Ameraucana x Leghorn = ?

[oscartame]

Hi everyone.

I hatched out a trio of pure black Ameraucana last year. They came out of nice blue eggs. One hen lays nice blue eggs, the other lays greenish eggs.

I have some leghorns that lay white eggs, what could I expect from the chicks if I mixed my Ameraucana over the leghorns? Would the chicksl be blue or green egg layers because they'll have the blue egg gene from their dad, or could they end up laying white?

 

[oscartame]

I also have some hens that lay pale brown eggs. I thought that if I mixed them with an Ameraucana that their chicks would lay greenish eggs. Is this not true? I'm getting confused reading stuff online.

 

[oscartame]

This is my understanding of blue egg genes, I must be wrong because I found a research paper discussing how a blue egg laying parent x a white egg laying parent gave chicks that half laid white eggs and half laid blue eggs. I did not know this was possible.

I thought that...

eggs are either a base color of Blue or White.

Brown pigments are like a spray paint that goes on over the base.

SO that if you have a blue/green egg laying rooster mixed with a white or brown egg laying hen, the eggs would HAVE to be either blue or green, because the base color has been changed to blue instead of white. Because blue egg color is dominant.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Well you are somewhat correct, but not completely. The blue egg gene is autosomal, which means it is not sex-linked, and therefore a bird has two of the gene. It can be two copies blue; one copy blue, one white; or two copies white. The symbols for these are O/O, O/o+ and o+/o+. The intensity of blue will probably be less in an O/o+ bird than in an O/O bird. It will also be less over the time of a laying cycle.

If you cross a homozygous ameraucana (O/O) with a leghorn (o+/o+), the resulting offspring will all be heterozygous (O/o+).

However, if the ameraucana is heterozygous (O/o+)--(shouldn't be, but without testing you won't know)--you will have half heterozygous offspring and half homozygous for white eggshells (o+/o+).

While the gender of each breed does not make a difference in the outcome, you will have a better idea of the eggshell colour genes you are putting into your breeding if you use ameraucana hens with leghorn roosters.

 

[oscartame]

THank you, that explained things much better for me. I was starting to get really confused after reading a research paper that said exaclty what you are saying but did not explain it like you did.

I will just have to test out my rooster and see what comes up. If I end up with white egg layers it's not the end of the world. I know the breeder who sold the eggs to me has been working on the ameraucanas a long time so I'm going to assume that he would be O/O but also brace myself for the possiblity he might be O/o and prepare myself for some white egg layers. Because if the rooster is from a true line of Ameraucanas, there shouldn't be O/o in his genetics right?

 

[rebel-rousing-at-night]

I may be totally wrong....But it's my understanding that as a rule any chicks born with a straight comb will not likely lay blue/green eggs.


If you will only keep part of the chicks , I would not keep any with a straight comb. Hope this helps.

 

[oscartame]

Thank you, I will definitely only keep chicks with muffs, dark legs and small combs.

I'm hoping my pure ameraucana roo carries two copies of the blue egg gene.

what if he carries a copy of the blue gene and a copy of the brown egg gene??