Colored eggs genetics and breeding.

[Paperplains]

Hi all!

I am a hobby breeder of green/blue egg laying chickens. I have a Ameraucana rooster who I'm assuming has homozygous colored eggs genes. All his offspring I have kept/know of lay colored eggs.

Now my dilemma is he is getting old, he's almost 6 I think, and his potency has gone way down this year. I would like to keep up within my genetics but I need a rooster who's offspring will (hopefully 100%) also all lay blue/green eggs to keep my thing going.

So my original hens are a verity of pure bred brown layers (brahma, buckeye, salmon faverolle, barred rock, etc) and I also have some of the first and second generation hens out of my rooster and original pure breds, we'll call them the Easter eggers gen 1 and 2.

Now to the question, if I mix my Ameraucana roo back to the Easter eggers gen 1 or gen 2 and hatch out a cockerel, will he also be homozygous for colored eggs?

The genetics are very confusing for me. I already have 4 chicks this year out of my gen 1 and 2 hens, (one has feathered legs with is also super confusing ) with more under a goose who will hopefully get some more to hatch.

If I would have better luck out of a gen 2 or 3 I can isolate or maybe wait another year to try and get a homozygous rooster out of what I currently have. If it's even possible.

Thank you in advance for any ideas on this confusing stuff!

 

[Frizzle and Friends]

So there's a chance either way. Your rooster has two blue egg genes and your original hens have two white egg genes (I'm ignoring the brown overlay, which is separate). When crossed, those Gen 1 Easter Eggers had one blue egg and one white egg gene, making them heterozygous. Because the blue egg gene is dominant, all those hens would lay blue eggs.
If the Gen 1 hens are bred back to the Ameruacana, then Gen 2 would contain birds homozygous for the blue egg genes and birds with one blue and one white. The rooster would pass blue eggs to all his offspring, and the hens would give either a blue or a white egg gene. Again though, 100% of these chicks would lay blue.
The Gen 2 hens make thing tricky. If the hen has two blue egg genes, then you will produce homozygous blue egg layers, since there are no white egg genes to be passed on. If she is heterozygous, then the offspring stand only a 50% chance at being homozygous.

Since you started with a pure Ameraucana, then the best way to tell egg color genetics would be to look at the comb. There is a linkage between the pea comb gene and the blue egg gene, so they tend to get transferred together. I'm not sure about the percentages, but I believe the linkage causes a 90-98% transfer together. @nicalandia knows more about this than I do. If that's the case, then you will need to look for birds pure for pea combs. Look for the smallest, neatest combs on the offspring. However, the brahmas and the buckeyes may cause issues with this, but I'm unsure. There is also genetic testing you could do, but that would cost money to ship samples to a lab. I believe it was iQ Bird Testing or The Silkie Lab that does it. Using it, you could identify the homozygous Gen 2 hens, and only hatch their eggs.

 

[Amer]

So there's a chance either way. Your rooster has two blue egg genes and your original hens have two white egg genes (I'm ignoring the brown overlay, which is separate). When crossed, those Gen 1 Easter Eggers had one blue egg and one white egg gene, making them heterozygous. Because the blue egg gene is dominant, all those hens would lay blue eggs.
If the Gen 1 hens are bred back to the Ameruacana, then Gen 2 would contain birds homozygous for the blue egg genes and birds with one blue and one white. The rooster would pass blue eggs to all his offspring, and the hens would give either a blue or a white egg gene. Again though, 100% of these chicks would lay blue.
The Gen 2 hens make thing tricky. If the hen has two blue egg genes, then you will produce homozygous blue egg layers, since there are no white egg genes to be passed on. If she is heterozygous, then the offspring stand only a 50% chance at being homozygous.

Since you started with a pure Ameraucana, then the best way to tell egg color genetics would be to look at the comb. There is a linkagebetween the pea comb gene and the blue egg gene, so they tend to get transferred together. I'm not sure about the percentages, but I believe the linkage causes a 90-98% transfer together. @nicalandia knkws more about this than I do. If that's the case, then you will need to look for birds pure for pea combs. Look for the smallest, neatest combs on the offspring. However, the brahmas and the buckeyes may cause issues with this, but I'm unsure. There is also genetic testing you could do, but that would cost money to ship samples to a lab. I believe it was iQ Bird Testing or The Silkie Lab that does it. Using it, you could identify the homozygous Gen 2 hens, and only hatch their eggs.

Agree with the above. You can't be one hundred percent certain, but birds with the neatest little pea combs are more likely to be homozygous for blue and using IQ Bird testing will give you 100 percent accuracy.
One of our members has used them with great accuracy for his projects. https://iqbirdtesting.com/chickenbreeders

 

[Paperplains]

So there's a chance either way. Your rooster has two blue egg genes and your original hens have two white egg genes (I'm ignoring the brown overlay, which is separate). When crossed, those Gen 1 Easter Eggers had one blue egg and one white egg gene, making them heterozygous. Because the blue egg gene is dominant, all those hens would lay blue eggs.
If the Gen 1 hens are bred back to the Ameruacana, then Gen 2 would contain birds homozygous for the blue egg genes and birds with one blue and one white. The rooster would pass blue eggs to all his offspring, and the hens would give either a blue or a white egg gene. Again though, 100% of these chicks would lay blue.
The Gen 2 hens make thing tricky. If the hen has two blue egg genes, then you will produce homozygous blue egg layers, since there are no white egg genes to be passed on. If she is heterozygous, then the offspring stand only a 50% chance at being homozygous.

Since you started with a pure Ameraucana, then the best way to tell egg color genetics would be to look at the comb. There is a linkagebetween the pea comb gene and the blue egg gene, so they tend to get transferred together. I'm not sure about the percentages, but I believe the linkage causes a 90-98% transfer together. @nicalandia knkws more about this than I do. If that's the case, then you will need to look for birds pure for pea combs. Look for the smallest, neatest combs on the offspring. However, the brahmas and the buckeyes may cause issues with this, but I'm unsure. There is also genetic testing you could do, but that would cost money to ship samples to a lab. I believe it was iQ Bird Testing or The Silkie Lab that does it. Using it, you could identify the homozygous Gen 2 hens, and only hatch their eggs.

Awesome thank you for clarifying all that. I don't mind doing DNA testing so that's good info also. So you think per the pea combs that this really light hen would likely be homozygous over these other ones?
Thank you so much!

 

[Amer]

Awesome thank you for clarifying all that. I don't mind doing DNA testing so that's good info also. So you think per the pea combs that this really light hen would likely be homozygous over these other ones?
Thank you so much!

The other ones definitely aren't homozygous but the white one *might* be.