BREEDING EE's

[DiamondJFarms.com]

Quote:
If your EEs come from a hatchery where one parent is a breed that does not carry the blue gene, then All of your Blue/Green laying hens can only carry One Blue Gene. If you take these hens to a regular breed of Roo, then you should expect 50% of the offspring to lay blue/green eggs.

The genetics of it is: The hens have one blue and one non-blue gene. When crossed with a regular roo, he will only pass on a non-blue gene to chicks; so it is up to the hen. She will either pass on the non-blue or the blue gene. Thus 50/50 odds. Just like flipping a coin.

You can get lucky and flip 4 heads in a row, but if you do it 200 times,, it will be very close to 100 heads and 100 tails

-Joycelyn
http://www.diamondjfarms.com/chickens/

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

With your SLR roo, at least half of them should lay green eggs, and maybe all of them.

Experiment away, but if your only goal is to make blue/green eggers, get a true Ameraucana roo to put into the mix.

 

[Krys109uk]

I wouldn't use the SLW is that you couldn't use the pea comb trick to tell who is carrying the blue gene, as they would all have pea combs.

Silver laced wyandottes have rose combs.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Quote:
Silver laced wyandottes have rose combs.

ha ha. I just realized my error at the same time. My Wyandottes and EE's and Ameraucanas are all pullets, and all have the same looking comb to my untrained eye... Maybe once laying gets underway, I'll see the difference. Thanks.

 

[ams3651]

sounds like I shouldnt keep my beautiful RIRxEE cockerel

I only have 8 hens so 2 roosters isnt possible. Im going to have to keep looking for a EE roo I guess.

 

[ging3rhoffman]

Thanks for filling me in. I am so glad that I found BYC website. I just posted in the "Egg Auction' section on here that i want Ameraucana Eggs to hatch. I need to order an incubator today!
I am hoping to find the Blue, Blue Wheaten or wheaten Ameraucan eggs.

 

[ChicknJ]

very interesting thread indeed! I'd like to add a couple questions.

If you have an EE hen that lays blue eggs and you cross her with an EE roo that was HATCHED from a blue egg, are your chances better of producing blue egg layers? I have a EE roo that is a pretty boy, I hatched him from a blue egg and I have other blue egg layers, so my thinking is, crossing him with my known blue eggers will produce a better percentage of blue egg layers.

Also, I have 2 Araucana roos, that I can conceivable put in with my blue egg laying EE's , will this pairing also increase the possibility of blue egg layers (again, the Araucana's hatched from blue eggs).

I have 2 Araucana hens that will only be with an Araucana roo, but the EE's I have I can sell as blue egg laying cross if fertilized with Araucana's?
(they would be sold as blue egg laying EE's , not as pure-breds)

 

[ChicknJ]

I am hoping to catch the eye with the people that know, the answers to the above questions. I am just not sure where to go with my project. I have 3 very pretty EE hens and 3 Araucana hens and 2 Araucana Roos, and am looking to go in the direction of the bluest egg. I would never try to pass of a mix as anything but that-a mix, but if I can produce some nice blue egg layers, it's a plus for all us blue egg enthusiasts.

Thanks peeps to all who can help

 

[DiamondJFarms.com]

Quote:
White eggs are basically no pigment eggs. Brown eggs are white eggs with a brown overlay. That is why the inside of a brown egg is white.
Blue eggs are blue, inside and out. Basically a white egg plus Blue pigment in the mix. A Green egg is a Blue egg with a brown overlay, making it green.

If you have blue egg layers they should be free of brown genes. The problem wit the roo is even if his mother layed Blue eggs, your not sure if his father had brown genes or not.

Using a pure Araucana is the better choice. Odds or that Araucana is homozygous for blue (meaning all offspring will get at least one blue gene, and thus all offspring will lay blue eggs). As a bonus, with the blue laying hens, some of the offspring will get the blue gene from their mothers nd be Homozygous themselves.

The only decline to using the pure Araucana is that they lay less often compared to an EE. So the resulting offspring, though highly likely to be 100% blue egg layers, won't be as productive.

As a backyard chicken owner, who cares more about the color than the actual numbers of eggs I get, I'd rather get offspring from your EEs crossed on the Araucana.

 

[ChicknJ]

Thank you for responding DiamondJ , I am just not sure what direction I am going to go in, but for both my purposes and my geographical demands, the blue egg seems to be a goal. I am mulling over adding more Araucana's, but just in the mulling stage.

BTW, cool web site