Crossing easter eggers with??? Still want green/blue eggs

Brom014 · Mar 10, 2014

Here is my question, it may or may not be a simple one. What breed of chicken can I cross a easter egger, blue/green layer and still continue to get blue/green type
Eggs? For example an easter egger/RIR cross or an easter egger/leghorn cross... ??? Has any one had experience or luck with this? Let me know, thanks everyone.

Spangled · Mar 11, 2014

Of the three that I've hatched combining green egg layers and Black Copper Marans, I've had 2 olive colored layers and one dark brown layer. All had pea combs.

Just about any chicken crossed with a green egg layer that is "pure" for green eggs will produce another green egg layer. If not "pure," then it's about half the time--at least that's how I understand it. There's no way to look at the green egg layer and know if she's "pure" or not.

Here's a page at BYC that has a good explanation:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/429641/are-green-egg-genes-dominant

ChickenWisperer · Mar 11, 2014

ETA: Jeez, I need to pay more attention when I'm making posts! Sorry about that, y'all. I was only paying attention from the pic and didn't realize it was the wrong one.

The only way you're guaranteed to get stock that will lay blue or green eggs is to cross them back to Ameraucana, Araucana, or Cream Legbar.

Otherwise? You're literally flying blind on it. Since EE's are crosses or ambiguous stock at best, you don't know whether they're carrying one or two copies of the blue egg gene - and two copies is rare from my experience.

So, a safe assumption is that your Easter Eggers are carry only one copy of the blue egg gene (which is dominant) like most EE's you'll encounter. Choosing to breed to any breed with normal color eggs (white shelled), you'll get this, where B is for blue shells and w for white - (since I can't find the correct punnet square pic, I'll have to make due with something textual)

B W
w Bw ww
w Bw ww

The only way to guarantee colored laying stock, like I said, is cross directly from pure, blue-egger stock or EE's which you know for certain carry two copies of the blue egg gene.

Spangled · Mar 11, 2014

ChickenWisperer said:
***Only 25% of your offspring will lay blue/green/olive eggs; the rest, white, cream, or brown, depending on the color of the EE stocks egg and the breed chosen to cross with. *** (see note below)

How does that Punnett square work??? Why isn't that bottom left square also a Bw? I don't get your diagram at all. It's really confusing. Makes me scratch my head and squint, since you sound very authoritative.

***Original post by Chicken Whisperer state 25% (as seen above) which is incorrect. Left in for the sake of thread history. 50% is true amount as stated by dheltzel below.***

dheltzel · Mar 11, 2014

Spangled said:
How does that Punnett square work??? Why isn't that bottom left square also a Bw? I don't get your diagram at all. It's really confusing. Makes me scratch my head and squint, since you sound very authoritative.

You're right, the bottom left square is also Bw (bad choice of letters, should be Bb x bb(.

In any cross involving a completely dominant gene, if either parent shows the phenotype of that gene, at least 50% of the offspring will also.

Also, most hatchery EE's are homozygous for blue, otherwise they won't breed true for the colored eggs, which is what they are sold for. Not a guarantee, but generally crossing an EE with anything results in all blue/green eggs in the F1.

Spangled · Mar 11, 2014

dheltzel said:
Quote:
Well, I think it would be really good of Chicken Whisperer to edit that posting to reflect reality otherwise it can easily mislead folks for years to come because the info on this web site lasts a long time and shows up in google and google images. Since the bottom left corner of the Punnett square is incorrect, probably something should be done ... maybe it could be removed/changed and/or a new one placed next to it and labelled as correct or something because not all of us can tell for sure since Chicken Whisperer sounds authoritative and emphatic in his post. I mean, it confused me; that's for sure. And dollars to donuts, that image will be indexed in google and someone will come along and lift it, put it on their web site, and use it to prove something that isn't true, just furthering the misinformation out there.

ChickenWisperer · Mar 11, 2014

Spangled said:
Well, I think it would be really good of Chicken Whisperer to edit that posting to reflect reality otherwise it can easily mislead folks for years to come because the info on this web site lasts a long time and shows up in google and google images. Since the bottom left corner of the Punnett square is incorrect, probably something should be done ... maybe it could be removed/changed and/or a new one placed next to it and labelled as correct or something because not all of us can tell for sure since Chicken Whisperer sounds authoritative and emphatic in his post. I mean, it confused me; that's for sure. And dollars to donuts, that image will be indexed in google and someone will come along and lift it, put it on their web site, and use it to prove something that isn't true, just furthering the misinformation out there.

It is - I didn't realize I'd chosen the flawed pic when I uploaded. Sorry! Goes to say you should check what you put down twice, and I agree, bad mistake on my part that's very confusing at best. I removed the file from my post but it's still in one of your replies. I don't know if that'll still show up in search results but I'm guessing so.

donrae · Mar 11, 2014

Brom014 said:
Here is my question, it may or may not be a simple one. What breed of chicken can I cross a easter egger, blue/green layer and still continue to get blue/green type
Eggs? For example an easter egger/RIR cross or an easter egger/leghorn cross... ??? Has any one had experience or luck with this? Let me know, thanks everyone.

If you have a blue layer and breed to white, you should get a light blue layer. Green to white gives light green.

Blue to brown usually gives green.

Green to brown can give green or brown. Sometimes the green isn't very pretty, either. I have some green/brown mixes who lay a muddy green egg that's really not very attractive.

Spangled · Mar 13, 2014

Brom014, another thing that you've probably already caught on to is that in the second generation (the babies from your first batch), you won't know if the cockerels (male chicks) are necessarily going to make green egg laying chicks. The cockerels to save and breed from, if you want to keep making more green egg layers in the future, are the ones with the pea combs. The green egg gene usually gets passed on with the pea comb gene; I've heard 97% of the time or something like that, but don't quote me. And then, of course, only hatch the green eggs.

**I call them green eggs because they never look blue to me. I don't really care about using the correct genetics term ... at least not today.

audreydg · Sep 18, 2014

I have a year and 1/2 old easter egger (thought she was an ameracauna when i bought her) who lays pale green eggs. yesterday, she laid a robins egg blue egg (it could have been one of the other ameracaunas who lay white/pinkish eggs but i don't think so). today, green again. i don't think anyone sneaked in and deposited the blue egg. any explanation?

Crossing easter eggers with??? Still want green/blue eggs

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