Need help with genetics and eggs

[TooterBelle]

I need to know about the genetics of the eggs and chickens...I have a black cochin rooster bantam, I'm wanting to get some easter egger bantams and marans bantams in the spring...do I need a rooster of each breed to make chicks that will lay that particular colour egg or can I still use the black cochin rooster? We arent' interested in showing or anything...just pretty eggs.
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
TooterBelle

 

[ChickenWisperer]

Well.. here's what I know.

There are two shell colors. White (recessive) and blue (dominant). From what I've read, there are two copies... one inherited from the mother, one from the father. So, if a hen has a copy of a blue egg gene, her egg shells will be blue. You can easily calculate this with a punnett square. Here's one, illustrating the cross between a Easter Egger with one copy of the blue egg gene, and, say, a cochin -

B stands for Blue, w stands for White.

The brown part of it as I've been told has nothing to do with shell color and is a "overlay" of minerals/etc. It is inherited... so, say a hen that has a white eggshell has a marans father/mother with dark egg color, that means that hen will lay darker brown eggs. If over blue eggshell color, the hen will lay olive eggs. However, if the overlay is lighter in the parents, like Cochins or brahmas, the brown color will be lighter on white eggshell color. If on a blue eggshell color, the eggs will be green. However, I don't think the exact color can be calculated... only guessed at.

Without any brown overlay, you get white eggs and blue eggs.

 

[TooterBelle]

Thank you!! That really helped alot!

I know that alot of people want to stick to pure breeds but I just want some small chickens with pretty eggs for the grandkids to play with. Thank you soo much.
TooterBelle

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
If you want to keep the mix of eggs colours, get a rooster of each breed, and pen each breed separately. If you simply want pretty birds and eggs, use your existing rooster; just expect that over time (generations) the egg colours will more or less become consitent as the dominant genes line up.

 

[TooterBelle]

Quote:
If you want to keep the mix of eggs colours, get a rooster of each breed, and pen each breed separately. If you simply want pretty birds and eggs, use your existing rooster; just expect that over time (generations) the egg colours will more or less become consitent as the dominant genes line up.

Thank you, that is helpful to know. Right now we are a little limited on space for the bantams and we are mainly raising them for the grandkids.....they eat better when they get to help raise the food. (We've succeded with tomatoes, broccoli and we're working on eggs.)