What color will my eggs be?

[Jrzebra]

Does anyone know what color eggs I will get when the parents are white egg layers crossed with blue layers? I have some very pretty crossbreed pullets: the father is an Opal Legbar rooster, a blue egg laying breed. The mothers were all white egg layers: Exchequer & Golden Leghorns, a Blue Hamburg & a Gold Phoenix. This was a 1st test-breed for the young roo (who is absolutely gorgeous!); we wanted to put him with some older, experienced hens to test his fertility (& boost his confidence, lol), before putting him in with our maiden flock of Crested Cream Legbar hens. I was wondering if anyone knows about egg color genetics for this cross. Will these crossbreed pullets lay blue eggs?
Also, we were told the Opal coloring was recessive, so no chicks would be Opals, but a percentage of their offspring might be. We were pleasantly surprised- we got 2 Opal chicks, some pale blues & quite a variety of other colors from this cross. Most of the boys are crele. About 1/2 of the chicks are crested too. Hoping now we'll get some Opals from our Cream Legbar hens too!

 

[sourland]

Nice looking crosses. I would expect the pullets to lay light blue eggs.

 

[Jrzebra]

Thank you!

 

[BGcoop]

Yup should be blue. Although my blue white crosses are the same shade blue as the mother’s blue unlike my brown/white crosses that have a lighter shade of brown. I think it has to do with the fact that the blue color is actually part of the shell itself and not just a coating on top, but I haven’t actually researched that.

 

[Jrzebra]

Yup should be blue. Although my blue white crosses are the same shade blue as the mother’s blue unlike my brown/white crosses that have a lighter shade of brown. I think it has to do with the fact that the blue color is actually part of the shell itself and not just a coating on top, but I haven’t actually researched that.

Very cool! Looking forward to blue eggs then, thanks.