Do I want to learn about genetics? Yes. Is it very intimidating and scary? Yes.

[EmmaRainboe]

Brown and white are a spectrum, including redness and thickness of bloom, etc. Different shades of brown are a complex series of genes that range from stark white to marans deep.

The blue is its own gene and is irrelevant of any color in the bloom. It's a gene that puts oocyanin in the calcium of the eggshell structure itself, as opposed to a coating on the inside. Blue eggs are blue on the inside and brown eggs are white inside. Depth of color is partially determined by more complex genes, but the presence of blue in general is its own color determined by a single simple dominant gene.

And you're correct, you need a blue base with a dark brown coating for an olive egg and even many blue egg layers actually have a small amount of brown bloom to darken and enhance the color. The best blue eggs are often actually more cream if you took away the blue coloration.

What spectrum are white and brown on?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

What spectrum are white and brown on?

https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Genetics_of_Egg_Color_in_Chickens

 

[EmmaRainboe]

https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Genetics_of_Egg_Color_in_Chickens

Thank you!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

What spectrum are white and brown on?

Short short version, they're like a gradient controlled by so many genes it's hard to keep track of the interactions and your best bet is to just keep breeding lighter or darker colored chicken eggs together for lighter and darker colored eggs. So if you have a chicken that lays brown eggs it would take several to dozens of generations breeding back to lighter egg layers to get it to lay cream eggs. Whereas you can suss out blue egg genes in just a few years because it is a simple dominant.

 

[Amer]

So O/O is a blue layer, is O/o a blue layer? What would a brown/tan/white/cream layer be, would they all be on different genes, because for like an olive egger you need blue and brown? Or would o/o be white? Because blue and white are both actual shell, while brown and everything else is the coating ontop?

There are multiple brown genes, but either way, brown is dominant over white. I can't remember if there is a gene symbol so for our purposes it is "B."
OOb+b+ and Oo+b+b+ are blue
oob+b+ is white
Olive eggers are OOBB, Oo+BB, OOBb+, or Oo+Bb+.

 

[EverV]

There are multiple brown genes, but either way, brown is dominant over white. I can't remember if there is a gene symbol so for our purposes it is "B."
OOb+b+ and Oo+b+b+ are blue
oob+b+ is white
Olive eggers are OOBB, Oo+BB, OOBb+, or Oo+Bb+.

So both blue and brown genes are needed for blue and/or green eggs?
With the gold laced wyandotte rooster, and the silver laced hen, what would the female chicks look like when full grown? Would they be gold wyandotte hens? Thanks!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

No, you don't need brown for blue eggs, brown gene is a coating, blue is in the shell. But blue without brown tends to be very pale.

 

[Amer]

So both blue and brown genes are needed for blue and/or green eggs?
With the gold laced wyandotte rooster, and the silver laced hen, what would the female chicks look like when full grown? Would they be gold wyandotte hens? Thanks!

Both are needed for green eggs.
To the second question, yes.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Do Ameraucana's have O/O or O/o or can it be either?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Do Ameraucana's have O/O or O/o or can it be either?

Real ameraucanas SHOULD have OO, because if you breed Oo to Oo you can get brown/white egg layers (oo). But it sometimes depends on who you get them from, even breeders can be unreliable about it on occasion. :T :T :T I know from experience.