Breeding Easter Eggers with Easter Eggers?

[LeslieAnne]

So, it is the time of year when some of us realize our order of pullets also contains a rooster. I only ordered three Easter Eggers and with this I have one who is starting to make funny morning noises. I have absolutely no experience breeding so I am wondering if anyone knows what I would get if I were to allow these chickens to breed eventually? Biggest question being: Will I still have the same potential for blue or green egg layers? I wasn't sure if the 'Easter Egger' really required one of the parents to be purebred Ameraucana/Araucana or not.

 

[lomine]

I'm no expert but I've done a lot of reading so... From what I understand, it would depend on if the rooster carries at least one gene for blue eggs. In order for the offspring to lay blue eggs it needs two blue genes, so both parents would have to carry the blue egg gene. (For green eggs it is a blue egg gene and a brown egg gene). It will be easy enough to tell which genes the hens have by what color their eggs are but you won't really be able to tell on the rooster. You'll just have to breed them and see what comes. You could potentially get blue, green, brown, or pink (light brown) depending on the genes of your birds. I think the surprise factor is one of the things EE breeders and keepers like.

Oh, one more thing. Many say that having a pea comb and green legs is closely related to laying blue and green eggs. So if the rooster has a pea comb and green legs there is a good chance he has at least one blue egg gene.

 

[FlyWheel]

Yeah. I noticed one of my seven EE "pullets" going 'transgender' on about the fifth week ("Chaz"), and at 15 weeks there is absolutely no doubt that she is a he; no need for 'her' to announce it! As for what color eggs his off-spring will lay depends on the makeup of both parents. as I understand it, the Blue Egg Gene is dominant, so as long as one of the parents gives a BEG and the other brown you'll get offspring that will lay green eggs. If both give a Blue Egg Gene then th hen will lay blue eggs. A BEG and a white will result in pale blue, Blue and chocolate (A.K.A. Marans), an Olive Egger. I am not a 'chick-neticist', so anyone more knowledgeable feel free to correct me.

Just so you know, the colors blue and white are in the shell, any brown is added later.

 

[Kev]

Yeah. I noticed one of my seven EE "pullets" going 'transgender' on about the fifth week ("Chaz"), and at 15 weeks there is absolutely no doubt that she is a he; no need for 'her' to announce it! As for what color eggs his off-spring will lay depends on the makeup of both parents. as I understand it, the Blue Egg Gene is dominant, so as long as one of the parents gives a BEG and the other brown you'll get offspring that will lay green eggs. If both give a Blue Egg Gene then th hen will lay blue eggs. A BEG and a white will result in pale blue, Blue and chocolate (A.K.A. Marans), an Olive Egger. I am not a 'chick-neticist', so anyone more knowledgeable feel free to correct me.

Just so you know, the colors blue and white are in the shell, any brown is added later.

This is a great summary.

All EE are a mixed bag(ameraucana or araucana are not required to breed them btw), best to just sit back and enjoy watching the chicks grow up and see what color eggs the pullets surprise you with. Could be green in all sorts of shades, could be blue(kinda not too common), could be turquoise- blue with green tint, could be tan..

One general rule with breeding EE and if you really prefer colored eggs, do not keep the ones with single combs as the blue eggshell gene is strongly linked with the pea comb gene so any single combs showing up from EE have a very high chance of laying tan eggs.

and don't be afraid to breed EE with a different breed, especially a blue or green egg laying hen. The chicks will be also EE... as they are basically a mixed breed anyways.

 

[tminer]

These are the 'babies' I got from breeding my two EE this winter. Can't wait to see what I get for eggs from them. The rooster just started crowing and he's kind of funny looking but I like him

 

[chicklets81]

I am a little bit befuddled about this breed. I wanted to hatch out my own green egg laying birds, so I purchased 12 hatching eggs from a breeder, in addition to cream legbar eggs and black copper marans she had sitting on her counter.

Out of the 12 Easter egger eggs in the incubator, 3 hatched. Of the 3, 2 are white, and are female and 1 is red/brown, and I think is obviously male. He has developed a really dark redish pink comb(if that's what u call the sticky upy thing), and the other 2 whites have a really pale orange/tan skin colored flat thing.

Is it true that Easter Eggers can come in a bunch of different colors?

So now I have a brownish red male, and 2 white females.

What color chicks will I get if the male is dark red and the female is white?

 

[lomine]

That's the thing about EEs, since they aren't an actual breed you never really know what you're going to get. You don't know what colors are hiding in their recessive genes so you could end up with almost anything. Plus if they aren't even full grown yet they could still change in appearance.

 

[chicklets81]

So if I bred my roo with an EE hen, would I be sure to always get a hen that lays green/bluish eggs, or is this not the case?

 

[lomine]

No, there is still a chance you could end up with brown layers or even white layers. But the chances of getting white layers is really low because the blue shell gene is dominate over the white shell gene and she would have to inherit a white shell gene from both parents. It gets more complicated when you add in the complexity of the brown bloom. It would all depend on which genes the parent stock has but in the end the majority should lay a blue or green egg.

 

[illinoishiker]

I hatched some olive egger pullets from my Americauna roo and darkest egg laying Welsomer hen. Got a dark green egg and a darker olive egg. What about breeding them back to their brother? Is that ok or a bad idea health wise? He has the perfect pea comb but light colored legs. I'm curious if could get more olive eggers but mostly concerned about breeding sister and brother? Thanks