Can a chick that comes from a brown egg lay blue or green eggs?

[Lady of McCamley]

I figured if they were both brown I would only get brown unless there was some gene that maybe made it?

If I get a blue/green laying hen from this clutch and then use one of those I figure I could get some future blue/green layers. What do you mean set?

Hen with brown egg has only brown genes...NO blue shell gene. Hen lays brown egg bred to a rooster who carries a blue shell gene (assume 1 if he is a hybrid) will have 50% chance of laying blue/green eggs as 50% chance of inheriting the 1 blue shell gene....which is dominant...you only need 1 blue shell gene to get blue shells.

If you KNOW your rooster carries a blue shell gene, you can set (as in place into incubation or under a broody for hatching) brown eggs knowing you have 50% chance of brown and 50% chance of blue. Hatch blue from those daughters, bred to a blue shell gene rooster, you begin to increase your likelihood of getting blue layers).

However if your rooster choices are brown layers, it means you will at most have 50% chance of getting blue only if you set blue eggs. If you set brown eggs you will only get brown layers as there is no blue shell to be passed from either mother or father.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

The bottomline answer...does your rooster have a blue shell gene? Unless he is an Olive Egger or Easter Egger, the answer to that is no...so only setting blue eggs will give you a chance to get blue/green egg layers (50%).

LofMc

 

[artvandolay]

Hen with brown egg has only brown genes...NO blue shell gene. Hen lays brown egg bred to a rooster who carries a blue shell gene (assume 1 if he is a hybrid) will have 50% chance of laying blue/green eggs as 50% chance of inheriting the 1 blue shell gene....which is dominant...you only need 1 blue shell gene to get blue shells.

If you KNOW your rooster carries a blue shell gene, you can set (as in place into incubation or under a broody for hatching) brown eggs knowing you have 50% chance of brown and 50% chance of blue. Hatch blue from those daughters, bred to a blue shell gene rooster, you begin to increase your likelihood of getting blue layers).

However if your rooster choices are brown layers, it means you will at most have 50% chance of getting blue only if you set blue eggs. If you set brown eggs you will only get brown layers as there is no blue shell to be passed from either mother or father.

LofMc

Ah, so the dominant gene only comes from the Rooster and a blue-laying hen. No brown-laying hens will have the gene then?

I guess I would have to have a rooster that had that gene, but I would only know if I start breeding it with a blue-shelled hen.

 

[artvandolay]

The bottomline answer...does your rooster have a blue shell gene? Unless he is an Olive Egger or Easter Egger, the answer to that is no...so only setting blue eggs will give you a chance to get blue/green egg layers (50%).

LofMc

I don't currently have any roosters and maybe 1 of the 2 EE is going to be a rooster.

So, let me hope I get lucky and one of the brown eggs I "set" or incubated hatches blue or green eggs. They may have been bred with a blue/Green egg gened rooster, but I don't know that.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Ah, so the dominant gene only comes from the Rooster and a blue-laying hen. No brown-laying hens will have the gene then?

I guess I would have to have a rooster that had that gene, but I would only know if I start breeding it with a blue-shelled hen.

To have blue shell eggs either the hen (mother) or the rooster (father) must have the genetics for blue shells. (Chickens, like humans, are diploid meaning every trait has 2 genes that control that trait. In chickens, blue shell is controlled at one slot of 2 genes. Since blue is dominant, you only need 1 of those 2 genes at that slot to get blue shells).

You can breed a blue shell hybrid rooster (meaning he only has 1 blue shell gene) to a brown laying hen and get SOME blue laying daughters...typically statistically 50% as 50% of the time he passes his 1 blue shell gene and 50% of the time he passes that empty slot with no blue shell gene.

The only way to test an Easter Egger or Olive Egger rooster is to set him over brown or white layer and check the daugthers. If you hatch 10 daughters, statistically 5 of them will become blue shell layers while 5 of them will be brown layers.

If you set an unknown blue shell gene rooster over a blue layer hen, you won't know who passed the genes as you KNOW the hen has at least 1 blue shell gene. The rooster could have no blue shell genes.

If you want to get and keep blue shell layers, only set blue eggs, or only breed from a rooster you KNOW has blue shell genes.

Hope that makes sense now.

LofMc

 

[Rose Quartz]

Did you just get these hens from someone else? I dont understand how they might have been bred

 

[artvandolay]

To have blue shell eggs either the hen (mother) or the rooster (father) must have the genetics for blue shells. (Chickens, like humans, are diploid meaning every trait has 2 genes that control that trait. In chickens, blue shell is controlled at one slot of 2 genes. Since blue is dominant, you only need 1 of those 2 genes at that slot to get blue shells).

You can breed a blue shell hybrid rooster (meaning he only has 1 blue shell gene) to a brown laying hen and get SOME blue laying daughters...typically statistically 50% as 50% of the time he passes his 1 blue shell gene and 50% of the time he passes that empty slot with no blue shell gene.

The only way to test an Easter Egger or Olive Egger rooster is to set him over brown or white layer and check the daugthers. If you hatch 10 daughters, statistically 5 of them will become blue shell layers while 5 of them will be brown layers.

If you set an unknown blue shell gene rooster over a blue layer hen, you won't know who passed the genes as you KNOW the hen has at least 1 blue shell gene. The rooster could have no blue shell genes.

If you want to get and keep blue shell layers, only set blue eggs, or only breed from a rooster you KNOW has blue shell genes.

Hope that makes sense now.

LofMc

Yes, I'm understanding it a bit better now! Thank you.

Of course, I was just given a blue EE yesterday so I can incubate that one and for sure I know it will have the gene.

I just won't know if these orignal chicks will have the gene and only one may be a pullet. I'm not sure yet.

 

[artvandolay]

Did you just get these hens from someone else? I dont understand how they might have been bred

Yes, this first clutch was a barnyard mix of the mentioned breeds, some pure and some mixed.

I added a few Australorps to that clutch.

Then I got another clutch of eggs that are Erminette and Mille Fleurs, but these are 4 weeks younger and just hatched last week.