Ameraucana X Orpington ROOSTER - egg colour genes?

[landgirl]

I have an ameraucana X orpington rooster and am wondering if he will pass on blue or green egg colour to his offspring? He has a pea comb but no beard.
The lady I got the hatching eggs from successfully breeds ameraucanas with orpingtons to create hens that lay pale green eggs. But what about the roosters? What colour will he pass on?
Please use examples. Such as if he breeds with an ameraucana hen, or a hen that lays brown eggs, or a hen that lays white eggs? I know how egg colour works - ex: blue + brown = green, etc. But I'm wondering what gene he actually carries and if its a guarantee with crossing these two breeds?
NOTE: I am not breeding professionally.
thank you!

 

[lomine]

I'm no expert but I'll share what I think. If he was breed from a true Ameraucana then he will carry at least one gene for blue eggs. A brown egg is actually a white egg with a brown bloom. He might have inherited the gene for brown or he might not have. He may have one gene for blue and one gene for white.

So he could pass either gene on to his offspring. If he breeds with another true Ameraucana then the offspring would lay blue eggs because they would get a blue gene from the hen and blue is dominate over white. If he breeds with a brown layer the offsprings could lay blue, green, brown, or even white. Breed with a white layer the offspring could lay blue, brown, or white. It all depends on which genes he passes on.

Of course this all changes if his parent stock was an Easter Egger and not an Ameraucana. Even if a hen lays a blue egg it doesn't mean she carries two blue genes. So an EE rooster might not carry two blue genes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Let’s do the easy one first. There is on gene pair that determines base color. The base color is either going to be white or blue. Blue is dominant so as long as the hen has one blue genes at that location on the DNA she will lay a base blue egg.

If one of the parents of your rooster was a true Ameraucana and the mother was an Orpington he will have one blue gene and one “not-blue” gene which defaults to white. He will randomly pass one of those genes to his offspring. You don’t know if it will be a blue or a white, it could be either one.

If he breeds with a true Ameraucana, the offspring will get a blue egg gene from her. Since blue is dominant, it doesn’t matter what the pullet gets from him, she will lay a base blue egg.

If he breeds with a hen that lays a brown egg or a white egg, about half his offspring will get a base blue gene, half a base white gene. So about half his pullets will lay base blue eggs, around half will lay base white eggs.

The shade of brown that gets passed on is a lot tougher. He probably inherited some brown egg shell genes from his Orpington parent but he got none from his other parent, the true Ameraucana. There could be several of these genes that affect the shade of brown, there could be only one or two. At each place on the DNA he has a brown from the Orpington parent he has a not-brown from the Ameraucana parent. That’s called being split for that gene. You just don’t know what he is going to pass down to his offspring. It may be all white, it may have some browns.

So with an Ameraucana hen, the pullets could ay blue or green eggs.

With a brown egg laying hen, you should get about half brown and about half green. There is no telling what shade of brown or green that might be.

With a white egg laying hen, you could get about half either blue or green and about half either white or brown.

With any of these different pullets, even from the same hen, you could get different shades of brown or green. His genetics are mixed up so you don’t know what he will pass down.

Not a clear answer I know, but when you breed crosses like him you can get different things.