Question on EE eggs

[foothillsfiber]

will the chicks lay eggs the color from which they were hatched from, ie green egg chick laying green eggs, blue egg chick laying blue eggs or is it all just a gamble.

 

[cochin_kookoo]

I'm pretty sure it is just a gamble. However I am not 100% sure on that.

 

[kinsey228]

I've been trying to find out for months

 

[Cats Critters]

It's a genetic thing, like human eye color. If you do a search on here you will find a bunch of threads explaining the genetics.

 

[Sphinx]

Quote:
Yep. It's a bit of a gamble.

 

[nurse_turtle]

Anytime you're dealing with mixed breeds you increase the number of genetic markers and the odds of drawing a certain match also increases. Short answer, maybe,maybe not.

 

[Kassaundra]

A gamble, the egg it hatched from only accounts for 1/2 it's genetics (the hens) it doesn't account for the males input.

 

[foothillsfiber]

thanks for the info

 

[chickmanna]

So just trying to clarify. If I purchase EE eggs from unknown parentage, I can't depend on the egg color to predict much of anything?

A pink or brown egg could be carrying a blue-shell gene from the Roo, but not from the hen, cause if she had one the egg would be blue or green?

Or a blue/green egg could be the result of a hen carrying a blue shell gene, but she contributes her recessive gene and the rooster also contributes a non-blue so the resulting chick could carry no blue gene and produce brown or pink eggs? Is this bird still considered an EE?

I was under the apparently mistaken idea that EEs by definition carried one blue shell gene. But, statistically, it would seem that if this was the case, 25% of the offspring would not get a blue shell gene. So do true EEs have to have one pure Ameraucana parent?

 

[Gypsy07]

I'm in the UK and we don't have EEs over here

but I was under the impression that an EE isn't an actual proper breed of bird, it's just a description for a chicken of uncertain breeding that usually has a muff and/or beard and lays a fancy coloured egg that could be anything from pale blue to dark olive green. If I'm wrong I apologise, and I'll be happy to be corrected, but that's my understanding of it. I think EEs usually have Araucana or Ameraucana ancestry somewhere in the mix, but I don't think there's any defined parental percentage required for a chicken to be considered a 'proper' EE.