pink egg laying EE?

[Akane]

I believe there is only one blue/green/etc gene. The different EE colors come from then crossing that gene with various brown to white shades. The blue is dominant so an EE hen that lays colored eggs crossed with a roo that has no gene will have 50-100% that lay colored eggs. The odds go up if the roo carries genes. If the hen or roo have 2 copies of the gene then you get 100% colored egg laying offspring. The randomness comes from the fact different shades of brown will produce different shades of green and pure white to cream will produce various degrees of blue and everything between blue and green. So depending what your roo and hen carry you may end up with an entirely different shade of egg from the offspring even though they carry the same gene for blue eggs.

I have japanese bantams that lay pink eggs. I also have ones that lay nearly pure white eggs and one that lays quite dark brown. Japs were not bred for egg color and carry a mix of genes so they produce from white to cream to pink to brown. I don't think the pink in EEs has anything to do with the blue gene but I could be wrong.

Purple is usually calcification. I've been getting purple spotted eggs lately. It doesn't wash off. While the egg is wet though the brown color underneath will show through so it temporarily does not look purple until it dries again.

 

[Mahonri]

We have a Cinnamon Queen that lays a VERY dark egg. I am amazed at how dark it is... We are going to breed her to our little golden cuckoo maran roo eventually and see what we get.

 

[rancher hicks]

Ok folks here's a lesson in genetics. hair color
Brown is considered dominate
Blonde is recessive
Red is recessive

Each parent carrys two genes (Br,Br) or( Br, bl) or (bl, bl) etc. etc.
So in order to get a child w/ blonde hair each parent must carry the bl gene. (Br, bl) +(bl,bl) or (Br, bl)+(Br, bl). If dad has (Br, Br) and mom has (bl, bl) the children will all have Br hair. and vice versa.
If dad has (Br,bl) and mom had (Br,bl) then they could have children w/ either brown or blonde hair.
Now there were eight children in my family and all had brown hair except my sister who had red. Which means my parents had (Br,rd)+(Br,rd) genes. Now we did have a milk man but mom was a lady don'tcha know. My dad on the other hand was a scoundrel. In fact ...........................................

The same is true for eye color.
I realize I probably just answered my own question but I didn't think or know that the same would hold true for EE's. I mean cause maybe its. Blue plus Green and presto chango Pink.

I do know that a 100% frizzle to a 100% frizzle creates a problem due to a thing called an allele and I wonder if this is why some are having chicks not hatching or hatching problems. I mean because of the crossing of different breeds. Allele, is part of genetics. This is not to say that anyone here is ignorant so don't get in a snit.

See cause I figure this "allele" thing is why my sister is so weird.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Human and chicken genetics can't really be compared, but to the extent that there are numerous genes affecting eye color, hair color and skin color they can be compared. Human eye color for example is not simple blue/brown recessive and dominant. If this were true there would only be two colors not many.

An allele is variant of a certain gene....T=tall, t=short that can be found in TT (homozygous tall), Tt (heterozygous), and tt (homozygous short)

 

[rancher hicks]

No this is not true. Brown, blue, gray, green and shades in between. My mother had green eyes and Auburn hair which is a shade of red. My brother had brown hair and green eyes. Which means my father carried the recessive gene for green eyes. My sister had red hair and green eyes. Which means my father carried one gene for red hair and one for brown hair, one gene for green eyes and one for brown eyes. It is not possible to know what two genes my mother had except we do know she had one gene for red hair and one gene for green eyes. Without genetic testing of course.
While there are the different colors Brown is dominant but the others are recessive. Therefore any combination of Brown/blue, Brown/green, Brown/and any shade of the others would result in brown eyed child. We all have two genes in eye/hair color. In humans the father and mother only give one gene each to the child. But they each have two genes and when the children have children they will only give one gene. Either Dominant or recessive.
Now as far as chickens I have no idea of which colors are dominant or recessive in egg color and aaaaaallllll the shades in between. I just thought someone might know. I find it interesting. Though I wasn't trying to get that technical. Since you are why not do the research so I don't have to. On second thought forget I asked.

