Is my hen an Easter Egger?

[Lady of McCamley]

As to your brown laying EE, there is zero chance she will have chicks that lay blue unless you have a rooster that has a blue gene to pass. Sorry.

That is the disappointment with EE looking birds....EEs are technically mutts as they are a mix usually from Ameraucana blood from some parent at one time.

However due to the genetics of a chick receiving 50% of its genes from each parent, if a parent is not pure Ameraucana there is only one blue gene to pass down and one empty slot. 50% get the one blue gene and will lay blue toned eggs with that and 50% get the empty slot so no blue shell (no coding to throw bile in at the shell gland) but will lay base white. (Brown is altogether different genetic coding covered by about 13 genes that code for how much hemoglobin paint is placed on the shell down the egg tract....brown paint on white shell, brown tone eggs....brown paint on blue shell, green tone eggs.)

Still pretty hen who should pass some pretty plumage patterns if you don't breed to dominant white and will pass some brown tone genetics.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

As to your second EE, is she laying yet?

If blue or green toned, then as she is a mix, she will likely have just one blue gene to pass to offspring.

That means if bred to a non blue gene rooster, 50% of the chicks will get that blue coding gene and will be blue layers.

Save a rooster from that batch that has a pea comb (which often but not always follows blue genetics), test him with a non blue hen. If you get some blue laying daughters breed those back to dad to recapture a blue laying line, using healthy stock.

 

[ChickyPants]

Thank y'all SO much!
I've been wondering what she is. Is there a possibility her chicks could be blue-egg layers?

Also, that other hen I mentioned;
Does anyone know what she might be?

No, unfortunately. The green egg gene must be present in either the mother or the father to be present in any chicks she may produce. So if you get a pure Ameraucana rooster (don't get an EE, if you for sure want chicks that lay blue/green eggs, get a rooster from a reputable breeder) then you can breed him to your hens and probably most of their chicks will lay green eggs. It is not a guarantee though,you could still very well get some that lay brown.

She is a gorgeous hen though!

 

[Michellep224]

All 5 of my hens are laying. Because of the heat their egg production has drastically slowed, but I've seen eggs from all of them. I have no blue/green egg layers. ):
Are y'all sure that brown hen is an Easter Egger too? She doesn't have the extra feathers around her face like the gray one does.

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

Easter Egger
Easter Egger
Buff Orpington

 

[Crazy for Chickens!]

All 5 of my hens are laying. Because of the heat their egg production has drastically slowed, but I've seen eggs from all of them. I have no blue/green egg layers. ):
Are y'all sure that brown hen is an Easter Egger too? She doesn't have the extra feathers around her face like the gray one does.

Yes. Not all EEs have muffs and a beard. It's because they're all mixed breeds.
This one you would call beardless.

 

[BreanneRN]

I have a beardless blue EE that came with my EE's this year... There are a lot of possibilities with EE's. I am thinking of just finding a Araucana rooster so I can make my own EE's... Won't be breeding him to Leghorns as they are just too flighty. Seems like all the chickens no matter what breed anymore, all seem to be built like Leghorns. I guess because they are the egg production champs, at least commercially. But I would rather have the other half be something else.

 

[Michellep224]

How would I know the rooster would carry the blue/green egg gene?

 

[BreanneRN]

How would I know the rooster would carry the blue/green egg gene?

If you find an Araucana, that is all they have. I think a true Ameraucana will always have blue or green, but not sure. I would have to go read the standard. EE's on the other hand, you wouldn't know until the hatchlings began to lay. You would have to find someone reputable that was breeding that would make sure you got what you were looking for. That means avoid swap meets/auction sales/feed stores etc. because those places are the proverbial box of chocolates (never know what you are going to get). Sometimes you can find someone on Craigslist that will actually know what color of egg the chicken hatched out of, which might work, though still risky. Or, you could buy some hatching eggs, and then you will know what color of egg those birds came from. If you chose, you could just hatch the blue ones, under one of your hens when she goes broody. I think that last is maybe what I would do in your situation.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

To condense the back story, the original blue laying birds were a motley import from Chile in the 1920's from the Araucana region. They were a novelty because of the blue egg potential.They were not pure but mixes

Breeders refined, and one line in America became known as Araucana, and when refined had standards of rumpless, pea combed, slate legs, and ear tufted, and pure for blue laying (2 gene). Those breeders made it first in recognition to the APA standard acceptance.

The tailed nontufted but muffed and now miffed Araucana breeders were left out in the cold. So they created their own standard now known as the American Araucana, or Ameraucana. It was recognized by the APA about 10 years later.

Both pure Ameraucana and pure Araucana have 2 blue genes for shells.

If you want to pick up one rooster to breed blue layers, I suggest the Ameraucana as the tail less Araucana often can have fertility problems due to poorer anchoring when mounting. Araucana are much rarer as the ear tufting gene is fatal 25% of the time, if tufted bred to tufted. Or get RC Punnett's experiment breed, a Cream Legbar, also derived from those Chilean birds.

The terms Ameraucana and Araucana and even the false derivative Americana have all been severely convoluted with Easter Egger due to hatcheries who desired to hop onto the blue egg fad by mixing blue layers with production layers.

And that is why EEs can vary so much.

BTW, the second bird looks to have more game type.

I personally get annoyed at everything being called an EE as you have to know its history. It has to originally been connected with Ameraucana or Araucana, ideally one generation back, or closely line bred to keep blue shell genetics or it simply is a non blue laying mutt.

BTW, if you breed a Cream Legbar hen to brown line rooster, you get sexlinked green layers...olive egger if Welsummer or Barnevelder or Marans.