Is this an ameraucana??

[McSpin]

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I have a line of ameraucanas (a line from top ABC breeders), laying pink eggs. At the moment 25% of my hens are laying this pink color. There appears to be no blue in the shell. If your percentages are true, why would such a high percentage of pea comb hens produce pink eggs? Or, does a bird that is homozygous for whatever gene causes pink, masking the expression of blue?

 

[SunFireFarm]

Wow abelseville, you stirred them all up! LOL I can't say what you have there, but I had an EE rooster out with my "wild" hens (mostly Sumatra X's), and this is a grandson of his. I LOVE the wonderful colors you can get with you mix a little of that EE blood in!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
I have a line of ameraucanas (a line from top ABC breeders), laying pink eggs. At the moment 25% of my hens are laying this pink color. There appears to be no blue in the shell. If your percentages are true, why would such a high percentage of pea comb hens produce pink eggs? Or, does a bird that is homozygous for whatever gene causes pink, masking the expression of blue?

Well, have you contacted the breeders about this? Part of the definition of ameraucana is that it lays blue eggs. There is no gene that casues pink eggs; they are merely a lightly tinted brown egg.

That 3% will pass the crossover pair (pea & not-blue) to all their offspring; if bred with a hom. blue egg cock, the offspring will inherit a copy of blue egg from daddy; girls will continue to lay blue eggs, but are not pure for blue egg gene. Some of the baby boys will grow up to father chicks and will pass blue egg to half his chicklets and not-blue to the other half. If you pair a het girl and a het boy, some of the boys will inherit no blue egg gene (as will some of the girls). They may have hatched out of a blue egg, but that is not a guarantee that they will lay blue eggs. I would say that chances are pretty good that some of your birds' ancestors a few generations back were used in developing projects.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

I've done as much reading on this as I can find, and though I'm not an expert, I believe Sonoran has it right.

Regardless of one's particular definition of Easter Egger, the blue egg gene, and the pea comb gene are right next to each other on the same chromosome. They almost always go hand in hand. If you are looking to breed more blue/green/olive egg layers, stick to the pea combs. If a bird doesn't have a particular gene, it can not magically give it to his offspring.

"Easter Egger" is a useful term to distinguish between pure Ameraucanas and their mixes. It seems to cause more confusion than it fixes for some people.

In my opinion pure Ameraucanas should be homozygous for the blue egg gene, meaning both parents have 2 copies of the blue egg gene always. If both parents were heterozygous for the gene you would expect 25% non-blue eggs.

 

[chickenlover54]

Ee

 

[Tailfeathers]

Quote:
I have a line of ameraucanas (a line from top ABC breeders), laying pink eggs. At the moment 25% of my hens are laying this pink color. There appears to be no blue in the shell. If your percentages are true, why would such a high percentage of pea comb hens produce pink eggs? Or, does a bird that is homozygous for whatever gene causes pink, masking the expression of blue?

Boy Howdy, lots of info in this thread.

Just a point of clarification to Sonoran's comment on the pea comb gene. Actually the single comb DOES have a pea comb gene AND a rose comb gene. They just are all recessive and therefore cannot produce a PC or RC. At least that's my understanding.

McSpin, something is defintely amiss with your Ameraucanas. The only way you could have gotten a "pink" egg is from an EE. Would you please email me with the information on your breeder. This should be brought to the Club's attention and I'll get it to my District Director.

OP, your bird is definitely an EE. Most have mentioned why but I'll also just say the leg color is a dead giveaway as well as it is not a recognized/approved variety.

Also, just FYI, having a peacomb does not necessarily correlate exclusively to a blue-egg layer. There are other breeds that have the peacomb which lay brown eggs for example.

God Bless,

 

[McSpin]

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Here are some photos of the eggs layed by this line (white egg, just for comparison). On the broken eggs, I removed the inside membrane so you can see the color on the inside of the shell. Notice on the pink eggs, that the inside is the same as the outside - absolutely identical. There is no brown pigment on these pink eggs.

 

[McSpin]

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I do not blame this on the breeder, nor do I care. I had these for 3 generations with no outcross and this is the first that produced anything but a blue egg. It must be a recessive or combination of genes that produce this color. There is a zero chance of anything else getting into the line since I've had it. The birds are show quality or darn near show quality. Every trait is as the standard states - not perfect, but needing only a little tweaking here and there - including the hens laying the pink eggs. Judges do not judge ameraucanas for egg color or even require proof of a blue egg before awarding prizes, so this is something that can be expected from time to time.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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Nope, single is recessive; there must be two copies for it to express as a single comb. Peacomb is incompletely dominant, meaning that a bird pure for peacomb should have a very well-formed peacomb. If heterozygous (one copy of peacomb, one copy of not-peacomb) the peacomb will not be quite correct--could be extra tall, either a lot or a little. With other comb genes added it could even look like a single comb split at the back into two blades.
Yes, rosecomb works the same way. A properly peacombed bird should be PPrr; you will get a variation of peacomb (as mentioned above) with Pprr. If you add R to the mix you will get a walnut comb, not a pea comb.

 

[BeardedLadyFarm]

Quote:
I do not blame this on the breeder, nor do I care. I had these for 3 generations with no outcross and this is the first that produced anything but a blue egg. It must be a recessive or combination of genes that produce this color. There is a zero chance of anything else getting into the line since I've had it. The birds are show quality or darn near show quality. Every trait is as the standard states - not perfect, but needing only a little tweaking here and there - including the hens laying the pink eggs. Judges do not judge ameraucanas for egg color or even require proof of a blue egg before awarding prizes, so this is something that can be expected from time to time.

It sounds like you must have started with at least one bird heterozygous for the blue egg gene. When crossed with a homozygous bird, all of the offspring would lay blue eggs, but half would be heterozygous, and half homozygous. It makes sense that it would take a few generations until you were unknowingly mating two heterozygous birds, which would result in 25% not blue egg.

My Buff Orpington and one of my Barred Rocks lay that same pretty pink shade of egg.