Egg production genetics

[lazy gardener]

As far as friendliness goes, I find my EE and Ams to be middle of the road. I don't make pets of them. I think you will see an increase of flightiness if you cross in Leghorn. My flightiest birds have been various sorts of leghorns.

 

[Joeschooks]

Hi Joe. It's good to see your hens are doing well. I'm not sure on whether crossing the leghorn with a Araucana cockeral will increase egg production. I have some whitestar hens that are leghorn hybrids and they lay alot. I'm not sure how many but lay most days. A beautiful big white egg. And I had two Araucana hens (one died not so long back) and they layed most days aswell. If you cross them I'm not sure it would increase the egg production much but you could end up with a big pale blue egg most days. I have 8 Araucana eggs in my incubator now. I'm not sure what colours but I'm hoping for two wheaton hens. My Araucanas are the friendliest hens in my run. They both would come running up to me and one will jump up me if I'm standing still! The whitestars are very flighty but I think because I bought them as older pullets they hadn't been handled much and never let me get close enough to do so.

Good luck with your hatch. I absolutely love Araucanas. Yes, I’m sure you’re right about the large blue eggs...There’s a breeder a few miles up the road from me who is doing this cross. Although my stock will be from different lines she states “they are excellent layers of large light blue eggs”. That’s good as I do find Araucana eggs tend to be small. Apparently they’re very popular but then I think all blue-eggers are (even the cockerels I hatch are popular!)

As far as friendliness goes, I find my EE and Ams to be middle of the road. I don't make pets of them. I think you will see an increase of flightiness if you cross in Leghorn. My flightiest birds have been various sorts of leghorns.

I think so too. I wonder if anyone has ever had a cuddley leghorn?
I won’t be hatching until next year but be interesting to see how they turn out.

 

[nicalandia]

Egg production genetics can be classified as a polygenic trait, many of those genes are bound to be sex linked, breeding an Araucana rooster to Leghorn hens will not be as productive as a Leghorn rooster over Araucana hens, I would say the female progeny of this cross would lay closer to low 200's than the 250 mark, but the reciprocal cross would lay mid to high 200's

 

[Joeschooks]

Egg production genetics can be classified as a polygenic trait, many of those genes are bound to be sex linked, breeding an Araucana rooster to Leghorn hens will not be as productive as a Leghorn rooster over Araucana hens, I would say the female progeny of this cross would lay closer to low 200's than the 250 mark, but the reciprocal cross would lay mid to high 200's

Thanks. Is that always the case then, that higher production comes from the fathers line?

 

[nicalandia]

Thanks. Is that always the case then, that higher production comes from the fathers line?

As far as polygenic traits goes, yes.

Years ago I had a Fibromelanotic Leghorn project, I crossed a local rooster from a line of broody, low productive Fibromelanotic rooster with Spent/Discarded White leghorns Hens, as predicted the cross was sex linked(hens with black skin), but production improvement was very low, the hens hardly lay more then the local lines, they went broody and had their body conformation was intermediate between Leghorn/Local, I took the rooster and cross it back to white Leghorn, it was until that cross that I saw much improvement, but at that time they were 75% White leghorns. When I go to 7/8th Leghorn not only the hens were very productive, but the 7/8(87.5%) roosters when crossed to the same local hen lines they sired very productive hens that laid better than the firs F1 cross and did not go broody which made them more productive because of that

 

[nicalandia]

And since we are on the subject of Egg Production Genetics(OP) I would like to point out a research on reciprocal cross between RJF and White Leghorns done by Yuichi SAEKI and Yorio INOUE

They study Polygenic traits like egg production, age at first egg and broodiness and found that many of the genes found on the Polygenic traits participate in the sex-linked inheritance.

Summary:

The present study was conducted to clarify some performances of polygenic traits and their genetic aspects in the red jungle fowl (RJF) using the reciprocal cross with White Leghorns (WL). Four mating systems, RJF (♂♂)×RJF (♀♀), WL (♂♂)×WL (♀♀), WL (♂♂)×RJF (♀♀), RJF (♂♂)×WL (♀♀), were appropriated for the genetic analyses of polygenic traits.

The average weight of the baby chick involving both sexes was arranged in the order of WL×WL: 43.7, RJF×WL: 42.8, WL×RJF: 25.9, and RJF×RJF: 23.2g, and corresponding weight at 10 weeks of age being 950.5, 711.8, 666.7, and 389.4g, respectively.

Egg production per year in the RJF×RJF, WL×WL, WL×RJF and RJF×WL averaged 28, 255, 184, and 148 eggs, respectively.

Eighty-seven % of the jungle fowl went broody. In the percentage of broody hens, a significant difference was observed between WL (♂♂)× RJF (♀♀): 11.1% and RJF (♂♂)×WL (♀♀): 63.0%.

Pullets produced from the WL×WL, RJF×RJF, WL×RJF, and RJF×WL laid the first egg at 158.9, 298.3, 163.4, and 182.2 days of age.

