Egg color for Green Queen (?) rooster x Prairie Bluebell and Starlight Green Eggers?

[FunClucks]

So I've been learning a bit about the zinc modifier gene, and I have a few questions.

The blue egg laying hens I'm using are prairie bluebells, which per Hoover's are a mix of araucana and white leghorn. So they should have the zinc modifier gene that cancels out the polyphyrin path. They have heavy white rough coating on their blue eggs, and do not lay smooth shell eggs, which I think also indicates they have the zinc modifier gene. When I cross them with my production red rooster (assuming he has only brown genes), would the resulting offspring's eggs be green? What effect would the zinc modifier gene from my PBBs have on offspring egg color?

 

[nicalandia]

So I've been learning a bit about the zinc modifier gene, and I have a few questions.

The blue egg laying hens I'm using are prairie bluebells, which per Hoover's are a mix of araucana and white leghorn. So they should have the zinc modifier gene that cancels out the polyphyrin path. They have heavy white rough coating on their blue eggs, and do not lay smooth shell eggs, which I think also indicates they have the zinc modifier gene. When I cross them with my production red rooster (assuming he has only brown genes), would the resulting offspring's eggs be green? What effect would the zinc modifier gene from my PBBs have on offspring egg color?

Yeah, that sounds like Zinc white. The Pullets from that cross will produce Blue or light green eggs

 

[FunClucks]

Yeah, that sounds like Zinc white. The Pullets from that cross will produce Blue or light green eggs

Interesting!

To add one more wrinkle (I forgot to mention it earlier), most of the eggs I'm incubating are true blue (light sky blue), but one of my hens lays blue with a greenish tint. All the eggs have the rough coating that probably indicates zinc white. I have noticed that after washing the greenish tinted blue eggs are shinier. Is it possible that the offspring from the greenish tinted blue eggs will lay darker green than the parent egg?

Any thoughts on the percentage of how many blue or light green egg layers I'll get from either the blue eggs or the greenish tinted blue eggs?

Working on getting pictures of the actual eggs and hens.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

So, I'm pretty sure my rooster Speckle is a Green Queen - he's a RIR mix from a hatchery, and I'm really hoping he has a blue and brown egg gene. I've test crossed him with Prairie Bluebells that lay blue, Prairie Bluebells that lay blue with the slightest tint of green (under the correct light, it's very faint), and with Starlight Green Eggers that lay green. What color eggs do you think the resulting hens would produce? I've been looking at the breeding chart, but none of them have a green egger rooster crossed with a blue egger hen. Is it possible to breed blue egg layers from this rooster (assuming I'm correct and that he is a green queen)?

Pics of my rooster at 16 weeks are attached (he's 8 months now with a 3" high comb and half inch spurs, otherwise he looks similar to how he does here). He has a black beak, black toenails, a lot of black on his breast, a green sheen on his tail.. There's a thread on here about him as a chick, if you think that would help let me know.

I think my SGE eggs will give 2nd generation green eggers per the chart below.

Your cockerel could be a starlight green egger

 

[nicalandia]

Your cockerel could be a starlight green egger

The chances of that are from very slim to none

 

[FunClucks]

A few more (not very good) pics of my rooster. Still trying to catch him in daylight when I've got my phone on me. He is a huge bird, very red, with a large black/greenish sheen tail. His big toes are as long as my fingers and just as big around.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

The chances of that are from very slim to none

He has the same coloring and comb type as a starlight green egger. I agree that he’s not a green queen, but if he was ordered as one he could be another of the many Easter egger hybrids that hatcheries sell.

 

[FunClucks]

He has the same coloring and comb type as a starlight green egger. I agree that he’s not a green queen, but if he was ordered as one he could be another of the many Easter egger hybrids that hatcheries sell.

I got him from Tractor Supply (my others came from Rural King), so I'm not sure of the hatchery they used (they wouldn't tell me), and the people who were trying to tell me what breed he was knew even less about chickens than I did, which is saying something. His chick pictures are here.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ter-what-breed-is-this.1537914/#post-25945527

 

[Prairie Hills Homestead]

This is what my starlight green rooster looks like, he is from Tractor supply last year. I have had him tested through bird IQ to test his blue egg gene - he is Heterozygous for blue - meaning he carries one copy of blue and can have a 50% chance of passing that along. Here are some fantastic charts for you - if you want to read more about them go to her website - silverhomestead

 

[FunClucks]

I got him from Tractor Supply (my others came from Rural King), so I'm not sure of the hatchery they used (they wouldn't tell me), and the people who were trying to tell me what breed he was knew even less about chickens than I did, which is saying something. His chick pictures are here.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...ter-what-breed-is-this.1537914/#post-25945527

I think the mystery is finally solved. (Yea!!!!!) @nicalandia nailed it! I didn't realize Production Red was an actual breed people sold, but thought it was a general term like red sex link. And then I got to wondering, and finally looked it up, and yes, it is an actual "breed" and looking at the pictures, those roosters could be twins to my Speckle. They check all the boxes, from bluish tint on his beak as a chick to black beak, wattles, comb, tail, weight, coloring, it all fits. Super exciting! Apparently his breed is docile, which explains why I haven't had any issues up till recently, and the hens lay 200-230 eggs/yr according to Cackle Hatchery. So a mix of him and my PBB and SGE might yield larger birds that continue to lay a good amount of eggs.

Here is a picture of the chicks from Production Red x PBB and Production Red x SGE. There were 4 SGE mix chicks (totally yellow one, totally caramel one, one that was chestnut with chipmunk stripes, and one that was whitish gold with a narrow single stripe down its back). The rest were PBB mix.