Is egg color genetics really male driven?

The genes you are working with are brown egg, blue egg, and white egg.

In your breeds, the only blue is the South American variant of oocyanin. It is a dominant gene meaning that any hen with one copy of the gene will lay a blue tinted egg.

I was able to identify 3 separate genes that produce white eggs. The most desirable is the intense white as found in leghorns. The other two genes produce a washed out version of white egg shell. This does not mean that there are only three genes involved, it just means that I was able to pick out results showing at least 3 are out there in different breeds. It is important to understand that all chicken eggs start out white and are either tinted blue by the oocyanin gene or are coated brown by porphyrin.

Brown eggs are a whole nother ball of wax. There is an entire biopath dedicated to coating eggs with porphyrin. All chickens have the porphyrin biopath, but in breeds that lay white eggs, it is interrupted at one or more places to turn off the brown coating. A study of the literature showed at least 7 different genes in the porphyrin biopath with mutations in at least 3 producing white eggs. A chromosome translocation with a lot of undesirable side effects is one variation that produces white eggs. If you are crossing a green egg layer with a white egg layer, you will wind up with segregation for some brown egg layers, some white egg layers, some sky blue egg layers, and some olive egg layers. The ratios I got were 8 brown, 1 white, 1 sky blue, and 6 olive. The number of chickens I raised was not high enough to confirm this as a verifiable and repeatable result so use this with caution.

IMO, after about 4 or 5 generations of selecting for oocyanin, it would be a really good idea to dna test for the blue egg gene and try to identify a couple of homozygous roosters. Why? If a rooster with two copies of the blue egg gene mates with a random group of hens that all lay blue eggs, the next generation should all lay blue/green eggs and about 5/8 should be homozygous for the oocyanin gene.

Also worth knowing, if you combine a white egg gene with a blue egg gene, the result is sky blue eggs. In other words, with the porphyrin biopath disabled, the eggs will not be coated and will not appear greenish/brown.
Thanks for your input. You brought up some interesting observations I could see. For one, you mentioning the white gene of the leghorn. I have a leghorn, and I see it. My svarts are from two different blood lines, and one was white, the other was tinted. The oddities of landrace breeds. The ones that lay white, are no way as flashy white as my leghorn. But then again, svarts are glossy and the leghorn is matte. In the same manor, we raised true bbs Ameracaunas last year, and got pretty blue (gloss) eggs. This year, we got a few Cream Legbars (matte due to leghorn genes), and I couldn't believe how blue they eggs were. They look like they glow blue.
As for figuring out future egg colors, I had an anomaly with my Silverudds. New layers started laying and I got a beige egg. I new which one did it because I saw her laying it. About 20 girls into breeding these beautiful green egg layers I found a dud. I then noticed her red earlobes, unlike all the others. I went on line and found a few breeders that stated this happens from time to time.
I know I will learn a lot over the next few years with this. Thanks again @DarJones
 
Thanks for your input. You brought up some interesting observations I could see. For one, you mentioning the white gene of the leghorn. I have a leghorn, and I see it. My svarts are from two different blood lines, and one was white, the other was tinted. The oddities of landrace breeds. The ones that lay white, are no way as flashy white as my leghorn. But then again, svarts are glossy and the leghorn is matte. In the same manor, we raised true bbs Ameracaunas last year, and got pretty blue (gloss) eggs. This year, we got a few Cream Legbars (matte due to leghorn genes), and I couldn't believe how blue they eggs were. They look like they glow blue.
As for figuring out future egg colors, I had an anomaly with my Silverudds. New layers started laying and I got a beige egg. I new which one did it because I saw her laying it. About 20 girls into breeding these beautiful green egg layers I found a dud. I then noticed her red earlobes, unlike all the others. I went on line and found a few breeders that stated this happens from time to time.
I know I will learn a lot over the next few years with this. Thanks again @DarJones
Two heterozygous parents for SB will yield a homozygous tan 25% of the time. I’m part of the Silverudd’s Blue group, and we are starting to test birds for blue egg genes. One of the breeders (Mika) leads the test samples. Check out our webpage: https://www.silveruddsblue.org/

I’m also interested in pairing my Silverudd’s Blues to other breeds, so I can’t wait to hear how your babies turn out!
 
