Egg Color? Starlight Green Egger Roo x brown layer hen

[HamKristin]

I incubated 8 eggs and all 8 hatched! I have a Starlight Green egger rooster and the eggs were all with brown egg layers : calico princess, silver laced wyandotte, black sex link, RIR, and ISA Brown. What color eggs will they lay now? Olive? Brown?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

The blue shell gene (oocyan) causes bile to be thrown into the calcite gland creating blue shells (crack open a blue egg and you have blue inside too). Brown is created by a hemoglobin wash applied on top of the shell as it goes down the egg tract. (Crack open a brown egg an you see white shell inside). How much wash depends on how many of those brown genes are lined up right (about 13 genes control this). Brown wash over white shell produces brown toned eggs. Brown wash over blue shell produces green tone eggs. How deep a green depends on how dark a brown wash.

Typically hybrids such as Starlight Green carry only 1 blue shell gene, with the genes for brown wash. If that is the case, 50% of the daughters will lay green to olive eggs (depending upon how many of the brown wash genes they inherited) and 50% of the daughters will lay brown tone eggs, how deep will depend on how many of the brown wash genes they inherited.

If by chance your boy carries 2 blue shell genes, then 100% of his daughters will have a blue shell gene...applying the brown wash over that...and you get shades of green to olive.

Brown genetics are harder to keep in the line and harder to breed out. Meaning, I seem to get lighter and lighter green with subsequent generations (unless I line breed back to a dark brown rooster). However, once you get brown wash genetics in your line, I find it is hard to breed it out back to true blue (I'm working on that with my green line now).

Good luck on your chicks. I hope you get lovely shades of green.

LofMc

 

[HamKristin]

The blue shell gene (oocyan) causes bile to be thrown into the calcite gland creating blue shells (crack open a blue egg and you have blue inside too). Brown is created by a hemoglobin wash applied on top of the shell as it goes down the egg tract. (Crack open a brown egg an you see white shell inside). How much wash depends on how many of those brown genes are lined up right (about 13 genes control this). Brown wash over white shell produces brown toned eggs. Brown wash over blue shell produces green tone eggs. How deep a green depends on how dark a brown wash.

Typically hybrids such as Starlight Green carry only 1 blue shell gene, with the genes for brown wash. If that is the case, 50% of the daughters will lay green to olive eggs (depending upon how many of the brown wash genes they inherited) and 50% of the daughters will lay brown tone eggs, how deep will depend on how many of the brown wash genes they inherited.

If by chance your boy carries 2 blue shell genes, then 100% of his daughters will have a blue shell gene...applying the brown wash over that...and you get shades of green to olive.

Brown genetics are harder to keep in the line and harder to breed out. Meaning, I seem to get lighter and lighter green with subsequent generations (unless I line breed back to a dark brown rooster). However, once you get brown wash genetics in your line, I find it is hard to breed it out back to true blue (I'm working on that with my green line now).

Good luck on your chicks. I hope you get lovely shades of green.

LofMc

Thank you SO much for your reply ! I would love to find a good book or resource on egg color genetics....it is all so interesting! And addicting!