The difference between the crosses of WL×RJF and those of RJF×WL was statistically significant.

Average body weight at first egg was arranged in the order of WL×WL: 1763, WL× RJF: 1348, RJF×WL: 1260, and RJF×RJF: 887g.

Average weight of the eggs laid in March and August was the highest (57.4g) in the Leghorn, and the lowest (34.8g) in the red jungle fowl

PDF: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jpsa1964/16/3/16_3_121/_pdf


From the research we can conclude the many of the Egg Production Traits(eggs laid per year, egg size, broodiness) are Polygenic in nature and many of the genes are sexlinked, while not on this paper but from anecdotal experience from many dark brown egg breeders(Marans, Welsummer) we can confirm that the darkness of the eggs laid by a hen will be affected more by the genes inherited by it's sire(father of said hen) than the dame of the hen lines. This ins not the case for the blue egg shell gene that is a single autosomal incompletely dominant gene(O/o+ on a white egg shell background will be pale blue compared to O/O on a white egg shell background)

 

[Joeschooks]

And since we are on the subject of Egg Production Genetics(OP) I would like to point out a research on reciprocal cross between RJF and White Leghorns done by Yuichi SAEKI and Yorio INOUE

They study Polygenic traits like egg production, age at first egg and broodiness and found that many of the genes found on the Polygenic traits participate in the sex-linked inheritance.

Summary:

The present study was conducted to clarify some performances of polygenic traits and their genetic aspects in the red jungle fowl (RJF) using the reciprocal cross with White Leghorns (WL). Four mating systems, RJF (♂♂)×RJF (♀♀), WL (♂♂)×WL (♀♀), WL (♂♂)×RJF (♀♀), RJF (♂♂)×WL (♀♀), were appropriated for the genetic analyses of polygenic traits.

The average weight of the baby chick involving both sexes was arranged in the order of WL×WL: 43.7, RJF×WL: 42.8, WL×RJF: 25.9, and RJF×RJF: 23.2g, and corresponding weight at 10 weeks of age being 950.5, 711.8, 666.7, and 389.4g, respectively.

Egg production per year in the RJF×RJF, WL×WL, WL×RJF and RJF×WL averaged 28, 255, 184, and 148 eggs, respectively.

Eighty-seven % of the jungle fowl went broody. In the percentage of broody hens, a significant difference was observed between WL (♂♂)× RJF (♀♀): 11.1% and RJF (♂♂)×WL (♀♀): 63.0%.

Pullets produced from the WL×WL, RJF×RJF, WL×RJF, and RJF×WL laid the first egg at 158.9, 298.3, 163.4, and 182.2 days of age.

The difference between the crosses of WL×RJF and those of RJF×WL was statistically significant.

Average body weight at first egg was arranged in the order of WL×WL: 1763, WL× RJF: 1348, RJF×WL: 1260, and RJF×RJF: 887g.

Average weight of the eggs laid in March and August was the highest (57.4g) in the Leghorn, and the lowest (34.8g) in the red jungle fowl

PDF: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jpsa1964/16/3/16_3_121/_pdf


From the research we can conclude the many of the Egg Production Traits(eggs laid per year, egg size, broodiness) are Polygenic in nature and many of the genes are sexlinked, while not on this paper but from anecdotal experience from many dark brown egg breeders(Marans, Welsummer) we can confirm that the darkness of the eggs laid by a hen will be affected more by the genes inherited by it's sire(father of said hen) than the dame of the hen lines. This ins not the case for the blue egg shell gene that is a single autosomal incompletely dominant gene(O/o+ on a white egg shell background will be pale blue compared to O/O on a white egg shell background)

Gosh that’s all very technical. I had to read it a few times over. The final paragraph is particularly useful.

 

[nicalandia]

Gosh that’s all very technical. I had to read it a few times over. The final paragraph is particularly useful.

What you can take home from the info is that your Araucana/Leghorn cross will likely be a bit more productive than Araucana, will likely go broody and lay pale blue eggs

 

[Guido]

Wow!
My mind has been blown open. I could get terribly into that!

 

[Cycomiko]

Maybe a little off track, but I recently crossed an Easter Egger, had all the markings of blue egg layer (pea comb, beard, dark legs) with my every-single-day egg laying machine of a White Leghorn. Incubated 9 eggs, 8 of which hatched (maybe 1 expired before incubation). Only 6 weeks old now, definitely 4 of the 8 are cockerels, maybe a fifth. I have to comment, if you cross anything with a white leghorn, you will get a white chicken... period. It's dominant in this breed. I was lucky enough to have, of the 3 most definitely pullets, one that has a few black blotches, one that has a subtle blackish/grey spot on center of back (not always visible), and finally an all white, as all the cockerels, or likely cockerel. At 6 weeks, these look beefier than a standard white leghorn, and some have dark legs and all have pea combs (great for winter). Can't wait to see the production of these, and the color.