offers me some hope. Thank you for the link!

 

[NatJ]

Well, I was hoping to hear it was some kind of fluke genetic anomaly that simply pops up at random....a white egg AND a pigment. Otherwise how could the breeder ‘not’ know?! But alas, no such luck.

For how the breeder could 'not' know:

--They might know they have occasional ones that don't lay blue, but they just don't breed from those birds. Unless they are willing to pay for a test for every breeding bird in their flock, or test-mate every bird and raise a bunch of daughters, there really is no practical way to be sure they get rid of all the ones that carry the not-blue egg gene. (And the test is relatively new, so until a few years ago the only way to be sure was to test-mate each bird, which gets awkward and expensive very quickly indeed!)

--The not-blue gene may have come in recently, maybe from stock they bought to add to their flock, and they may not have seen any not-blue layers yet. If it is only in a few of their birds, this is more likely than if it is in all of their birds.

Since roosters don't lay eggs, you can't check their egg color. But even if you could, if a rooster and a hen each have a blue-egg and a not-blue-egg gene, about 3/4 of their daughters should lay blue eggs and only about 1/4 of their daughters would lay not-blue.

A test offers me some hope. Thank you for the link!

If you can once get your flock pure for the blue egg gene (all birds have two copies), then all their descendants will also be pure for the blue egg gene, unless you bring in & breed from a bird with the not-blue egg gene.

The test is disappointingly pricey if you do it for very many birds but not as expensive as raising large numbers of pullets to laying age to check what genes their parents have.

 

[Guinea Math]

For how the breeder could 'not' know:

--They might know they have occasional ones that don't lay blue, but they just don't breed from those birds.

Interesting. That sounds like it’s a more common thing. I know that when you start crossing birds, like to get Olive Eggers there will be some that lay brown eggs, but I didn’t know that wrong egg color was possible in a purebred breed. My chicken breeding newbie-ness is showing apparently.

The test is disappointingly pricey if you do it for very many birds but not as expensive as raising large numbers of pullets to laying age to check what genes their parents have.

Yeah, and it’s also the time involved raising all those pullets; I was horrified thinking about that or scrapping them all as breeders as my only options.
The test will certainly help me decide which of my 3 Cream Legbar roosters to keep. I really like my White Legbar roo so I’m going to test him for sure.

 

[NatJ]

Interesting. That sounds like it’s a more common thing. I know that when you start crossing birds, like to get Olive Eggers there will be some that lay brown eggs, but I didn’t know that wrong egg color was possible in a purebred breed. My chicken breeding newbie-ness is showing apparently.

It can happen with any gene in purebred chickens, if the breeders have not been careful to breed out all the "wrong" genes.

Wyandottes are supposed to have rose combs. But sometimes they carry the recessive gene that allows single combs, and it is moderately common to get single comb "Wyandotte" chicks from hatcheries.

Silkies are supposed to have 5 toes, but sometimes they carry the recessive gene for normal toes, so it is moderately common to get 4-toed "Silkie" chicks.

Dominant genes are visible and you can cull the birds that have the wrong one (so you never get accidental rose comb chicks in a single comb breed, and you never get accidental normal feathers in the Silkie breed, or crests in a non-crested breed, and so forth. That is because rose comb, normal feathers, and crest are dominant over single comb, silkie feathers, and non-crested.)

But because a chicken can show the dominant gene and carry the recessive gene, it is pretty easy for the recessives to be passed down from one generation to the next, and eventually a rooster and hen with the same recessive are mated with each other and produce a few chicks that show the recessive trait.

The gene for blue eggs is dominant, so a hen can lay blue eggs while carrying the not-blue gene. And roosters do not lay eggs, so a rooster can have two not-blue egg genes and not show that either. That makes it difficult to breed out the not-blue egg genes, either when a breed is created in the first place, or when someone crosses with a different breed to start developing a new color variety.

Yeah, and it’s also the time involved raising all those pullets; I was horrified thinking about that or scrapping them all as breeders as my only options.
The test will certainly help me decide which of my 3 Cream Legbar roosters to keep. I really like my White Legbar roo so I’m going to test him for sure.

And that is why purebreds can still carry the wrong genes: because it is so much bother to identify every single carrier of a recessive trait!

Yes, the test can save a lot of time and effort! I'll be curious to hear the results for your birds, once you know.

 

[CEW]

I have a Cream Legbar that I just discovered lays a cream colored egg and I’m not sure how this is possible or what to do about it. !#?$@

I have 3 CL Roos, 6 Hens and 1 White Roo and 1 White Hen, all from the same breeder. My intention is to sell autosexing blue laying pullets and cross breed with them to make a colorful egg basket.

But with this discovery it feels like those plans are in jeopardy, how do I sell “Blue egg layers” when they might actually not be blue?? I’ve waited 7 months for these pullets to start laying and now I’m so disappointed and am concerned I’ll have to get new birds and start my breeding flock all over again.

Where does the cream egg, not white, come from? Aren’t purebred Cream Legbars all carrying a double blue egg gene?

Is there anything I can do to correct this? My other 5 hens and 1 white all lay pretty blue eggs.

Not a full cream leg bar mixed

 

[Guinea Math]

It can happen with any gene in purebred chickens, if the breeders have not been careful to breed out all the "wrong" genes.

Yes, the test can save a lot of time and effort! I'll be curious to hear the results for your birds, once you know.

Good points on the examples of the other “wrong” genes, thank you for the that! For some reason I thought (hoped? ) egg color was different in a purebred and that it was only depth of color you would select for in a blue laying breed.

It’ll be great to find out. It sure would be nice if my best crested/colored hen and favorite roo were a matched pair with the double blue gene.

I’ve already had the first Legbar chicks hatch - found them under a broody hen sitting on guinea eggs already developing so I tossed them in the incubator but I don’t know which hens they came from, only that they were blue eggs, not cream, and it was my White Legbar roo.

: The 3 Cream Legbars chicks have nice and clear autosexing and potentially the 3 White too - if the white vs yellow-ish chicks holds true for male vs females. The other chicks are a fun mix of White Legbar roo x Silverrudds Blue “blue” hen.

I’ll post when I have test results!

 

[NatJ]

Good points on the examples of the other “wrong” genes, thank you for the that! For some reason I thought (hoped? ) egg color was different in a purebred and that it was only depth of color you would select for in a blue laying breed.

If you get the whole flock pure for the blue egg gene, with every chicken having two copies of the gene, that is what you will have: all blue eggs and you only need to care about depth of color.

But there can be quite a few reasons to have the not-blue egg gene in a given flock at some point. It happens if a breed is still being developed, or if someone crosses in another breed to introduce a new color of feathers, or if they are inbred and someone outcrosses to another breed to widen the gene pool, or if a bird gets into the wrong pen and some mixed chicks are hatched, or probably other reasons that I haven't thought of. In each case, it can be solved by focusing on the blue egg gene and using tests to get the flock back to the homozygous (pure) state, but sometimes there are other breeding goals that are more important at the time (like developing a new color variety: if you cull all the mixed birds, your new color will never happen.)

It’ll be great to find out. It sure would be nice if my best crested/colored hen and favorite roo were a matched pair with the double blue gene.

Yes, that would be a great outome!

The crest gene is dominant, so it is possible for a crested chicken to carry the recessive gene for not-crested. If you have birds that are not pure for the blue egg gene, I would keep an eye on other traits as well, just in case.

 

[McChooky]

Crossing a cream legbar rooster w/brown leghorns gives you easy to sex chicks that lay pale blue eggs. Easy to distinguish and hatch separately