Easter Egger Egg Color Help

[ravensnow]

Hello. I am interested in getting Favaucanas, which are Easter Eggers made from a cross between a Faverolles and an Ameraucana. My Pet Chicken says this about their offerings: "Because our BBS Favaucanas are F1 (first generation), there is a 1/16 chance that your Favaucana will not lay a green egg." From pictures on the website, the 1/16 will lay a brown egg.

Can someone explain how this 15/16 and 1/16 split works? I thought that blue and brown egg colors were incompletely dominant, so the result of this cross should be a guaranteed green, right? Does this split reveal anything about the genes of the parent/breeding stock?

I have a high-school-level understanding of biology, but I'd be delighted if someone could come up with a Punnet square explanation.

As always, thanks for all your help.

 

[The Moonshiner]

MPC aren't too brite when it comes to genetics. There is no way the cross would be a 15/16 split when it comes to egg color.
If they are true ameraucana then yes it would be 100% green eggs.
If they aren't true and are more of an EE type then the % for brown eggs would be much higher.
MPC are more about marketing then genetics so I would assume the 1/16 chance is a clever way to cover their @$$ if someone gets a brown egg layer but yet make it look like the chances are still well in your favor that you wouldn't so people would still buy.

 

[ravensnow]

Thanks. That makes far more sense to me than the F1 ratio being 15/16 to 1/16.

The only scenario that I could think of was that it's a breeding pen with a Faverolles rooster, 3 Ameraucana hens, and one Easter Egger hen with blue and brown genes. But I think that would then be a 7/8 to 1/8 split...

Would a breeding pen with 1 or 2 roosters to 8 hens be viable? Would each egg be guaranteed fertilized then?

 

[nicalandia]

MPC aren't too brite when it comes to genetics.

it's pure negligence at best that they are so incompetent with their genetics department or misleading-fraudulent at worst. I have never seen such incompetence ever since GFF.

 

[The Moonshiner]

it's pure negligence at best that they are so incompetent with their genetics department or misleading-fraudulent at worst. I have never seen such incompetence ever since GFF.

I agree and give no support to either company. IMO Hoover's is ranking right up there with them.
Seems when you have a monster sells and marketing department it trumps everything else.
Look at these "favaucanas". They take two pure breeds cross them together making a mixed breed then sell them for more $$$ then they do either parent breed.
Why does anyone fall for that? ....
Marketing

 

[nicalandia]

It seems like a craze lately, Favaucanas, Ice Cream Bars, Supper Blue eggers, Sapphire Gems, Sapphire Olive Eggers, Ameri-Flowers. It's all Marketing.

On the good side is that these crosses are hardy due to a level of heterosis

 

[ravensnow]

I can't speak about anyone else's motivations for Favaucanas, but I can list mine. Perhaps I am just falling to a marketing ploy, but I don't think so. (Ice Cream Bars are delightfully marketable, though. That name is genius.) If there's a better option, please tell me about the breed/cross.

I have two purebred Ameraucana pullets. I got them because I had an Ameraucana-ancestry Easter Egger as a child and loved her deeply. I am quite fond of the Ameraucana breed, but in the future I want to expand my flock with green egg layers, too. Multicolored egg baskets give me joy.

The main goal I have with my chickens is to be pets, and the eggs are a bonus. Thus, I don't want to get any chickens from hatcheries b/c people here have posted enough reports that their chickens are dying younger than ideal b/c of reproductive problems. Some have suggested that these birds from hatcheries have been crossed with high production breeds at some point to get them to lay buckets of eggs and also gives them genetic predisposition to reproductive illnesses. I believe this is likely. I do not want to buy miscellaneous hatchery Easter Eggers and have them suffering later in life because I won't automatically cull them when their production starts to dip.

I want Favacaunas for their guaranteed beards/muffs, green eggs, pea combs/teeny wattles, any other Ameraucana traits they inherit, and a chance for awesome Faverolles traits like intense docility/friendliness and winter laying. My dearest hope is that these Favaucanas would be coming from standard bred parents and avoid genetic production-related problems. If I could find a breeder other than whomever supplies MPC, I'd likely try and order from them. I have not been able to do that.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Hatcheries do not mix their breeds with production breeds to increase production.
That's a guarantee. If you mix a breed with another breed you've then lost the initial breed. It would take many generations of very selective breeding to get back to the original breed and by then any increased production would be lost.
What they most likely are trying to say or misunderstanding what was told to them is that a lot of hatchery birds are bred with more focus on production then meeting the standard for the breed. Which yes is the norm.
MPC sources many of their birds from at least one other major hatchery. They also supposedly maintain some flocks of their own.
They're not buying stock or eggs from breeders that are breeding higher quality birds. I dont see anything that would point to their birds being anything healthier then any other hatchery birds.
Now on the specifics of what you're looking for looks wise etc. There's nothing wrong with that and if that bird fits the bill that's great.
I'm just not a fan of them crossing breeds to make mix breeds and then how they market them as something more then they are with an 8inflated price..
No big deal just a pet peeve for me. Everyone needs to make money they just wont make any off of me.