 

[Byrdj]

An EE that lacks the blue egg gene can lay a "pink" egg. It's just an egg with very little of the right kind of brown shades. No need to get a EE that lays one. There are several breeds that consistantly lay a "pink" egg. I have Buff Orpingtons that lay pink eggs , for one.

 

[Akane]

Why are we talking about hair and eye color... There are far simpler examples of genetics. Hair color has so many shades and gene combinations that we don't even know them all yet and eye color has 3 seperate pairs of genes that have been discovered so far. Brown/blue, blue/green, and the central brown. You can not determine what genes are carried so simply unless someone has blue eyes which requires all recessive blue allele. Brown eyes can overlay multiple combinations which could yield green or blue and green can cover blue. Someone with brown eyes could potentially have both green or blue eyed children depending on the other parent. That's not even counting the mixing of the various genes plus some we don't have mapped that can alter shade to give you various browns and greys. You don't even want to start on hair color.

I realize I probably just answered my own question but I didn't think or know that the same would hold true for EE's. I mean cause maybe its. Blue plus Green and presto chango Pink

The problem is there is not a blue and a green gene. There is only one gene which does make this example fairly simple actually. A chicken either has the gene for blue/green eggs or doesn't. It's the brown or white genes that change the shade from bright blue to grey to olive green. Crossing a blue egg layer line with a green egg layer line is not going to mix and match the blue and green. It's going to mix the brown and white shades and the colored egg gene is just going to go over top of whatever base color the egg gets. A whiter base gets you a bluer egg and a darker base gets you a greener egg. The gene is dominant so a hen that lays a colored egg will throw at least 50% colored egg laying offspring. That doesn't mean they will be the same color as the hen lays though. If the hen had the genes for white with blue but the roo has brown the offspring could lay green. The reverse could be true in certain circumstances. I believe brown eggs are dominant to white eggs but again we start getting complicated when we talk about shades of brown which is where we move into the pink and reddish eggs.

Allele is simply the version of the gene. A brown allele or a white allele or a blue allele. You have 2 of those per gene pair with one being dominant (we'll ignore the partial dominant versions for simplicity).

Certain crosses that result in dead offspring are lethal genes. That's where having 2 of a version of a gene or allele results in what are lethal whites in mammals and fail to hatch in birds. A lethal white is a true albino with no pigment (albino genes are hazardous and often the result of bad gene combinations that cause health problems). Lethal whites also tend to have no teeth in mammals, digestive tract problems, and under developed eyes so they are generally blind. It's better these guys don't hatch with birds because any survivors either require special care for their lives or should be culled to prevent a slow painful death. Some examples of lethal genes are the short leg in japanese bantams. A short legged crossed with a short leg will result in 25% carrying 2 short leg genes and they will fail to hatch. You can never get 100% short leg birds because there will also be a long leg gene there. In horses the splash version of the overo paint gene is the same. In guinea pigs and many other animals the roan gene carries a lethal version. Lethal genes are not uncommon but they are predictable and easy to determine. Therefore I doubt there are any lethal egg color genes or it would probably be well known.​

 

[firedove]

I agree with others, there are a lot of breeds that will commonly lay a pink egg. My BRs lay pink eggs and I'm told that when my Wyandottes start laying they will have pink eggs too. If you want to perpetuate pink eggs in your EE maybe you should breed to a breed that consistently lays pink eggs?

 

[ears73]

two in my flock lay pink eggs - one light and small and one darker and larger. I thought at first it was the white cochins, but now I have no idea... either way, I was surprised to read that egg color does not change (aside from at molt times). I have a hard time figuring out who is laying which egg and I do not have many different kinds. I assumed all my cochins would lay the same color, but now I am thinking this is not the case.
Looks like I need the coop-cam installed to figure this out for sure.

 

[astylishgirl]

This is something that interests me as well. I am not so interested in figuring out the underlying genetics... but I would rather find a few hens that lay pink eggs and then breed a rooster that hatched from one of their eggs to the other hens chicks.

see what I mean? See if you can selectively breed a few pink layers.

Anyone interested in trying it with me?

I am in Beaumont, Texas