Pullet or Roo? I've been a chicken owner for one week! Help please! Lol

debid said:

The hatchery birds are not mixes of a blue egg breed and something else. They're from a very old stock of blue shell layers that were imported. And, those were the chickens used to create the Araucana and Ameraucana breeds. But, the hatcheries are using descendants of the originals bred to other descendants of the originals, not the breed standardized​ birds mixed with something else.

Now, there are breeders doing exactly that so theirs *would* be mutts as well as non-standardized chickens carrying the blue shell gene. Confusing, right?

Click to expand...

Good info. So how do the green and occasional light brown (which I assume are brown over a very, very light blue egg) factor in?

SunHwaKwon said:

Good info. So how do the green and occasional light brown (which I assume are brown over a very, very light blue egg) factor in?

Click to expand...

Roosters don't lay eggs so you can't be sure if they have the blue shell gene. If you pair a rooster that missed inheriting it with a hen that lays blue shelled eggs, some of the chicks won't get the blue gene and those females would lay white shelled eggs. Brown is separate and a coating on the shell rather than the shell color itself. A hen with the blue shell gene and a coating gene lays eggs that are visually green. A hen with no blue shell gene and a coating gene lays brown. Neither blue gene nor coating gene yields white eggs. All shades are from various intensities of base blue and various shades of brown coating.

debid said:

Roosters don't lay eggs so you can't be sure if they have the blue shell gene. If you pair a rooster that missed inheriting it with a hen that lays blue shelled eggs, some of the chicks won't get the blue gene and those females would lay white shelled eggs. Brown is separate and a coating on the shell rather than the shell color itself. A hen with the blue shell gene and a coating gene lays eggs that are visually green. A hen with no blue shell gene and a coating gene lays brown. Neither blue gene nor coating gene yields white eggs. All shades are from various intensities of base blue and various shades of brown coating.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's why I said I figure the brown EE eggs are actually not true brown (brown over white) but brown over very very light blue because I would not expect the complete loss of the blue gene unless someone bred in a white or brown layer at some point, right? Otherwise, all should be homozygous (across however many genes control it) for blue eggs. Though, I do know that egg genetics are complex and not fully understood, so my other thought was a it was a random genetic variation.The implication that I understood from your previous post is that the EEs essentially have the same ancestry as the Ameraucanas and Araucanas, they are just not bred to a standard or for particular colors, etc, so theoretically they should all have blue egg genes with the exception of those genetic mutations that may occur, which I assume could then also occur with the Ameraucanas and Araucanas, though the fact that a lot of EEs lay green eggs tells me that someone also bred in some brown layers which carried in the white shell and brown coating genes, creating the difference separating thelineage and genetics of the EE v the other two.

Actually, I think it's that the Ameraucana breeders weeded out the coating genes rather than those being added into EEs by outcrossing. The only motivation to outcross EEs with their hugely varied genetic pool would be production and I'd expect they'd use something like a Leghorn for that. There are many EEs with a very Mediterranean stance so it's possible this has happened here and there and is responsible for a few missing the blue boat.

debid said:

Actually, I think it's that the Ameraucana breeders weeded out the coating genes rather than those being added into EEs by outcrossing. The only motivation to outcross EEs with their hugely varied genetic pool would be production and I'd expect they'd use something like a Leghorn for that. There are many EEs with a very Mediterranean stance so it's possible this has happened here and there and is responsible for a few missing the blue boat.

Click to expand...

Ah! That makes sense

This one's comb appears to be changing colour & is more pink than the other one I have that's the same age. Does everyone still think it's a pullet?


A couple people have already commented based on the colour/feather pattern that this one is a roo & unfortunately, I think that's looking more & more like a probability.