Is my starlight chicken a rooster?

[Chipmunk Chicks]

SGEs are not sex-linked. You may have just gotten (un)lucky and ended up with a rooster or two. Their pullet sexing is only guaranteed at 85% accurate I believe.

Okay, this is good to know. Thank you. I'm sort of wondering if there is any point in keeping a trio? I know for Sapphire Gems or other hybrids, you are not going to get more Sapphire Gems by breeding them together, so would I still get Starlight Green Eggers if I bred them? Or if not, at least offspring that can be reasonably expected to lay green eggs? I believe he could be used to make olive eggers over a Welsummer hen, I'm just not too sure how any of it works when you're using a hybrid. @3KillerBs

 

[FunClucks]

Okay, this is good to know. Thank you. I'm sort of wondering if there is any point in keeping a trio? I know for Sapphire Gems or other hybrids, you are not going to get more Sapphire Gems by breeding them together, so would I still get Starlight Green Eggers if I bred them? Or if not, at least offspring that can be reasonably expected to lay green eggs? I believe he could be used to make olive eggers over a Welsummer hen, I'm just not too sure how any of it works when you're using a hybrid. @3KillerBs

The SGE hens (and rooster) are straight comb layers with a blue egg gene and brown egg gene(s). [There's more than one set of genes that contributes to brown eggs, but I'm simplifying to try and explain] You will not know if the hens truly inherited the blue egg gene and therefore will lay green eggs until they actually lay (might lay tan - this happened to me). For roosters, you can't tell if he has both blue and brown or just one type of gene. If he has both, only 50% of the chicks will inherit the blue egg gene - this would combine with the mother's genes to give progeny egg color.

To know what genes your rooster has, you'd have to either get him tested (they can test blood and feathers for this, it's about $20 USD), or you'd have to do a test mating to a known color egg layer, like a brown or white egg layer, and raise a significant number of chicks. From the colors the daughters would lay after maturity, you could probably figure out what genes the parent rooster has. This takes a long time and is costly in feed and space.

Long story short, SGEs don't breed true, but if you feel like trying it, you could probably breed some green or olive layers depending on what hens you use and IF your rooster has the blue egg gene and passes it on. Only about 50% would be colored layers at the most (estimating here). The Genetics Forum is a good place to look around if you're interested in learning more - I'm not an expert on this topic but have done a similar cross myself.

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

The SGE hens (and rooster) are straight comb layers with a blue egg gene and brown egg gene(s). [There's more than one set of genes that contributes to brown eggs, but I'm simplifying to try and explain] You will not know if the hens truly inherited the blue egg gene and therefore will lay green eggs until they actually lay (might lay tan - this happened to me). For roosters, you can't tell if he has both blue and brown or just one type of gene. If he has both, only 50% of the chicks will inherit the blue egg gene - this would combine with the mother's genes to give progeny egg color.

To know what genes your rooster has, you'd have to either get him tested (they can test blood and feathers for this, it's about $20 USD), or you'd have to do a test mating to a known color egg layer, like a brown or white egg layer, and raise a significant number of chicks. From the colors the daughters would lay after maturity, you could probably figure out what genes the parent rooster has. This takes a long time and is costly in feed and space.

Long story short, SGEs don't breed true, but if you feel like trying it, you could probably breed some green or olive layers depending on what hens you use and IF your rooster has the blue egg gene and passes it on. Only about 50% would be colored layers at the most (estimating here). The Genetics Forum is a good place to look around if you're interested in learning more - I'm not an expert on this topic but have done a similar cross myself.

Got it. That all makes sense. I have heard of them laying tan sometimes, and it makes sense that's why you would go back and use a blue laying breed over your brown layers, then at least you have a better shot of the green layers you are hoping to get actually get a blue from the blue layer and a brown from the brown layer.

I was thinking about that with a test hatch, but it's true. I am not someone who has experience, space or time for that kind of experiment. I didn't realize too that it might take a LOT of chicks to really get an idea of what is going on. I could see testing a rooster (i.e. purchasing a test) that you kept and grew out and really like, just to see what you have.

