Can anyone teach me about egg color genetics?

[risingstarpoultry]

I still thank that egg color is just how much pigment the hen has and the rooster has to have something to do with it if he is the father.He is half of the babby chickens.
Just someting interesting ,I seperater all of my welsummer hens and all of the darkest eggs were the hens with the darkest toenails ,,, isnt that kind of interesting ,maybe theres a conection with this pigment and egg color?

 

[Meara]

Sonoran Silkies wrote: Shininess to an egg is actually caused by a specific gene.

I have been wondering about that! Is the gene dominant or recessive? Do you have any additional information about it? Is the hen depositing a final coating that is shiny? How does this work???​

 

[gryeyes]

Quote:
Hens lay eggs whether there is a rooster in the flock or not. Don't need a rooster for hens to lay eggs, therefore the shell color is entirely up to her genetics. All by herself, without any rooster. Roosters just fertilize the eggs to make half of the chick.... not half of the egg shell.

 

[darkmatter]

 

[kfacres]

Quote:
Hens lay eggs whether there is a rooster in the flock or not. Don't need a rooster for hens to lay eggs, therefore the shell color is entirely up to her genetics. All by herself, without any rooster. Roosters just fertilize the eggs to make half of the chick.... not half of the egg shell.

no but the rooster (sire of the hen) is a contributing factor towards the genetics of the hen that lays that egg, which is painted a particular color on the shell.

Sorry, but YOU do not understand what the previous poster is saying. Go back one generation, or jump forward one... This poster is taking in the past and the future... You are stuck in thinking in the present.

To go further...

You mate a RIR Roo (brown eggs), to a leghorn (white eggs). The hen will lay all white eggs, but her daughters will lay brown eggs and sons will possess the brown egg gene.

you then take those brown egg laying daughters, and mate them with a pure Araucana (blue eggs). Those hens will lay brown eggs, but their daughters will lay blue, green, and maybe olive eggs.

So there you have granddaughters of a white egg laying chicken, laying blue eggs... according to your justification, that is not possille b/c the rooster has nothing over egg color.. whereas here in 2 generations, the rooste completely changed the egg color.. If you were right, these chickens would still be laying white colored eggs...

 

[gryeyes]

Actually, I do understand the following generation business of it, and mentioned that, having said "You can work up a hen's offspring laying different colored eggs.". I didn't perceive the OP referring to future generations, just the present.

But thank you for spelling that out in detail.

 

[Meara]

I still want to hear more about the shininess factor. And what about speckles, are they genetic?

 

[pnp4kidz]

Loving this thread!
Yes, as OP I was asking about current generation, hen laying unfertilized egg, hen laying mating to BCM, hen laying bred to white roo, hen laying mated to Buff roo...
all eggs identical?
answer: yes.

offspring females may/will lay differing colored eggs, and may/will appear different than each other,
except for the first mentioned.. which will all be identical... (they will be a completely dud egg in the bator... )

 

[kfacres]

Quote:
we'll call it a draw...

anyways, back to the original question (of which I guess I never read, beings I thought this was a thread I had already read the upper portion before...

Way back when, we used to get some pink eggs from a batch of hatchery RIR hens. The interesting part was these eggs would change colors actually... When warm they were pink, when cooled they turned to brown, and when warm again.. they were back to pink. I also found that the "pink" color, could be rubbed off, with just a rag or shirt.

The color pink, doesn't really exist... it's just an optical illusion.

my guess is that your pink layer, is really the same as the brown... and some days the egg just looks different...

the rooster doing the mating at this time.. doesn't effect egg color