if my rir breeds with ee....

[ams3651]

If my RIR roo breeds with my EE hen, will her offsprings eggs be brown or colored? Just wondering.

 

[speckledhen]

Does your EE lay blue eggs? If so, the pullets from that pairing would probably lay some shade of green. If she lays green, I would think the eggs from her daughters would be either green or brown, but which one, I'm not sure.

 

[ams3651]

shes not laying just yet, but someone said she may lay blue because she is white and grey. Im not sure if thats true. Im just curious how that works wether the EE as mom or dad makes the difference. Why does it matter if she lays blue or green? This is interesting.

 

[Kev]

Color of the bird, anywhere(color of legs is another very common but mistaken claim), has no effect on the egg color. Egg colors is due to GENES specifically for eggshell color. So a white hen can lay white, brown, really dark brown, blue, green etc.. just depends on what she has in regards to genes specifically for the eggshell color.

There are many genes for eggshell color, the various shades of brown & tan eggshells especially tend to have several different genes that affect the shade/intensity of the tint.

Speckled asked if the hen laid blue(OR green) because there is just one gene for what makes the eggs "blue or green" and it is a dominant gene. In other words, if she lays brown or tan eggs, she lacks the gene so this cross will produce all daughters that lay brown or tan eggs- no blue or greens.

IF she lays blue or green eggs, it shows she has the gene. Remember it is a dominant gene which means the cross will produce daughters that lay blue or green eggs.. it could be half of the daughters, if the mother had only one copy of the gene.. ALL of the daughters will if she had two copies.

The gene for blue and green eggs is due to the same gene.. the difference is what other genes the hen has- if she has genes for lighter eggshells, then her eggs will tend to be blue-bluish.. if she has genes for brown or darker eggshells then the eggs will be green. It's a visual combination of the blue and brown you're seeing on the green eggs.

 

[speckledhen]

Kevin, you are absolutely right. I said that all wrong and after I typed it, realized my mistake. Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Kev]

Speckled, you did have it pretty much right on.. I had to jump in this thread on the claim regarding the color of the bird having an influence on egg color- see and hear that quite a lot along with the leg color and threw in a little extra regarding the egg colors.

I think the whole EE/A/A and egg color should be stickied at top as new thread questions regarding those seems to come up every week, even sometimes a couple times in the same week.

 

[speckledhen]

I've heard the green legs/green eggs association, but this is the first time I'd heard the plumage color being associated with the egg color. Thanks again, Kev, for weighing in on the thread.

 

[purplepoen]

I've always head that mixing green layer + brown layer = pink eggs. Is that wrong?