egg color genetics ???

[evonne]

okay, so, i've got these leghorn/EE mixes
mom was leghorn, dad is EE
do not know what color egg dad came from... hatchery stock from feed store....

these guys hatched out of white leghorn eggs....
they have awsome peacombs, and a greenish/blueish irridescent looking earlobe
i'm pretty sure they cerry the blue egg gene....
the question at this point is will it be passed onto their offspring?? or will the white egg the hatched out of dilute that blue gene??
i know the hen they mate with will also affect the offspring, but how dominant is the blue gene??
the hens from the same cross have peacombs also, and the same cool earlobe color.... i'm hoping they start laying in march, and i'm hoping that will help better id what color my EE roo is adding into these guys... green /vs blue.....

i'm needing to get rid of the extra roos, and i'm just wondering if it's safe to tell people their offspring will lay green eggs??
granted, if their daddy keeps up his shenannigans i may sell him off and keep one of the little ones.. they're ssoo sweet... lol..

 

[blackdotte]

The gene for blue eggs O is dominant, birds that have either O/O or O/o+ will have the blue gene. This gene is located extremely close to the pea comb gene P, again a dominant so either P/P or P/r+ will be pea combed. These genes are nearly always inherited together. So any pea combed pullets are very likely to lay blue/green based eggs.
Green to Khaki eggs are blue eggs with a surface coating of brown pigment.`
A blue egg O/O male mated to a white egg female o+/o+ could be expected to lay paler blue eggs.
A blue egg O/O male mated to a brown egg female o+/o+ could be expected to lay green eggs.
A blue egg O/o+ male mated to a white egg female o+/o+ could be expected to lay some blue eggs and some white eggs.
A blue egg O/o+ male mated to a brown egg female o+/o+ could be expected to lay some green/khaki eggs and some brown eggs.
As you do not know what the genotype of your EE cockerel is you will just have to wait until his daughters start laying
David

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
hope you don't mind my clarification

 

[tadkerson]

Quote:
hope you don't mind my clarification

Leghorns carry a gene or promoter ( piece of DNA that controls a gene in some manner) that will cause heterozygous blue egg shell to produce a very pale blue egg almost white in color.

Tim

 

[evonne]

Quote:
hope you don't mind my clarification

Leghorns carry a gene or promoter ( piece of DNA that controls a gene in some manner) that will cause heterozygous blue egg shell to produce a very pale blue egg almost white in color.

Tim

that was a good part of what i was wondering.. how diluted the blue would get with the pure white of the leghorn...
so best bet if you want colored eggs is to take these leghorn mixes and keep them with the darker blues and greens as opposed to putting them in with more brown eggs genes?

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
hope you don't mind my clarification

Leghorns carry a gene or promoter ( piece of DNA that controls a gene in some manner) that will cause heterozygous blue egg shell to produce a very pale blue egg almost white in color.

Tim

That's a VERY pertinent bit of information and new to me . Thank you , I'm grateful you posted !

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Yes, it is as it changes my breeding plans. I was going to put a Leghorn rooster over my EE girls, but now I think I'll scare up an EE or Ameracauna rooster instead.

.....Alan.

 

[tadkerson]

Why were you wanting to produce a leghorn cross? Were you wanting to produce a white bird or were you wanting to boost the egg production?

I worked with blue egg color and leghorns for six years. Leghorn genes do a good job of clearing up the brown egg shell pigment in a bird that would normally lay a green egg; the only problem is that the genes also effect the quantity of blue pigment placed on the eggs. The birds I had produced only carried one blue egg shell gene.

Tim

 

[evonne]

i crossed them just because that was what i had... but the first hatch from the cross gave me such wonderfully social birds... my friend took the 3 hens just yesterday, and i'm hatching some more hoping to get some more hens for another friend...
i really didn't want a leghorn.. i got her from the kindergarden hatching/failed/bought chicks at the feed store and slipped them in before the kids got there experiment.... lol...
i had bought some "aracaunas" from the feed store because i wanted the egg color.. and the teacher happened to pick up 3 more from the same hatch, and she said "our duck will hatch on thursday night*wink*" and what "hatched" were 2 ducks and a leghorn... lol.. she said the kids had asked why the chicks weren't yellow, so she got one yellow chick ....
needless to say this year, i'm supplying her hatching eggs so we know they're good eggs, and the kids will get to see white and brown and green and even banty eggs, i might even give her a peacock to start a week ahead of time if i have one at the time...

as much as the leghorn drives me nuts.. she's very flighty... i might get more just for the egg production.. and at that point i'd keep them with my EE roo since i've had good luck with that cross so far...

plus with all the marans brown, green and olive eggs i'll be having, the white and very light blue will be a nice contrast

 

[tadkerson]

My leghorn crosses always hatched very well. I had leghorns for about 5 years and as they get older they calm down. Anything I crossed with the leghorns produced flighty offspring.


This is the bird I produced. The eggs were a very light blue almost white. I no longer have the birds.




Tim