Egg color question

[Wisher1000]

What color eggs will be laid by a cross between an EE roo and a Blk SL hen?

 

[dsqard]

It depends on what color egg the rooster hatched out of and what was crossed to make the SL hen. Could be brown, green, blue or olive colored.
ETA - I am assuming that you mean what colored egg the chicks of this crossing would lay. The SL hen will lay whatever color she lays no matter what rooster you use.

 

[Wisher1000]

ROFL! Yes, I know that my brown egg laying girls will always lay brown eggs - I'm a newbie, not a dingbat! But of course, you don't know that! I fully understand you feeling you had to make sure!! Too funny! I guess I was looking for generalities since I don't know what color the roo hatched out of (bought as day old) and don't know about my girls, either. They were sold as "Black Sex-Links" from Ideal through a retail store. I'm trying to decide if I want to keep the roos or start with something I can better predict. Thanks for the reply, and the good laugh this morning!!

 

[dsqard]

Didn't take you for a dingbat

I just added that because I had someone state to me that the rooster, by mating with the hens, determines the egg color. I was surprised by this and had to explain to him that, no they lay what ever color they lay depending on their genetics.

Anyway, hard to predict what color you will get until the offspring start laying. I have a B/W Ameraucana roo that I am hoping hatched out of a really pretty blue egg so that his offspring will lay really blue eggs. Right now I am getting greens out of my pullets. Not sure of the genetics enough to know if his (hopefully) blue egg gene will overcome the green. Still learning about all this stuff.

I am planning on hatching out some of the eggs and hopefully will find out around June or July what color they will lay.
BTW - if your girls are laying brown and your roo carries the blue egg gene, then you will probably get beautiful olive eggs out of the offspring!

 

[Wisher1000]

I bought straight run "Aracauna" chicks which turned out to be EE's. That was okay, they were $1 each. What I wanted was pretty eggs. Looks like what I got was 3-5 roos! They are really pretty but not what I had in mind. Now I am considering my options. Here are my eggs...

I will be anxious to see the color of the eggs laid by the one (nearly) certain pullet I have. I really don't need any more chicks, just wanted pretty eggs!

 

[dsqard]

Are any of the EE pullets laying yet? Just thinking that if you wound up with EE roosters and pullets and the pullets are laying brown then your roosters might not be carrying the blue egg gene. If you are looking for pretty colored eggs you have a few options. You could get an Ameraucana rooster from a breeder or you could get more EE roosters from a different hatchery to see if you get one that carries the blue egg gene. Then you could hatch out the offspring and hope they lay colored eggs. Or you could order Ameraucana or Araucana chicks from a breeder and know for sure that you will get colored eggs. All breeders I have seen only sell straight run so you would wind up with more roosters but you would also wind up with some pullets that would lay colored eggs. It all depends on what you want.

BTW very nice eggs! Wish I had that many on the counter! Right now it would take me weeks to get that many together!

 

[Wisher1000]

All of those eggs came from my 5 BSL hens. It is about a weeks worth. They lay consistently so I get about 4 or 5 eggs a day. I'm still getting that even though I have no supplemental light! The EE's are only 6 weeks old and I fear I have only one pullet. Like I said, I am just considering options on what to do with all the roos! My question was geared toward my consideration of letting the EE roo(s) cover the BSL hens and seeing what color eggs I get (from the resulting pullets, of course ... more likely I will rehome the roos and try to get some pullets that lay pretty eggs. HaHaHa I don't know why I bother, I'm just going to eat them! Actually I get alot of pleasure from collecting and shareing my eggs and feel warm and fuzzy all over when someone oooohs and ahhhs over how pretty they are.......