Possible egg colours

[graphicali]

Ok, here is a photo of eggs. The far right is a tinted egg from a silkie, next is an egg from a marans pullet, then a blue from my araucana and finally far left the Tina egg. It is not pure blue and has a greenish cast to it.

I want to hatch Tina's eggs when she mates with my araucana cockerel.

 

[enola]

If the hen hatched from a brown egg, the father had to have been the blue gene carrier. But,, the brown coating gene from her mother will turn the blue egg green.

 

[graphicali]

Soooo, if she is mated to my araucana cockerel, will her female offspring lay green eggs or blue eggs?

 

[enola]

My opinion is breeding her to an Araucana should get you a pullet that lays a bluish green egg. The brown coating may stll be active in the first generation of Araucana cross.

 

[graphicali]

Thank you, that's good to know. I wonder if her eggs will become more green looking as she lays more eggs because the amount of coating will change. This is her very first egg and it is almost blue. It will be fun to see what happens.

I am guessing that if she was mated to, for example, a marans cockerel, any females hatched would lay brown eggs. Is that correct?

 

[enola]

Since she is obviously carrying a blue shell gene, if you breed her to a Marans rooster, some of her pullets will lay green or olive eggs and some will lay brown eggs. It all depends on how the brown coating gene works.

 

[enola]

Do you have a picture of your Araucana rooster?

 

[graphicali]

He is in the middle of a moult just now and looking pretty scruffy. This photo is from when I first got him and it isn't the best photo in the world. He is a British Araucana.
4

 

[KirstieJG]

Just out of curiosity, do chickens carry 2 pairs of genes like humans? i.e. a resessive and a dominant gene for each characteristic. Rather like I am blond, my husband was brown but our daughters both have red hair. therefore both husband and I carry red as a ressesive gene.

 

[trailrider330]

The simple answer is yes, chickens do carry two genes.They can be both dominent, both recessive, or have one of each for each trait. However, certain sets of genes have the ability to influence the others and the way they are expressed.

If you try searching "chicken genetics", either here or online, you can get more information about that if you are interested. Here is one article on egg color genetics to get you started: https://scratchcradle.wordpress.com/2012/07/01/gms1-genetics-of-egg-color/