Ameraucana

[Ninaamaya]

Frizzled Ameraucana Roo and Ameraucana hen? Someone accidentally let their frizzled splash silkie roo mate with a pure Ameraucana and I am the happy owner of a hilarious and sweet frizzled 1/2 Ameraucana roo. Can I have any idea if he carries the blue or silkie egg gene? I want to mate him with my Ameraucana hen and see if I can get frizzled blue egg layers. He’s also mating with my Marans- they are laying dark brown, will their babes lay olive? Or is there just no way to know until my frizzle roo’s babies grow up and start laying?

 

[cherrynberry]

Frizzled Ameraucana Roo and Ameraucana hen? Someone accidentally let their frizzled splash silkie roo mate with a pure Ameraucana and I am the happy owner of a hilarious and sweet frizzled 1/2 Ameraucana roo. Can I have any idea if he carries the blue or silkie egg gene? I want to mate him with my Ameraucana hen and see if I can get frizzled blue egg layers. He’s also mating with my Marans- they are laying dark brown, will their babes lay olive? Or is there just no way to know until my frizzle roo’s babies grow up and start laying?

Frizzled is not a breed, its just a trait. I think you already know that though. It IS more common in bantams, especially Cochins, though.

If the crossing is really between a frizzled Silkie and Ameraucana hen (assuming both are pure), then the boy that you have will have a blue egg gene AND a brown egg gene of some sort. It would be a given that he carries a blue egg gene.

 

[cherrynberry]

Frizzled is not a breed, its just a trait. I think you already know that though. It IS more common in bantams, especially Cochins, though.

If the crossing is really between a frizzled Silkie and Ameraucana hen (assuming both are pure), then the boy that you have will have a blue egg gene AND a brown egg gene of some sort. It would be a given that he carries a blue egg gene.

If you then proceed and cross him with your pure AM hen, you will get 50% blue egg layers and 50% green egg layers. The green egg layers will be heterozygous for blue.

If you cross him with your Marans, you will get 50% brown egg layers and 50% olive egg layers. The olive egg layers will be heterozygous for blue.

This is assuming that ALL the breeds you mentioned are purebreds.

 

[Ninaamaya]

Frizzled is not a breed, its just a trait. I think you already know that though. It IS more common in bantams, especially Cochins, though.

If the crossing is really between a frizzled Silkie and Ameraucana hen (assuming both are pure), then the boy that you have will have a blue egg gene AND a brown egg gene of some sort. It would be a given that he carries a blue egg gene.

That’s why I said frizzleD, not frizzle. They are pure.
I know his kids have a 50% chance of being frizzled, and I would have guessed he had a blue egg and a cream egg gene, but I know when they use a Marans Rooster and an Ameraucana hen, the hens are way more likely to have a blue egg with the brown overlay. It’s rare for them to just have a brown egg, though it happens occasionally.
I’m gonna guess I would need someone who knows more about chicken genetics than either of us. I’m guessing that the blue egg gene is dominant, but since he’s mixed, he’s only going to pass that dominant gene to half his offspring.

 

[Ninaamaya]

If you then proceed and cross him with your pure AM hen, you will get 50% blue egg layers and 50% green egg layers. The green egg layers will be heterozygous for blue.

If you cross him with your Marans, you will get 50% brown egg layers and 50% olive egg layers. The olive egg layers will be heterozygous for blue.

This is assuming that ALL the breeds you mentioned are purebreds.

This makes sense. Except that Silkies lay cream. But otherwise yeah- I didn’t see this second post when I replied to the first. I guess the original frizzled roo would have gotten me what I hoped for. Ah well, I just love chickens. All good.

 

[cherrynberry]

That’s why I said frizzleD, not frizzle. They are pure.
I know his kids have a 50% chance of being frizzled, and I would have guessed he had a blue egg and a cream egg gene, but I know when they use a Marans Rooster and an Ameraucana hen, the hens are way more likely to have a blue egg with the brown overlay. It’s rare for them to just have a brown egg, though it happens occasionally.
I’m gonna guess I would need someone who knows more about chicken genetics than either of us. I’m guessing that the blue egg gene is dominant, but since he’s mixed, he’s only going to pass that dominant gene to half his offspring.

Heres the thing. EVERY chicken has two egg genes. Each parent gives ONE of theirs to the offspring. Which means that even if a hen lays an olive egg (brown over blue), she will only pass one gene to her offspring (either the brown or the blue, she won't pass the olive).

This makes sense. Except that Silkies lay cream. But otherwise yeah- I didn’t see this second post when I replied to the first. I guess the original frizzled roo would have gotten me what I hoped for. Ah well, I just love chickens. All good.

Silkies lay cream, which is still a brown coat over a white shell. Doesn't change the fact that blue is dominant over white (this includes ALL the shades of brown). The only difference is that if you use Marans to create F1 OEs, their olive eggs will be a darker olive.

 

[DarJones]

All chicken eggs start out white. No matter what other genes are present, white is there.

The oocyanin (blue egg) gene is on chromosome 1 and is dominant, meaning that if one copy is present, the eggs are blue. This changes the base white color to blue.

The porphyrin biopath is a group of genes that work together to produce brown eggs. Where it gets kinky is that all extant chickens have the porphyrin biopath.....

but!

some chickens have one or more genes that disable the porphyrin biopath which means we can have white egg layers and blue egg layers.

Marans bring in an intensifier gene that affects the porphyrin biopath. There are more secretory cells in the egg ducts which enables more porphyrin to be deposited. The result is a very dark brown coating on the egg.

Your rooster most likely has one copy of oocyanin, one copy of pea comb, genes that enable porphyrin, and one copy of Frizzle. He is likely to produce a range of chicks including 50% with the oocyanin gene, 50% with frizzle, and slightly more than 70% for brown eggs. Cross with a Marans and the chicks should give 1 in 8 that combine frizzle + oocyanin + dark brown eggs. Why 1:8? Because some of the chicks will have the white egg genes from the Ameraucana and Silkie parents and others will have brown egg genes that sync with the Marans brown eggs genes. One way to tell if the hens will lay blue eggs is to watch for pea comb. It is linked with the oocyanin gene on chromosome 1. The eggs that hatch will show a 34 out of 35 ratio with pea comb linked with blue eggs.