California - Northern

[farmhand]

...shell color is always either white or blue. Brown comes from a coating. Green comes from blue bleeding through brown. Brown is complicated by 8 genes that will determine the darkness of brown on a whit shelled egg. The darkness of green is determined by the brown level of the coating...

So a blue or white shell color gene is independent of the brown coating gene? You could have both or only one working?

 

[ronott1]

So a blue or white shell color gene is independent of the brown coating gene? You could have both or only one working?

Yes, that is how it works. It is a combination of two separate gene types.

We cannot even get most vets to treat chickens let alone get genetic testing to find out what genes or chickens have.

It is an art form sometimes.

 

[member 142084]

question then is it normal for orpingtons eggs t range fro light brown to slightly rosy white and in between?

 

[ronott1]

question then is it normal for orpingtons eggs t range fro light brown to slightly rosy white and in between?

Yes, that is determined by the 8 brown genes.

Bloom will make the eggs look rose colored but will loose that color when wet.

I wonder what genes determine that?

 

[juststruttin]

What is your objective in crossing the two breeds @juststruttin ?

I was given 5 Freedom Ranges from a local farmer named Michael (friend of a friend). Michael typically buys 200 meat birds a year, grows them out to sell locally. Michael expressed an interested to reduce his footprint by purchasing locally raised chicks. My friend Brian told him about me and we decided to try an experiment. We understand that Freedom Rangers are a hybrid and do not breed true, but we decided to give it a try anyway.

Unfortunately, the rooster grew too large and his legs bowed so he had to be culled when he became too uncomfortable. Since I now did not have a FR rooster, I decided to put my 4 girls in one of my Sulmtaler pens. My plan is to keep one of the FR X Sulm roosters to breed back to the Freedom Ranger hens.

 

[CackleJoy]

Howdy all. I am a newbie here and I have lots to learn. My wife of 45 yrs and I live in the Real Nor Cal. A small town called Happy Camp on the Klamath River. Nearest traffic light is over an hours drive. SF is a 6 hr drive SOUTH. We retired here in 01 and are now ready to settle in and have some chickens. I have no questions now but will be reading up on all the info here and surely have plenty of questions later. Have a great day all.

Walt

Welcome!

We are new to BYC too. Only a few months on the forum. These great people just walked us through our first hatch! Great people on BYC

 

[CackleJoy]

I was given 5 Freedom Ranges from a local farmer named Michael (friend of a friend). Michael typically buys 200 meat birds a year, grows them out to sell locally. Michael expressed an interested to reduce his footprint by purchasing locally raised chicks. My friend Brian told him about me and we decided to try an experiment. We understand that Freedom Rangers are a hybrid and do not breed true, but we decided to give it a try anyway.

Unfortunately, the rooster grew too large and his legs bowed so he had to be culled when he became too uncomfortable. Since I now did not have a FR rooster, I decided to put my 4 girls in one of my Sulmtaler pens. My plan is to keep one of the FR X Sulm roosters to breed back to the Freedom Ranger hens.

This is very interesting! We'd be interested in some FR's next time we do meat birds. WE ABSOLUTELY HATED THE CORNISH X's! How fast did these develop?

 

[CackleJoy]

I've been thinking that an English Orp/Ameraucana X could make the funniest bearded EE's. Just the sort of thing that runs through my head. I love EE's and this seriously sounds delightful

 

[ChickNmamma]

I found this info on egg color genes somewhere. Don't know who to give credit for it to.

white x blue = light blue
white x green = 50% light blue, 50% brown
white x brown = brown
brown x blue = green
brown x green = 50% brown, 50% green

1. Is this information correct?
2. Does "white x green = 50% light blue, 50% brown" mean that half of the resulting hens will lay blue eggs, and the other half lay brown eggs?

As Ron already said - that is not quite true. White x Blue does not make the blue lighter. The percentages are per each chicken - you have a 50% of getting the blue egg gene/or not. Not per batch - so no - no half and half there.

White x green does NOT equal blue.. or brown.. it equals mostly green, with a very slight chance of brown.. and almost NO chance of blue. I made this chart awhile back - it is a simplified version..


There are no percentages - because the green can range depending on what brown egg genes are present. The males carry the same egg color genes that the females do, this is not sex linked in any way - but it sure is a lot harder to tell which genes the male carries

Crossing him to a white egg laying hen will show which genes he carries somewhat in his daughters.

Since there are 8 brown egg genes the shades of green will get lighter as you loose those genes, and the shade will get darker if you add those genes in. But you can loose the blue in one generation - giving you brown eggs of different shades. Most F1 are crossed between Homozygous blue to homozygous brown - all children get one copy of each gene. I suppose I could change the brown eggs to half brown (because they only get one copy).. but I would have to slice that half in 8ths.. an have 32? 64? ??? different possibilities? Yikes.. This was for the Blue egg gene.. the brown one would be too complex.. You do have a very slim chance of getting white eggs from crossing OEs.. but that is such a small chance.. teeny tiny..

 

[juststruttin]

This is very interesting! We'd be interested in some FR's next time we do meat birds. WE ABSOLUTELY HATED THE CORNISH X's! How fast did these develop?

I think Michael processes his FR at 12 weeks so they are definitely slower than the cornish X.