Do Whiting True Blues have the Zinc White gene?

[TexasBlues]

I found some info at this site about breeding whiting true blues to make olive eggers. The marans x wtb have a legitimate olive color.
https://silverhomestead.com/oliveegger/

 

[TexasBlues]

I candled the eggs last night and 11 out of 16 looked like they were developing. I'm happy with the numbers so far. The kids were excited to help me see the developing chicks.

I cracked open the 5 bad ones. I couldn't see any development, but the yolks were definitely large. They did look to be fertilized. I think the air cell had detached on them because everything was moving freely inside when I candled.

On the undeveloped eggs, the shells are pale blue. You could easily mistake them for white. I honestly thought the blue egg coloring would be more noticeable. I made the assumption that all whiting true blues would are homozygous for the blue egg gene. I'm also assuming that these eggs came from birds that have been bred for atleast 1 generation removed from whiting farms. Maybe the age of the hen and other factors are in play when it comes to the blue eggs. The shells seem to be thinner than normal when I cracked the bad ones.

Luckily most of the bad eggs were the ones that looked the whitest. Hopefully the chicks that do hatch will be from the bluest eggs.