Breeding Easter Eggers with Easter Eggers?

[Egghead_Jr]

Don't concern yourself with the "sister/brother" thing. These being F1 generation of a cross have so much genetic diversity it's actually in your favor to selectively breed those F1's with the traits you want to narrow those genes into the flock. Or backcross the F1 pullets with traits you're looking for back to the blue egg sire (father).

To add: Being they seem to all carry blue with brown the offspring would range from brown to every shade of green to olive. There is a person on here with thread of making and continuing Olive eggers. Photos of resulting matings and so forth. Try a search.

 

[Athena2344]

Hello there! I have had a couple of cross hens for a couple of months now, I was told they are Americauna x cochin crosses, one is solid black with a pea comb and she lays cream eggs, the other has partial gold lacing, with a black and brown head/butt and a single comb and she lays pink eggs. About a month ago I found a pair of Americaunas, the rooster being mainly white with brown leakage on his wings and he has a blue butt and beard, the hen being a "typical" brown color. I recently just added a second Americauna hen, her top half is red and her bottom half is blue and she also has a blue beard. Well I ended up putting all 5 together two days ago, and started incubating some eggs from all of my flock, including some from the two cross hens and a couple of eggs from the Americauna hen. Well I've been wondering what exactly makes an EE and EE and what color eggs would the offspring of the crosses and my Americauna roo lay? The eggs I have from them are sired by either a new hampshire roo or a barred rock roo, and they will be true mutt birds which I'm expecting. But I'm really curious to see how the 3/4 chicks will grow up and perform. What do y'all think?

 

[lomine]

I hatched some olive egger pullets from my Americauna roo and darkest egg laying Welsomer hen. Got a dark green egg and a darker olive egg. What about breeding them back to their brother? Is that ok or a bad idea health wise? He has the perfect pea comb but light colored legs. I'm curious if could get more olive eggers but mostly concerned about breeding sister and brother? Thanks

The big issue in your situation would be that both the brother(s) and sister(s) have one blue shell gene and one white. That means any offspring hatched from the breeding have a 25% chance of not getting a blue shell gene; which means they'd lay brown eggs (or possibly white but that's not very probable). That's assuming the original sire is pure for blue. You could also breed brother with mother and then breed those offspring back to the original sire. I say just go for it and see what you get. It's fun to experiment.

Hello there! I have had a couple of cross hens for a couple of months now, I was told they are Americauna x cochin crosses, one is solid black with a pea comb and she lays cream eggs, the other has partial gold lacing, with a black and brown head/butt and a single comb and she lays pink eggs. About a month ago I found a pair of Americaunas, the rooster being mainly white with brown leakage on his wings and he has a blue butt and beard, the hen being a "typical" brown color. I recently just added a second Americauna hen, her top half is red and her bottom half is blue and she also has a blue beard. Well I ended up putting all 5 together two days ago, and started incubating some eggs from all of my flock, including some from the two cross hens and a couple of eggs from the Americauna hen. Well I've been wondering what exactly makes an EE and EE and what color eggs would the offspring of the crosses and my Americauna roo lay? The eggs I have from them are sired by either a new hampshire roo or a barred rock roo, and they will be true mutt birds which I'm expecting. But I'm really curious to see how the 3/4 chicks will grow up and perform. What do y'all think?

Before I start I want to clarify vocabulary. Americauna is not a breed, It's a term used by hatcheries to trick people into thinking they are buying something they are not. They are Easter Eggers (EE). I could write a whole bunch about EEs but the big thing to remember with them is that you can't really know their egg genetics just by looking at them. People then buy and breed "Americaunas" and perpetuate the lie, some intentionally and some not. Let me state very clearly that I love EEs, they are great birds, but they aren't a breed. Ameraucanas (notice the spelling) on the other hand are an excepted breed that has defined traits and come in only a few specific colors. There are some hatcheries that sell true AMs.