I apologize for going off topic, but what age did your Svart Hona go broody? My pullet is 6 months old and this girl can lay eggs like a machine! Since she started laying, she's taken 3 days off. She is such a sweetheart. I have one SH cockerel and he is pretty amazing so far too. I also hatched one Blue Silverudd's Blue along with them and he's a big sweetheart (but he doesn't like to be held or touched). I was hoping to cross my pullet with my Silverudd's cockerel because I LOVE the way Swedish Blues have leakage!

Again I apologize for going off topic but I love these breeds as well!
 
Two heterozygous parents for SB will yield a homozygous tan 25% of the time. I’m part of the Silverudd’s Blue group, and we are starting to test birds for blue egg genes. One of the breeders (Mika) leads the test samples. Check out our webpage: https://www.silveruddsblue.org/

I’m also interested in pairing my Silverudd’s Blues to other breeds, so I can’t wait to hear how your babies turn out!
Thanks! Great to know the tan info. I will likely join the club soon. As of right now, I have all splash Silverudds Blue. I will have 12 hatching eggs this month for some new blood, and also have 5 day olds coming from Greenfire in April. As for crosses, I do have some, no good pics of them yet. All blue, but it only seems to work well with my Silverudd Roo x Svart Hen. The Svart Roo x Silverudd way seems to produce fibro but incomplete. In another pen, I have a single Silverudd girl that gets by fine, but she'll be moving soon, as I noticed the roo doesn't fertilize her and she seems to have no friends, but no troubles either. I guess it's not easy being the only splash, in a pen with lavender, blue and Svart. I will get some better pics posted soon, I have a few in a brooder, and 3 moms take care of about 8 or so, too fast for us to count, and with 3 moms, we don't disturb as one is militant in protection, one's a warmer, and one's a feeder. Weird situation. Some more hopefully hatching tomorrow, incubator and a broody hen.

the pics shows
front CL/SFH , imperfect cross, CL/SFH, perfect cross
back perfect cross, svart hona
IMG_20210228_121820548-01.jpeg
 
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I apologize for going off topic, but what age did your Svart Hona go broody? My pullet is 6 months old and this girl can lay eggs like a machine! Since she started laying, she's taken 3 days off. She is such a sweetheart. I have one SH cockerel and he is pretty amazing so far too. I also hatched one Blue Silverudd's Blue along with them and he's a big sweetheart (but he doesn't like to be held or touched). I was hoping to cross my pullet with my Silverudd's cockerel because I LOVE the way Swedish Blues have leakage!

Again I apologize for going off topic but I love these breeds as well!
I have had that young go broody. So it may very well be. As for the cockerels, we have never had a problem with either Svart Hona or Silverudds Blue. We don't pic them up, but they work with us and are quite friendly. I find it humorous that our Silverudd has a reply to everything I say around him. Not crowing, just talk. What color is yours?
 
My Silverudd's Blue is Blue. He's is chatty like your guy and his crow is amazing! We've been wanting a Longcrower for a while now and our Silverudd's Blue is the closest we may ever get to one. Of course he's nowhere close to that but his crow is the most drawn out of all of our boys. He also just does this yell out of nowhere for absolutely nothing on occasion. He's so big and hilarious. My Svart Hona pullet and cockerel are quite a bit smaller than my Silverudd's Blue. Do you find the same size difference with yours? I'd absolutely love to add more of both of these breeds because I am very impressed with both
 
My Silverudd's Blue is Blue. He's is chatty like your guy and his crow is amazing! We've been wanting a Longcrower for a while now and our Silverudd's Blue is the closest we may ever get to one. Of course he's nowhere close to that but his crow is the most drawn out of all of our boys. He also just does this yell out of nowhere for absolutely nothing on occasion. He's so big and hilarious. My Svart Hona pullet and cockerel are quite a bit smaller than my Silverudd's Blue. Do you find the same size difference with yours? I'd absolutely love to add more of both of these breeds because I am very impressed with both
We have 2 different blood lines of Svart Hona. One is a little bigger than other. The ones in the Silverudd pen are crosses and are comparable. But my Silverudd girls are about the same size as my crosses. My tiny girls may have an issue with the Silverudd. Also, if you are able to cross, you should end up with 50/50 blue and black feathered, but hopefully fibro if your Silverudds skin is right.
 
The genes you are working with are brown egg, blue egg, and white egg.

In your breeds, the only blue is the South American variant of oocyanin. It is a dominant gene meaning that any hen with one copy of the gene will lay a blue tinted egg.

