Blue eyed chicken breed genetics

[chickenlover22345]

What are the genetics for blue eyed chicken breeds such as the Cornish Cross and other commercial meat breeds?

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Cornish cross don't have blue eyes

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I've only ever seen Cornish cross and other meat hybrids with red-orange to yellow-orange eyes, personally. Many chicks have bluish or greenish eyes as juveniles, but most change to brown or orange by adulthood. The few times I've seen blue or bluish eyes in adults mostly have come with the deformed pupil typical of ocular Marek's disease; true blue eyes in mature chickens are exceedingly rare. Eye colors in chickens are pretty complicated in general, and seem to be mainly tied to plumage and skin color genetics rather than their own genes, though there are some eye color genes such as pearl eye. This thread goes into some theories about genes that cause certain eye colors and might be worth a read, but bear in mind it is not about blue eyes specifically: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/theory-ml-and-id-cause-brown-eyes-in-chickens.1590476/

This post particularly and the article linked in it I believe are worth a read if you're interested in eye color genetics in general, though again it's not specific to blue eyes: https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...eyes-in-chickens.1590476/page-2#post-27062966

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Cornish cross don't have blue eyes

Agree

 

[chickenlover22345]

Cornish cross don't have blue eyes

Ah! Broilers have blue eyes and they look like Cornish Cross.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Do you have images?

Ah! Broilers have blue eyes and they look like Cornish Cross.

 

[chickenlover22345]

Do you have images?

Got some off the internet. Are broilers more likely to have blue eyes than other chickens?

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Here is one of my Cornishx I used to have. He along all his siblings had red/orange eyes.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Got some off the internet. Are broilers more likely to have blue eyes than other chickens?

Those are still young birds, once they reach adult hood their eyes will be red/orange

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Got some off the internet. Are broilers more likely to have blue eyes than other chickens?

Those are young birds, not grown ones. They're like human babies, their eye color changes with age.