breeding for eggs

[v.cyr]

just a quickie question... trying to verify something a few oldtimers have told me... I have been told that the color of the eggs is passed on from the father, and the shape/size of the eggs comes from the mother... how true is this?...

 

[AquaEyes]

just a quickie question... trying to verify something a few oldtimers have told me... I have been told that the color of the eggs is passed on from the father, and the shape/size of the eggs comes from the mother... how true is this?...

If you are asking if the color is EXCLUSIVELY passed on from the father, and the shape is EXCLUSIVELY passed on from the mother, then the presumption is completely false. Both parents contribute genes for both traits. There are many genes that affect egg color, and egg-shape is a function of many genes as well.

 

[CountryFriedChicken]

I have a game hen and her daughters by a lite brahma bantam laying right now.

game hen is laying her regular eggs. - white and larger.

her daughters are laying light brown eggs that are bantam sized like the lite brahma bantam eggs.

I have them with a BLRW rooster and those lay larger brown eggs. Throwing away the eggs right now and will let them start brooding in 3 weeks or a month so if I get hens from this cross - it will be interesting to see what the eggs look from then. I will need to find another rooster then. I am breeding and raising those for broody hens though (I know BLRW are not too broody, but I needed more size and more calmer temperament).

 

[v.cyr]

If you are asking if the color is EXCLUSIVELY passed on from the father, and the shape is EXCLUSIVELY passed on from the mother, then the presumption is completely false. Both parents contribute genes for both traits. There are many genes that affect egg color, and egg-shape is a function of many genes as well.

basicly, what your saying is it is just crazy old-timer talk then... I had suspected as much, but it is one of those things I grew up hearing from almost everyone I know who had chickens, so I had to ask...

 

[3riverschick]

just a quickie question... trying to verify something a few oldtimers have told me... I have been told that the color of the eggs is passed on from the father, and the shape/size of the eggs comes from the mother... how true is this?...

Egg color ability is passed on from the dam thru her son. So if you have a rooster and want to darken the eggs in your flock, you want a roo whose mother was a dark egg layer. Then breed the feamles from that hatch back to their father to double up on the dark egg genes passed down from the roo's mother. Take the daughters from this second generation and either breed the back to the original roo( now their grandfather), or a cousin from a dark egg dam.. Poultry can stand this much inbreeding.
Now if you have gotten to a place where you need to improve breed type... There is a Law of Variation dscribed by Darwin which will help you. By now you have females which are inbred (strain A). That's a good thing with this program I am about to describe. Now you need to locate a typey roo ( whose mother lays a dark egg) and is closely linebred from another unrelated strain (B). Breed your females to this roo. The resulting females are (double hybrid A/B). Now you need to find the most perfect roo you can find. From an unrelated strain and from a hen which lays the most perfect egg for the breed you are using. Type is absolutely essential in this rooster because of the way this Law of Variation works.
Ok, this Law of Variation states that when Strain A female is bred to Strain B Male... then Female A/B is bred ti male from Strain C... then all the "tri-hybrid" get from this last mating will will so closely resemble their sire as if they were his same variety (strain). The resemblance is astonishing. I saw this law at work in my collie kennel. I bred the males and females as described above. In the A/B/C litter, the 10 puppies looked so much alike the breeder had to microchip them to tell them apart. A discussion of this Law can be found in the the Writings of Charles Darwin in the volume, "Charles Darwin's Natural Selection: Being the Second Part of His Big Species Book Written from 1856 to 1858"
Note this Law of Variation only works when the A/B parent double hybrid) is a female and the C parent is a male. If one breeds the A/B/C generation (triple hybrid) using a single strain male and a female from 2 combined strains (double hybrid ), this Law will not work and the offspring ( triple hybrid) will resemble neither the sire, nor dam..
I wrote an even more complete explanation on my webpage see: "An Elucidation of the Genetic History of Bellwether Collies " at : http://bellwethercollies.webs.com/breedingplans.htm
Best Regards,
Karen Tewart

 

[v.cyr]

Egg color ability is passed on from the dam thru her son. So if you have a rooster and want to darken the eggs in your flock, you want a roo whose mother was a dark egg layer. Then breed the feamles from that hatch back to their father to double up on the dark egg genes passed down from the roo's mother. Take the daughters from this second generation and either breed the back to the original roo( now their grandfather), or a cousin from a dark egg dam.. Poultry can stand this much inbreeding.
Now if you have gotten to a place where you need to improve breed type... There is a Law of Variation dscribed by Darwin which will help you. By now you have females which are inbred (strain A). That's a good thing with this program I am about to describe. Now you need to locate a typey roo ( whose mother lays a dark egg) and is closely linebred from another unrelated strain (B). Breed your females to this roo. The resulting females are (double hybrid A/B). Now you need to find the most perfect roo you can find. From an unrelated strain and from a hen which lays the most perfect egg for the breed you are using. Type is absolutely essential in this rooster because of the way this Law of Variation works.
Ok, this Law of Variation states that when Strain A female is bred to Strain B Male... then Female A/B is bred ti male from Strain C... then all the "tri-hybrid" get from this last mating will will so closely resemble their sire as if they were his same variety (strain). The resemblance is astonishing. I saw this law at work in my collie kennel. I bred the males and females as described above. In the A/B/C litter, the 10 puppies looked so much alike the breeder had to microchip them to tell them apart. A discussion of this Law can be found in the the Writings of Charles Darwin in the volume, "Charles Darwin's Natural Selection: Being the Second Part of His Big Species Book Written from 1856 to 1858"
Note this Law of Variation only works when the A/B parent double hybrid) is a female and the C parent is a male. If one breeds the A/B/C generation (triple hybrid) using a single strain male and a female from 2 combined strains (double hybrid ), this Law will not work and the offspring ( triple hybrid) will resemble neither the sire, nor dam..
I wrote an even more complete explanation on my webpage see: "An Elucidation of the Genetic History of Bellwether Collies " at : http://bellwethercollies.webs.com/breedingplans.htm
Best Regards,
Karen Tewart

so there is some truth in what i was told, then

 

[Lotsapaints]

I'm collecting eggs from pullets that were single mated and it is amazing to me how much the eggs are shaped just like ma's though with a better shine the rooster came from a darker shiny egg so I will be crossing them back to their sire to darken the eggs and I'm sure I can tell the female family by the egg.....don't set eggs from a hen that isn't a good one. Those old timers knew quite a bit without any genetics class it's called good note keeping