I was able to identify 3 separate genes that produce white eggs. The most desirable is the intense white as found in leghorns. The other two genes produce a washed out version of white egg shell. This does not mean that there are only three genes involved, it just means that I was able to pick out results showing at least 3 are out there in different breeds. It is important to understand that all chicken eggs start out white and are either tinted blue by the oocyanin gene or are coated brown by porphyrin.

Brown eggs are a whole nother ball of wax. There is an entire biopath dedicated to coating eggs with porphyrin. All chickens have the porphyrin biopath, but in breeds that lay white eggs, it is interrupted at one or more places to turn off the brown coating. A study of the literature showed at least 7 different genes in the porphyrin biopath with mutations in at least 3 producing white eggs. A chromosome translocation with a lot of undesirable side effects is one variation that produces white eggs. If you are crossing a green egg layer with a white egg layer, you will wind up with segregation for some brown egg layers, some white egg layers, some sky blue egg layers, and some olive egg layers. The ratios I got were 8 brown, 1 white, 1 sky blue, and 6 olive. The number of chickens I raised was not high enough to confirm this as a verifiable and repeatable result so use this with caution.

IMO, after about 4 or 5 generations of selecting for oocyanin, it would be a really good idea to dna test for the blue egg gene and try to identify a couple of homozygous roosters. Why? If a rooster with two copies of the blue egg gene mates with a random group of hens that all lay blue eggs, the next generation should all lay blue/green eggs and about 5/8 should be homozygous for the oocyanin gene.

Also worth knowing, if you combine a white egg gene with a blue egg gene, the result is sky blue eggs. In other words, with the porphyrin biopath disabled, the eggs will not be coated and will not appear greenish/brown.
This is really interesting! Do you have any articles or books that you could share that discuss the 3 white egg genes? I have Hamburgs and Spitzhaubens laying white eggs, and I'm doing some experimental crosses with Spitz x Cream Legbars and Spitz x Legbar/Welsummer Olive Eggers for blue & green egg sex-linked offspring, and crosses with Spitz x Dominique for light cream egg sex-linked offspring. I'm about a month away from seeing what the Lebar & OE crosses lay. My Spitz x Dominique pullets' eggs are almost white, with just a hint of gray or pink. They definitely didn't "split the difference" and are lighter than halfway between parent breeds.

I'm adding Welsummer and Lavender Orpington roosters to the flock later this year and have been trying to figure out what to expect with any white egg crosses to dark brown or light brown.
 
Thanks! Great to know the tan info. I will likely join the club soon. As of right now, I have all splash Silverudds Blue. I will have 12 hatching eggs this month for some new blood, and also have 5 day olds coming from Greenfire in April. As for crosses, I do have some, no good pics of them yet. All blue, but it only seems to work well with my Silverudd Roo x Svart Hen. The Svart Roo x Silverudd way seems to produce fibro but incomplete. In another pen, I have a single Silverudd girl that gets by fine, but she'll be moving soon, as I noticed the roo doesn't fertilize her and she seems to have no friends, but no troubles either. I guess it's not easy being the only splash, in a pen with lavender, blue and Svart. I will get some better pics posted soon, I have a few in a brooder, and 3 moms take care of about 8 or so, too fast for us to count, and with 3 moms, we don't disturb as one is militant in protection, one's a warmer, and one's a feeder. Weird situation. Some more hopefully hatching tomorrow, incubator and a broody hen.

the pics shows
front CL/SFH , imperfect cross, CL/SFH, perfect cross
back perfect cross, svart honaView attachment 2554692

Cute! I’m glad you’ll be checking out the SB club. A lot of the breeders on the FB group are not huge fans of GFF. Do you have experience with them?
 
I am not aware of any single document that describe the white egg color genes, but if you delve around, there are plenty of articles that break down the genetics to one degree or another. For example, the chromosome translocation that causes one form of white egg also reduces size of eggs and number of eggs produced. I have reason to believe this chromosome deletion may be in some populations of cream legbars based on the description of birds after a few generations of selection for enhanced blue egg color.

When the intense white egg gene(s) is present, it almost totally suppresses production of porphyrin. You can detect the porphyrin gene by dipping the egg in water and drying it off with a paper towel. The porphyrin will be easily seen on the shell of the slightly damp egg. In a cross between a white egg layer and a green egg layer, porphyrin will be present in the F1 but can segregate with a small percentage of blue egg layers in the F2. The results I got were about 1 sky blue egg layer out of 16 chicks hatched. Note that I am NOT including green or tan over blue egg layers in this number.
 

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