Egg color question

[Sherrirod]

I have a Barred Rock Roo and 2 Ameracauna hens. The hens lay exactly the same color blue eggs. I know chickens from this match up would produce barred Easter Eggers. My question is would all of the eggs produced by said Eater Eggers (2nd generation) be the same color? Put another way, If the BR and one of the Ameracauna hatch out 5 hens, would all of the hens lay the same colored egg? Or could the hens each lay a different color egg unique to them?

Also, if I were to keep one of the roo's from this match-up and bred him back to my other brown egg layers, would those chickens be Easter Eggers since the roo would have a blue egg gene from his mother?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have a Barred Rock Roo and 2 Ameracauna hens. The hens lay exactly the same color blue eggs. I know chickens from this match up would produce barred Easter Eggers. My question is would all of the eggs produced by said Eater Eggers (2nd generation) be the same color? Put another way, If the BR and one of the Ameracauna hatch out 5 hens, would all of the hens lay the same colored egg? Or could the hens each lay a different color egg unique to them?

If they are true Ameraucana hens then they will have two blue eggshell genes at that gene pair. So all of their offspring will inherit one blue eggshell gene from them. The BR rooster should have the genetics for brown eggs, though the exact shade of brown is uncertain. As a result, all pullets from that cross should lay some shade of green eggs.

There are a lot of different genes that affect the shade of brown eggs. Some are dominant, some recessive. Some are partially dominant and at least one only has an effect if other certain genes are present. There is an excellent chance your rooster will not pass on the exact same "brown eggshell" genes to each of his daughters. It is very possible you will see some differences in the exact shade of green. They should be pretty close in shade but don't be surprised if some are pretty different.

Also, if I were to keep one of the roo's from this match-up and bred him back to my other brown egg layers, would those chickens be Easter Eggers since the roo would have a blue egg gene from his mother?

Easter Eggers are not a breed. There is no standard of perfection that defines them. That means we can't all agree on what the definition of an EE is. If you breed your crossbreed rooster to your brown egg laying hens some people would call the rooster an EE (I would) and all of his offspring EE's. Others would only call his daughters that lay a blue or green egg EE's. You can tell with the girls which ones have the blue eggshell gene when they start laying. But you don't know which of his sons might have that gene and which ones don't. If you want to call them EE's you can but someone else might call them something else.

 

[Sherrirod]

Thank you for your through reply. I shouldn't have said Easter Eggers. I did only mean would he pass the blue gene so that they laid blue/green eggs.

I just started with chickens and considered going for variety in egg colors, but ultimately chose variety and uniqueness in chicken breeds. Chicken math kicked my butt so now I have lots of pretty chickens and way too many relatively plain eggs.

I'm out of space for separately brooding/raising new chickens and was hoping that if I am patient I can get varied egg colors from the chickens I already have. I just wish the eggs from my two Ameracaunas were in different shades.

Thanks again, you were very helpful!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Thank you for your through reply. I shouldn't have said Easter Eggers. I did only mean would he pass the blue gene so that they laid blue/green eggs.

About half of his daughters would lay a blue or (more likely) green egg. With the hens laying a variety of brown eggs then you should get more variety of shades of green. Brown too for that matter. With each pullet, which genes she inherits is fairly random so you can get a variety or they may be frustratingly uniform.

 

[Sherrirod]

About half of his daughters would lay a blue or (more likely) green egg. With the hens laying a variety of brown eggs then you should get more variety of shades of green. Brown too for that matter. With each pullet, which genes she inherits is fairly random so you can get a variety or they may be frustratingly uniform.

I thought that might be the way it would work. That gives me a project for next year. I'm looking forward to it!!