There's no way the Chochin crosses were sired by an AM because they both lay brown eggs. An AM carries two blue egg genes, which means every single offspring will receive a blue egg gene. Blue is dominate over white. Not sure how much you know about egg color but a brown egg is a brown coating over a white shell and a green egg is a brown coating over a blue shell. White and blue eggs have no colored coatings. There are differing shades but that's the basics. They may have been sired by an EE but he would had to carry one one blue gene.

Based on your description of the pair, they both sound like EEs. Their colors don't sound like any excepted colors. There's a chance they were breed from different colored AMs but I'm guessing the breeder just had EEs. Given that, there's no real way to know what kind of egg genes they carry.

If your rooster has one blue gene, his offspring have a 50% chance of receiving that trait. Any females that receive it will lay a green or blue egg, If he has two blue genes all of his offspring will receive it and all female offspring will lay green or blue. Of course things are also dependent on the genetics of the hen. If she lays a green or blue egg she must have at least one blue gene. If the hen lays brown it will only pass white shell genes on to her offspring. So basically, you won't really know until the offspring start laying.

 

[Athena2344]

Thank you for replying, I did mean ameracauna, I wasn't too sure on spelling and am slightly dyslexic, so my apologies on that. I'm pretty sure the three are pure, they all have pea combs and green legs, I think just like you said they came from two different accepted colors. The one hen is the accepted brown red color and lays blue eggs, I have two from her in the incubator already. I thought the one partial laced cross hen was laying pink eggs, turns out she isn't, it was one of my production red hens. And I'm not sure what percentage of ameracauna the crosses or, or which parent was the AM, its just what I was told when I bought them. The solid black hen is laying the cream eggs for sure though, I think she either has dark green or black legs... I don't recall on the other cross.

 

[Athena2344]

The big issue in your situation would be that both the brother(s) and sister(s) have one blue shell gene and one white. That means any offspring hatched from the breeding have a 25% chance of not getting a blue shell gene; which means they'd lay brown eggs (or possibly white but that's not very probable). That's assuming the original sire is pure for blue. You could also breed brother with mother and then breed those offspring back to the original sire. I say just go for it and see what you get. It's fun to experiment.




Before I start I want to clarify vocabulary. Americauna is not a breed, It's a term used by hatcheries to trick people into thinking they are buying something they are not. They are Easter Eggers (EE). I could write a whole bunch about EEs but the big thing to remember with them is that you can't really know their egg genetics just by looking at them. People then buy and breed "Americaunas" and perpetuate the lie, some intentionally and some not. Let me state very clearly that I love EEs, they are great birds, but they aren't a breed. Ameraucanas (notice the spelling) on the other hand are an excepted breed that has defined traits and come in only a few specific colors. There are some hatcheries that sell true AMs.

There's no way the Chochin crosses were sired by an AM because they both lay brown eggs. An AM carries two blue egg genes, which means every single offspring will receive a blue egg gene. Blue is dominate over white. Not sure how much you know about egg color but a brown egg is a brown coating over a white shell and a green egg is a brown coating over a blue shell. White and blue eggs have no colored coatings. There are differing shades but that's the basics. They may have been sired by an EE but he would had to carry one one blue gene.

Based on your description of the pair, they both sound like EEs. Their colors don't sound like any excepted colors. There's a chance they were breed from different colored AMs but I'm guessing the breeder just had EEs. Given that, there's no real way to know what kind of egg genes they carry.

If your rooster has one blue gene, his offspring have a 50% chance of receiving that trait. Any females that receive it will lay a green or blue egg, If he has two blue genes all of his offspring will receive it and all female offspring will lay green or blue. Of course things are also dependent on the genetics of the hen. If she lays a green or blue egg she must have at least one blue gene. If the hen lays brown it will only pass white shell genes on to her offspring. So basically, you won't really know until the offspring start laying.

Oh and my other question is are the two crosses considered EE's or should I just keep referring to them as cochin bantam x AM crosses?