Let's say I kept him, and he were my rooster, and I have Australorps, Welsummers, SLW, and possible green eggers, I might get all tan or mother's color eggs, or could possibly throw a blue gene in for more greens or olives, or on a real longshot could throw a blue layer if there's a blue gene and if he and a green layer happened to each contribute a blue. But you wouldn't know until you raised them up and they came to point of lay, and you might even have a blue/blue cockerel in theory, but you would never know unless you also went on to keep and test breed all the cockerels. Am I getting the scope of it? Lol

 

[FunClucks]

Let's say I kept him, and he were my rooster, and I have Australorps, Welsummers, SLW, and possible green eggers, I might get all tan or mother's color eggs, or could possibly throw a blue gene in for more greens or olives, or on a real longshot could throw a blue layer if there's a blue gene and if he and a green layer happened to each contribute a blue. But you wouldn't know until you raised them up and they came to point of lay, and you might even have a blue/blue cockerel in theory, but you would never know unless you also went on to keep and test breed all the cockerels. Am I getting the scope of it? Lol

Probably won't get blue layers - once the brown genes are involved, they tend to stick around in progeny and turn blue into green - it's actually pretty complicated. But could get more green layers for sure. So if you kept this rooster, you'll get browns, tans, and greens from the hens you have listed. To get olive, there usually needs to be a really dark brown egg layer in there somewhere, like a black copper maran hen or something.

If you have a blue/blue cockerel, you won't know unless you breed him to a white or (pure) blue egg layer. Many "blue" egg layers have residual brown genes that give the eggs a greenish tint (just enough not to be pure blue). But an SGE cockerel is by definition NOT a blue/blue cockerel - he can't be because one parent contributed brown egg genes. The hatchery crosses a blue/blue rooster over brown egg laying hens to get the SGEs, I think. Details of course are proprietary to the hatchery.

If you like the rooster and he turns out nice, keep him and enjoy the occasional green egg progeny.

 

[3KillerBs]

Okay, this is good to know. Thank you. I'm sort of wondering if there is any point in keeping a trio? I know for Sapphire Gems or other hybrids, you are not going to get more Sapphire Gems by breeding them together, so would I still get Starlight Green Eggers if I bred them? Or if not, at least offspring that can be reasonably expected to lay green eggs? I believe he could be used to make olive eggers over a Welsummer hen, I'm just not too sure how any of it works when you're using a hybrid. @3KillerBs

Sorry, this isn't a breed I'm familiar with.

 

[bterry53]

I dont have a reply, I have a question. I too bought 7 starlight green Eggers but only a few seem like they are true to the breed. several look like golden comets to me. I do have one chick, 5 weeks old today, that I think is a rooster, starlight green egger. any opinions from any one? It is the biggest chick in the hen house!

 

[Chipmunk Chicks]

I dont have a reply, I have a question. I too bought 7 starlight green Eggers but only a few seem like they are true to the breed. several look like golden comets to me. I do have one chick, 5 weeks old today, that I think is a rooster, starlight green egger. any opinions from any one? It is the biggest chick in the hen house!

Cockerel.

So SGE is not a real breed. There is no standard. There are multiple different appearances on the chicks Hoover's pictures with the product, and multiple ways they grow out. Who knows if they even change the mixes from one year to the next.

It's supposed to be a prairie blue bell egger (their own hybrid blue layer) crossed with a brown layer. So are they using golden comets? Or is the formula similar to golden comets, which are also a hybrid production cross? It's anyone's guess how they are mixing up your specific bird recipe, so to speak.

And then if you have a cockerel, there's not going to be a great way to "prove" that he's a SGE rooster, because obviously he is not going to lay green eggs. You can keep an eye on how he grows out and see if he looks like anything else in particular? I think mine I think looks like a red sex link roo, but maybe he really is SGE? Unfortunately, I'm not sure there is a great answer for the boys.

 

[OlandskMama]

I have three starlight green eggers. Two of my girls have similar coloring and sized combs. My third starlight, Coconut, has white brown splash(?) coloring and a much larger comb. Coconut is also much more likely to square up against the other chickens but overall has a great temperament. They’re about 6 or 7 weeks old from TSC where they were straight run pullets. Based on images we’ve seen, we can’t figure out if Coconut is actually a rooster. Thoughts?

Looking at the comb and wattles.. (very developed and red compared to others in photo ). When my Olandsk Dwarf chicks start showing size and color in their wattles , they are the boys.

 

[FunClucks]

I dont have a reply, I have a question. I too bought 7 starlight green Eggers but only a few seem like they are true to the breed. several look like golden comets to me. I do have one chick, 5 weeks old today, that I think is a rooster, starlight green egger. any opinions from any one? It is the biggest chick in the hen house!

x3 cockerel. No idea if he is a SGE cockerel or not. I'm not familiar with that coloration.

 

[bmaxim13]

I dont have a reply, I have a question. I too bought 7 starlight green Eggers but only a few seem like they are true to the breed. several look like golden comets to me. I do have one chick, 5 weeks old today, that I think is a rooster, starlight green egger. any opinions from any one? It is the biggest chick in the hen house!

I have 2 SGE and one looks like a rooster also! It's comb and wattle are much more developed than the other one. It is starting to get green tail feathers while the other one is not. This morning it made a God awful sound like it was trying to crow haha