Blue egg=blue egg LAYER?

[maizey]

Simply must have a blue egg layer. if I buy a clutch of blue eggs to incubate, how sure am I to get hens from those eggs that will in turn lay eggs the same shade of blue as the ones I buy? Is there another way to ensure that eggs or chicks will turn out to be blue layers? Is it EEs or auraconas that lay the BLUEST egg? is there a method or is it a crap shoot?

 

[speckledhen]

You'd need to buy true Ameraucanas or Araucanas from a breeder who breeds for egg color. Boths should lay blue eggs, in various shades of blue. If you get EEs, it's a complete crapshoot.

 

[maizey]

Now I thought Ameracauna was an EE...I know this discussion has been had many times...guess I should go search threads some more...darn it, thought I had it straight

 

[speckledhen]

No, an Ameraucana has a set standard with only 8 accepted colors. Easter Eggers are basically cross breeds. There are great threads dedicated to this question here. All hatcheries sell EEs; none sell true Ameraucanas or Araucanas. None of my EEs lay blue eggs-they all lay shades of green. My blue/black/splash Ameraucanas all lay blue, some bluer than others.

 

[Sorin]

EE's are actually mutts (someone correct me if im wrong) that at some point down their ancestral line were bred with Ameraucanas to get that colored egg gene. Many hatcheries and feed stores label EE's as Amaraucanas but they aren't. About the only way to get a true Amaraucana is from a breeder. I hope someone else pipes in with more expertise in this breed, but that is the basics of it

( I think)

I see speckled hen beat me to it!

 

[maizey]

Ok, I'm getting it now...I hope. I thought somehow that the EE and the auracona were the two colored egg layers and that Ameracaunas were actually EEs trying to look like auraconas..so there are three breeds then that lay colors : auraconas, the ones with no tail..those are easy to distinguish, and then EEs AND a separate breed Ameracauna. How do you distinguish an ee from an Ameracauna besides where you get it from? I know there are threads on this but the ADD is bad this week...

 

[Sorin]

Ok, I'm not the best to describe the difference, but I believe the EE's can come in many more color combos than the Amaraucanas. There are a lot of subtle differences, hmmmm... I hope speckeledhen pipes in again LOL I guess I can't help much

 

[georgialee]

Ameraucanas only come in 8 accepted colors.

EE's will usually be mixed in color.

If you buy from a breeder on BYC you will be far more likely to get what you want than buying on ebay. Good luck

 

[speckledhen]

This may help. My Ameraucanas were from Cree Farms out of Washington and this is on their site:

http://creefarm.fateback.com/ameraucana.html

 

[AquaEyes]

Quote:
Here's a combination of what I've learned on this topic from BYC with my understanding of genetics in general.

Producing a blue eggshell-base (as opposed to white) is controlled by a single gene, which is dominant to the white eggshell-base variation. Thus for a hen to produce a blue egg, she needs only one copy of the "blue egg gene."

Another variation on color in eggs is brown. This color is added on top of whatever eggshell-base is there. To see what I mean, check the inside of an egg -- even brown eggs are white inside, but blue eggs are blue inside. Brown eggs result from depositing brown on top of a white base. Green eggs result from depositing brown on top of a blue base, and if you crack open a green egg, it will be blue inside. The variations come from how much brown is deposited on top, and/or how much blue is mixed for the base. If there is neither blue nor brown, the egg is white.

OK, now let's look at a fertile blue egg. We know that the hen who laid it had at least one copy of the "blue eggshell-base" gene. I have not yet learned if there is a "more blue" egg from those with two copies of the gene, so let's just (for now) assume that there isn't a difference. So we know mom has one copy. What about Dad? We have no idea. You didn't mention if you know that the eggs are from a pure-breeding. Mom will lay a blue egg regardless of who fertilizes them. For example, look at the Olive Egger thread. Olive Eggers are created from breeding a blue-egg-layer with a dark-brown-egg-layer. If Dad was a Marans and Mom was an Ameraucana, the egg will be blue, but the chick inside (if it is a hen) will not lay blue eggs.

Let's say the blue egg came from Easter Eggers. To make a blue egg, Mom needs to have only one copy of the blue egg gene. Let's say that Dad also has only one copy of the blue egg gene. Offspring from parents who each have only one copy of the blue egg gene will statistically be 25% two copies of the blue egg gene, 50% one copy of the blue egg gene, and 25% no copies of the blue egg gene. So there would be a 25% chance that a chick could hatch from a blue egg and lay white eggs herself, if her parents each had only one copy of the blue egg gene.

I understand that breeders of chickens who are trying to improve egg color will say that they hatch out only the eggs closest to their desired color, but from a genetics standpoint, that's only half-effective. You need to know what kind of eggs Dad has the genes for, and to know that, you need to see what kind of eggs his sisters are laying. If Dad's sisters are laying green eggs, chances are that Dad also has the genes for green eggs (meaning he is adding some brown on top of the blue base). It doesn't matter if he fertilizes a hen who lays perfect sky-blue eggs. The chick inside gets genes from Mom and Dad. Seeing the shell the chick comes out of tells you only about Mom and nothing about Dad.



~Chris