Any Idea on Mix for my EE Roo?

[Batzilla]

He is about 5 months old. Greenish legs, was a chipmunk chick.

 

[SilverBirds]

Practically impossible to say. At this point most EEs are mixes of other EEs with no pure breed parents for many generations.

 

[Batzilla]

Practically impossible to say. At this point most EEs are mixes of other EEs with no pure breed parents for many generations.

Yeah, I figured it would be a long shot, but was hoping that someone might have one that looks like him that they know the mix. I have seen photos in places that look just like him but no additional info.

 

[Hmenzi]

Wow he's super handsome!

 

[Batzilla]

Wow he's super handsome!

Thank you! He is a gentleman so far, too, and I think he will be a very good rooster to his girls. He was supposed to be a pullet, oops!

 

[FrostRanger]

He has ameraucana in there somewhere but yeah, likely just a mix of mixes

He's gorgeous in any case!

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

He has ameraucana in there somewhere but yeah, likely just a mix of mixes

He's gorgeous in any case!

He wouldn't have any Ameraucana in him. These South American blue layers were imported in the 1970s I believe and hatcheries have bred them back to each other over and over. That's a LOT of chicken generations. Ameraucanas were actually originally derived from these imports in an attempt to standardize them. He would have no Ameraucana in him since the Easter Eggers and Ameraucana diverged many years ago.

 

[Batzilla]

He wouldn't have any Ameraucana in him. These South American blue layers were imported in the 1970s I believe and hatcheries have bred them back to each other over and over. That's a LOT of chicken generations. Ameraucanas were actually originally derived from these imports in an attempt to standardize them. He would have no Ameraucana in him since the Easter Eggers and Ameraucana diverged many years ago.

So you are saying that the EE these days are just EE bred to EE and not necessarily an Ameraucana and another breed mix? Would doing that keep the blue egg gene in there well enough or would they eventually just start laying brown eggs?

 

[Rhodebar Lover]

So you are saying that the EE these days are just EE bred to EE and not necessarily an Ameraucana and another breed mix? Would doing that keep the blue egg gene in there well enough or would they eventually just start laying brown eggs?

Yes the EE are just EE to EE. This is where is get complicated. The brown gene is just a coating on top the egg. The blue egg is pigment throughout the shell. The blue gene is dominant but due to this it's difficult to know if a bird is homogeneous for blue because it will express with one copy as well. There are genetic tests for this. The brown gene on blue is green and brown gene on white is brown. Let's say you had a parent flock where most birds were homogenous for the gene and laid either green or blue eggs. In this hypothetical situation let's say 50% of flock is homogenous for blue, 25% heterogeneous for blue, 12.5% homogeneous for blue with brown, 12.5% heterogeneous for blue with brown. If two birds are heterogeneous for blue, 25% of their offspring will lay white eggs. If either of those parents laid brown eggs or carried that gene, there's a potential brown laying offspring. That's why they're called Easter Eggers. The thoughts are you never know what color egg you will get but there's a high likelihood of blue/green. It would be incredibly time consuming and costly to isolate out the homogeneous birds to keep and hatcheries aren't willing to put in the effort to standardize this when they can market it as a magical bird that will lay a cool colored egg I would bet your cockerel most likely carries the blue egg gene. Here's a test where you can see if he carries the genetics rather than waiting to test breed:
https://orders.iqbirdtesting.com/product/blue-egg-gene-with-blood-sample/