Celadon Blue Quail Eggs Research and the Autosomal Recessive "ce" Gene

dc3085 · Aug 16, 2015

The celadon egg gene is a single gene. Celadon eggs in quail are similar to celadon eggs in chickens it's a result of internal biology. If you read the blue eggs section on this site it gives a general description. This site gives a much more scientific viewpoint but is a hard read.

As of right now hatching and breeding only blue eggs has not led to an increase in the expression of the ce egg gene for anyone I've talked to.

Lobzi · Feb 25, 2016

Im getting 44 Celadon eggs from James Marie Farms. I know nothing about them. Do they hatch out a particular look in quail or do all color varieties, golden, brown, white, etc have an occasional hen who will produce a blue egg? Im just wondering what to expect as to what will actually hatch.

Im also getting 16 "Schofield 6th and 7th generation" in the order. I know nothing about these either. If you are scratching your head wondering why I ordered these if I know nothing about them it is because I contacted James Marie Farms looking to purchase blue/grey/silver quail eggs and I was told I could have this already packaged order ready to ship that someone flaked on them for the same price I was going to purchase 25 eggs originally. Such a deal I agreed to take the 60 eggs off their hands.

I always say each egg that hatches is a surprise package...in this case I guess it really will be a surprise.

stickers · Nov 25, 2016

Waiting for celadon eggs to hatch.Just wondering how the birds turned out in the prior posts.

Mylittledinosaurs · Nov 17, 2018

Ok, i know this is an old forum or post but I've got a question about these Celadon gene eggs aka blue quail eggs........ If I purchased let's say 30 of these blue Celadon quail eggs for hatching, what percentage of these 30 would possibly hatch out as wildtype/Pharaoh???

Mylittledinosaurs · Nov 19, 2018

Does anybody have wildtype/Pharaoh quail that lay blue tinted eggs or have the blue color on the inside of the eggs??

Adalimbi · Jan 1, 2021

enola said:
So, I have to ask, if only blue eggs are hatched and breeding stock kept from those quail, will chances of blue egg laying quail increase?

From what I have read so far (genetic research papers) you need 2 genes for egg shell colour to get CE eggs, blue and white and both are recessive. So the problem lies with knowing which cocks are homozygous for CE (must carry 2 copies of each gene, if just one copy of either gene is missing you wont get CE eggs). Hens are easy, if they lay blue eggs they are homozygous for CE. If you use cocks that are heterozygous you then get less and less homozygous chicks and more heterozygous. You would need to remove any hens that don't lay CE eggs and you would also need to either line breed your cocks so each hatch replaces old cocks with young cocks and hope you get more homozygous cocks, or you could test mate pens to see if a particular cock only produces hens that lay CE eggs, if he produces some that don't then he is heterozygous, but even if you get all hens that lay CE eggsit could be just luck that all the hens got his CE gene, but very strict records are needed for this and space as eggs need to be grouped from each pen and keep together in separate groups until the hens start laying

Adalimbi · Jan 1, 2021

Sill said:
I'm suspecting this gene for blue eggs in coturnix is actually more of multiple genes that inhibit the application of beige, tan and brown egg coatings. Most of my quail lay blue or green eggs when you look at them from the inside. Check out this plate of egg shells from hard boiled cot eggs, most of them are blue and green inside! (Sorry for the lighting, my flash wasn't working)

So my theory is these celadon eggs are from hens that don't put the coatings over their blue egg shells. This would explain why the trait is so hard to breed for, it's not a single gene that quail have to put color on their eggs.

Yes 2 genes, blue and white and both are recessive

FloorCandy · Jan 2, 2021

Adalimbi said:
From what I have read so far (genetic research papers) you need 2 genes for egg shell colour to get CE eggs, blue and white and both are recessive. So the problem lies with knowing which cocks are homozygous for CE (must carry 2 copies of each gene, if just one copy of either gene is missing you wont get CE eggs). Hens are easy, if they lay blue eggs they are homozygous for CE. If you use cocks that are heterozygous you then get less and less homozygous chicks and more heterozygous. You would need to remove any hens that don't lay CE eggs and you would also need to either line breed your cocks so each hatch replaces old cocks with young cocks and hope you get more homozygous cocks, or you could test mate pens to see if a particular cock only produces hens that lay CE eggs, if he produces some that don't then he is heterozygous, but even if you get all hens that lay CE eggsit could be just luck that all the hens got his CE gene, but very strict records are needed for this and space as eggs need to be grouped from each pen and keep together in separate groups until the hens start laying

The Roos are the hard part. You would want to buy eggs or birds from someone who has a homogenous celadon population, or else it’s pure speculation about whether the Roos are homozygous or heterozygous.

Celadon Blue Quail Eggs Research and the Autosomal Recessive "ce" Gene

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