Green egg color gene question

[showbarnmom]

Just hatched 5 chicks from blue eggs. They are frizzled Cochin x EE mixes. 99% the majority if not all are from one hen that I have that lays blue eggs. She's GLW x Americauna mix, but has yellow legs, instead of slate. The 5 chicks that hatched are all feathered shanked yellow legged. (Rooster has pretty feathered legs, and is frizzled.) I am sure I won't know for sure what color, but what is the likelyhood this chicks will lay blue eggs? Is the blue egg gene a dominate one? IE : If they hatch from blue eggs, they will lay blue eggs?

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The blue is dominant. But if the rooster's genetics are from a brown egg breed his offspring will likely put a coat of brown over the blue resulting in a green egg.

 

[enola]

X2

 

[kelck22]

Any blue egg laying hen that is mixed with a brown egg gene roo will lay green.

 

[showbarnmom]

I just went back and realized I put green and blue. *sigh* Oh well. I am glad you got it lol.

My goal is to have Frizzled colored egg layers. So green is great, too! I have not ever had a Cochin hen, are their eggs cream brown, or darker, like a RIR?

I also have a maran, and hopefully soon some welsummers to add to the colored genes.

 

[showbarnmom]

Thank you everyone! I knew if I kept my Maran roo, he would make olive eggers, with my blue egg hens. Just wasn't sure about the cochin egg influence.

 

[kelck22]

My cochins lay a light brown/ cream colored egg.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Just keep in mind that both parents can't be frizzled.

 

[showbarnmom]

Nope, one smooth one frizzle. Don't want naked birds! Too chilly ! Lol

 

[Morgan Jones]

Just hatched 5 chicks from blue eggs. They are frizzled Cochin x EE mixes. 99% the majority if not all are from one hen that I have that lays blue eggs. She's GLW x Americauna mix, but has yellow legs, instead of slate. The 5 chicks that hatched are all feathered shanked yellow legged. (Rooster has pretty feathered legs, and is frizzled.) I am sure I won't know for sure what color, but what is the likelyhood this chicks will lay blue eggs? Is the blue egg gene a dominate one? IE : If they hatch from blue eggs, they will lay blue eggs?

Am I correct in thinking you are asking whether all the female chicks will lay blue/green eggs?

If she is a cross between GLW & Amerucana & the father of the chicks is a cochin, then no not all of her pullet chicks will lay blue/green eggs.

All things being equal, statistically, over time, 50% of her pullet chicks will lay blue/green eggs, the other 50% laying non blue/green eggs.

The reason for this is that the autosomal dominant gene O gives blue/green eggs. Your Amerauacana ought to have had a pair of blue/green eggs genes, written as O//O. The wyandotte will have had a pair of the wild type non blue/green eggs written o+//o+. The offspring will each have inherited one of ech of these genes from each parent. Thus your blue egg laying mix has one of each type of gene i.e. O//o+. O is dominant thus she lays blue/gren eggs. However the cochin will have a gene pair which do not carry any blue/green egg genes i.e. o+//o+. So all of the offspring will inherit an o+ gene from the cochin father & will inherit either O or o+ gene from the mix mother. Those pullet chicks which inherit the O gene from the mother, will have a genepair O//o+ & will lay blue/green eggs but the pullet chicks which inherit the o+ gene from the mother will have a gene pair o+//o+ & will not lay blue/green eggs. The males will also have inherited an o+ gene from their father & either an O or an o+ from the mother & have an equal chance of having O//o+ or o+//o+ gene pair.

BUT assuming the Americana parent of your mix hen had a pair of pea comb genes (as well as the pair of blue/green egg genes), you will have a good chance of bing able to see which chicks will have inherited the blue/green egg gene. The reason for this is that the pea comb gene & the blue/green egg gene are close together on the same chromosome so, all things being equal, statistically 96% of all offspring which inherit the pea comb gene will also inherit the blue egg gene. So, you have a pretty good chance that the offspring which inherit a pea comb will also have inherited the blue/geen egg gene.

This may have been made a little more difficult to see, if the wyandotte father of your mix had a rose comb, which your mix inherited along with a pea comb, but essentially even if some of the offspring have inherited both rose & pea comb in the same bird, you ought to be able to see which birds have a pea comb irrespective of what other comb genes they may have inherited.

Hope that helps.