 

[lomine]

Oh and my other question is are the two crosses considered EE's or should I just keep referring to them as cochin bantam x AM crosses?

EE is kind of a catch all for a bird that has the genes to lay a green or blue egg. The majority of EEs sold from hatcheries/feed stores are breed from a long line of EEs so that's why they can have that typical EE look (muffs, beards, green legs). Though hatcheries have been adding different breeds in the last few years so they are starting to look a bit different. EEs breed from crossings can look vastly different depending on what was crossed. For example, I have both a Blue AM and a Crested Cream Legbar rooster. Both are pure for blue eggs so all female offspring will lay a blue or green egg. I call all their offspring EEs.

For the Cochin crosses, it doesn't really matter which parent is which breed. As long as one parent is a pure AM, all offspring will get at least get one blue gene. So if any female from that crossing lays a brown egg it means it cannot have been from a pure AM. So the crosses are Cochin x EE. If the cross lays a green egg, I'd call it an EE. If it lays a brown egg, I'd just call it a mix breed or some folks like the term Barnyard mix. But honestly, it's not a breed so there aren't any rules. You can call them EEs if you want.

 

[Athena2344]

EE is kind of a catch all for a bird that has the genes to lay a green or blue egg. The majority of EEs sold from hatcheries/feed stores are breed from a long line of EEs so that's why they can have that typical EE look (muffs, beards, green legs). Though hatcheries have been adding different breeds in the last few years so they are starting to look a bit different. EEs breed from crossings can look vastly different depending on what was crossed. For example, I have both a Blue AM and a Crested Cream Legbar rooster. Both are pure for blue eggs so all female offspring will lay a blue or green egg. I call all their offspring EEs.

For the Cochin crosses, it doesn't really matter which parent is which breed. As long as one parent is a pure AM, all offspring will get at least get one blue gene. So if any female from that crossing lays a brown egg it means it cannot have been from a pure AM. So the crosses are Cochin x EE. If the cross lays a green egg, I'd call it an EE. If it lays a brown egg, I'd just call it a mix breed or some folks like the term Barnyard mix. But honestly, it's not a breed so there aren't any rules. You can call them EEs if you want.

Well I think the crosses stopped laying for the winter, turns out the pink eggs was one from my production reds. The one hen is the approved color Brown Red, the second hen is AOV Blue Red. The closest I have come to the color of my rooster is AOV Silver Duckwing, however mine has a blue tail and beard and underside if I recall correctly. Do you know what color the chicks would come out to be? Or would you be able to point me in the direction of someone that does or has done similar color crossings?

 

[lomine]

Honestly, it doesn't sound like you have AM mixes. Blue Red is not an accepted color. Brown Red is not a common color and Silver is rare (meaning they would be very expensive). I kind of doubt a person willing to find and buy those pure colors would then also mix the colors, unless maybe they were doing some kind of breeding/color project. But in that case I'd think they'd tell you about it. I think it's far more likely that they bought "Americanas" and breed them or raised them and sold them as grow outs.

If you want to play around with color combinations you can use this color calculator. It can give you an idea but won't be 100% accurate because you won't know all the hidden genetics. It's still a lot of fun to play with.
https://kippenjungle.nl/kruising.html

 

[Athena2344]

So yes, the one hen is a AOV Blue Red, the other hen I thought was brown red as she matched the first few pictures that popped up, but looking at actual brown reds, she's too light and more gold... She has green legs, pea comb, beard and muff, and lays blue eggs, I just have no idea what color she is called. Do you know the colors of the other AOV? My rooster looks like a silver duckwing ameracauna except that his tail is blue instead of black. His beard is also blue as well as the tips of his feathers. Would you be interested in pictures of all of them if that would help any? I'm super excited to hatch chicks from them, but I just can't find any info on the AOV colors.

 

[lomine]

Here is a link to the breeders club gallery page. These are actual AM. If you are using google, you are just as likely to get EEs because people have labelled them as AM even though they aren't.

http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/gallery.html