Blue egg layers...

[AmberRex]

Hi! I have been breeding bantams for a good few years now but not specific breeds. I have had the blue egg gene for a long time which I picked up from some hens that were given to me when I moved house but now I have only two hens left with the gene, one of which MUST carry it because she hatched from a blue egg but she lays white eggs and the other from the same hatch who does lay blue eggs but is sick.... APART from americauna are there any bantams who will lay blue shelled eggs???
Thank you!

 

[Old Rando]

Ameraucana bantams, araucana bantams and hatcheries also have bantam sized easter eggers which are presently usually sold as Ameraucana or Araucana bantams although are not the same thing.

The hen you have that is laying the white egg does NOT carry the gene for blue egg shell. If she carried it she would lay blue eggs. It is a dominant gene (O) therefore it would be expressed with one copy or two. Here mother obviously only had one copy (heterozygous) and any of her offspring would only have a 50% chance of inheriting it from her. The white egg of your hen shows that this one did not receive the gene. The term dominant and recessive deals with their manner of expression, not in their inheritance.

 

[AmberRex]

Thank you!... I guess my cockerel must carry the gene too then because last year we hatched from a mix of white eggs from a two different hens including her and three of the hens that hatched laid blue eggs but I sold two and the last one died from a respiratory infection...That is very interesting to know though, about the genetics I mean.... Thank you!


Are there any breeds who don't have the beard???

 

[Old Rando]

Araucanas do not have a beard. ABA and APA standards require tufts but this is not the same as a beard. The tufted gene is lethal in the homozygous state (two copies) therefore all tufted araucanas are carrying only one copy. There is always a 25 % chance of hatching clean faced chicks from breeding araucanas. Anyone breeding araucanas always hatch some cleaned faced individuals, If you might get in contact with any of these you might get some which are being culled. Sometimes easter eggers are clean faced also but that isn;t always easy to find. I once bred Araucana bantams to show but I wasn't a fan of tufts. I now keep many blue egg laying bantams for my own enjoyment with a variety if characteristics, tails, rumpless, beards(added from some easter eggers), clean faced and one 7 year old tufted male.

I'm sure you can find something that will suit what your particular goals are. If you end up with a bearded individual and you don't want that you can breed out the bearded gene if you wish.

 

[AmberRex]

Thank you, your information is brilliant... I don't know why but the bearded hens don't appeal to my sense of aesthetics when they are really big. I wish it wasn't so.... I really do love the tiny little beautiful blue eggs though.
That would make it that around 25% of the araucana foetus' would die wouldn't it? My limited knowledge of biological and chemical genetics are a little rusty.

...as is my mental math.

 

[Old Rando]

Yes you are correct. With a tufted to tufted mating about 25% die at about 19 days of incubation. Or maybe I should say there is a 25% chance of homozygous chicks which will die at about 19 days of incubation. Some araucana breeders chose to breed tufted to clean faced just to avoid this problem. You will get about the same numbers of live tufted chicks with either breeding strategy.

I respect that you don't care for bearded ones. You chickens are for your enjoyment and you can always breed them to please yourself.

 

[AmberRex]

Thank you for your help!