Selecting for darker eggs in welsummers?

[MarGray]

How much does the rooster influence egg color vs the hen? If I only hatch my darkest or darkest speckled eggs, will I get more darker laying hens? Or is all just kind of a gamble?

 

[Amer]

The rooster has slightly more affect because there is a dark egg laying sexlinked gene.
It is best to hatch from hens that lay the darkest eggs, since they will produce sons with dark laying genes.
The individual shade of the egg will change from day to day but this has nothing to do with genetics. So just hatch from hens who lay dark eggs.

 

[Yardmom]

I believe egg color is 50/50. Hatch one darker egg and then use that roo with the darker laying hens ect. So yes hatching darker eggs will produce chickens that will lay darker eggs. Breeding for any trait takes more than one generation. @Amer may be more knowledgeable about genetics I didn't know that anything related to egg color was sex linked.

 

[MarGray]

Thanks so much!