Chicken Genetics

[RebelsHope]

I have been reading the hatching page and really want to try it out. I am planning on either purchasing or building my own incubator. I am not going to buy eggs for my first hatch, I'll just use some of my mutt chickens.

My question is that my roo is EE x RIR, my hens are all brown egg layers, (RIR, NHR, BO, BR, SLW, RSL). I understand that the link for green eggs is dominate. So my roo would be Gg (G= green, g = brown) My hens would be gg. So could I possibly expect 1/4 of my egg to hatch out as green egg layers? Or is that making everything to simple? Are there more factors involved?

 

[Kev]

That depends on the assumption the rooster has the gene in the first place. Many EE either are Gg as you use it or even gg.. many EE hens tan or tinted eggs- those would be gg. So the chances of him being gg is somewhat high. If his RIR parent was his father and the EE was the hen, and she laid brown or tinted eggs, then he is gg. If he came out of a green or blue egg then he has a 50% chance either way of being Gg or gg.

You got the general concept correct though. If he IS Gg then half of the offspring will be Gg. If you are really set on blue/green eggers, it would be a good idea to set a couple blue/green eggs along the cross eggs- just in case the rooster turns out to be gg.

BTW the symbol is O for the blue egg gene. The green eggs are just O on a dark tinted or brown egg.. blue + brown= green. However as long as you use a symbol consisently, it will work anyways.

Edited as missed the part where the rooster is a cross.

 

[RebelsHope]

Thanks, i had not looked up what the common symbol was so I just made it up.

Your right I didn't think it back far enough. His mother layed green eggs so I just assume, incorrectly- i just wasn't thinking, that he would have to have one dominate gene, but his mother ( I am sure that is not the correct term, but I don't know what you call a chicks maternal parent) didn't have to have two dominate genes and could have passed on a recessive. Does the O work as a modifier, modifing the color of the egg?

In the future I do want another EE but just don't have one right now. Then I starting thinking about the genetic of it all and wondered if it was possible for my roo to pass that on to his offspring.

Thanks again

 

[Kev]

No, you had the general idea spot on, excellent thinking really.

If his mother laid green eggs then there's at least a 50% chance he is Oo+(or Gg if you prefer). His mother very well could have been OO, making him Oo+ by default.. just no way to tell from here. You will find out for sure once his daughters start laying.

How the O egg looks depends on what other egg color genes is present.. the usual information is:

O + brown=green
O + white or lightly tinted= blue

So you could look at tinted/brown eggs being a modifier affecting how the O trait looks..

Good luck and here's hoping he's Oo+!

 

[RebelsHope]

Thanks