Egg color

[chickenbritt5908]

I have some off spring from an olive egger rooster. They are crossed with a variety of my brown egg layers, so I was expecting a variety of olive eggs from these girls. But today, I noticed that the egg that had been under one of the girls was brown. Her mom is my blue production (blue australorp x RIR). So do the parents’ egg color genes not always mix?

 

[LadiesAndJane]

When you cross an olive egger (F1) with a brown egg layer you may get a deeper olive green egg but you also increase your chances of getting a brown egg. It is about 50/50. There’s a good chance some of your others may lay olive colored eggs. See attached chart for reference.

 

[chickenbritt5908]

When you cross an olive egger (F1) with a brown egg layer you may get a deeper olive green egg but you also increase your chances of getting a brown egg. It is about 50/50. There’s a good chance some of your others may lay olive colored eggs. See attached chart for reference.View attachment 2421905

Thank you! I have seen that chart before but I guess I never paid attention to the last part. Very interesting! My olive egger was a Welsummer x cream legbar crossed back to a cream legbar.

 

[Ridgerunner]

One way to look at it is that there are two base egg shell colors, blue or white. There is one gene pair that controls that. Since blue is dominant if just one of the genes at that pair is blue, the hen will lay a base blue egg. If you crack an egg and remove the membrane from the inside of the shell you will see the base color. Brown or green is made by putting brown on top of the base color.

Blue + no brown = blue
Blue + brown = green
White + no brown = white
White + brown = brown.

Brown comes in all kinds of different shades so you can get a huge range of different shades of green or brown shells.

I don't know the genetic make-up of your OE rooster. Roosters don't lay eggs so how can you tell unless you know the genetic make-up of both his parents? Since one of his daughters laid a brown egg there are two possibilities. In either case the Australorp/RIR hen contributes a not-blue gene.

Symbols sometimes help so in this large "O" stands for the dominant blue gene. A small "o" stands for the recessive not-blue gene.

If your male has one blue gene he is O,o and will pass one of these genes to his offspring at random. About half of his offspring should get an O and lay a base blue egg. The other half will get an o and lay a brown egg. Your hen will always give an o to all offspring.

The other possibility is that he does not have any blue genes. If that is the case none of the offspring will lay blue eggs.

If he were O,O then all of his offspring would get an O and all the girls would lay a base blue egg. That did not happen so he cannot be O,O.

Bottom line is that you will have to wait and see what the other pullets lay. I wish you luck.

 

[LMN1966]

One way to look at it is that there are two base egg shell colors, blue or white. There is one gene pair that controls that. Since blue is dominant if just one of the genes at that pair is blue, the hen will lay a base blue egg. If you crack an egg and remove the membrane from the inside of the shell you will see the base color. Brown or green is made by putting brown on top of the base color.

Blue + no brown = blue
Blue + brown = green
White + no brown = white
White + brown = brown.

Brown comes in all kinds of different shades so you can get a huge range of different shades of green or brown shells.

I don't know the genetic make-up of your OE rooster. Roosters don't lay eggs so how can you tell unless you know the genetic make-up of both his parents? Since one of his daughters laid a brown egg there are two possibilities. In either case the Australorp/RIR hen contributes a not-blue gene.

Symbols sometimes help so in this large "O" stands for the dominant blue gene. A small "o" stands for the recessive not-blue gene.

If your male has one blue gene he is O,o and will pass one of these genes to his offspring at random. About half of his offspring should get an O and lay a base blue egg. The other half will get an o and lay a brown egg. Your hen will always give an o to all offspring.

The other possibility is that he does not have any blue genes. If that is the case none of the offspring will lay blue eggs.

If he were O,O then all of his offspring would get an O and all the girls would lay a base blue egg. That did not happen so he cannot be O,O.

Bottom line is that you will have to wait and see what the other pullets lay. I wish you luck.

Oh thanks for sharing this information!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Thank you! I have seen that chart before but I guess I never paid attention to the last part. Very interesting! My olive egger was a Welsummer x cream legbar crossed back to a cream legbar.

Oh then, he likely is what on the chart is a "dull spearment layer", though of course hard to say when he does not lay eggs! That should give some interesting results. ☺

 

[chickenbritt5908]

Okay well turns out. I really was looking at it correctly, and was correct in my confusion. Yesterday, upon further inspection of the little makeshift nest they created... there was another egg with the brown one that was covered up by some hay. I found the egg I was expecting to get from this girl.
Thanks everyone for the information though! Lol

 

[rosemarythyme]

there was another egg with the brown one that was covered up by some hay. I found the egg I was expecting to get from this girl.

What an amazing green egg!

 

[Peytonandpancakes]

So, I’m only a year into the chicken “thing”, but I’m discovering that I’m really partial to egg colors. What type of chickens or combination lay the darkest green eggs? Your green ones are BEAUTIFUL!

 

[LadiesAndJane]

So, I’m only a year into the chicken “thing”, but I’m discovering that I’m really partial to egg colors. What type of chickens or combination lay the darkest green eggs? Your green ones are BEAUTIFUL!

If you look at the chart earlier in the thread, you can see what is called the F2 (second generation) olive egger. These are a F1 olive egger crossed back to a dark brown egg layer. These will lay the darkest olive green eggs. Half the female offspring from this cross will lay the dark olive and half will lay the dark brown. If you want to be sure to get the olive green eggs, then go with an F1 (first generation). Many ways to get there. Many different breeds can be used to make olive eggers, though traditionally it is cross between an Ameraucana (purebred, not an Easter Egger) and a Black Copper Marans.