Reverse cross for Austra White?

[birchwoodbirds]

I want a few cream/tinted egg layers but I'd prefer to hatch my own. We're already hatching with our GQF, so figure why not? I was thinking about Austra Whites, but I don't have an Australorp Roo. What I do have is a great minded white leghorn roo and a phenomenal laying Australorp hen. She lays jumbo eggs that are really light brown, with beautiful shape and texture. She's a model citizen, laying like...well, like an Australorp should. I have the roos "hatchmates" from Murray McMurray, and all seven of them have been model citizens, with far better dispositions than I've seen in leghorns typically, and two that are downright friendly, flying to my arm to have a higher look at the place. They lay as a glorious white unit, every hen laying near identical chalky white eggs. I now have a new opinion of these rockstars of the white egg world.

I know for the hatchery Austra Whites they cross Australorp Roo over a Leghorn hen. Is there any difference in either body color or egg color if I reverse the cross to WL roo over the BA hen? Either way I'd expect white from the Roo's dominant white color? Or does reversing the cross make some weird chicken woo that makes something explosive happen? Hey, they're chickens, just tiny dinosaurs without teeth, so anything can happen!

 

[NatJ]

I know for the hatchery Austra Whites they cross Australorp Roo over a Leghorn hen. Is there any difference in either body color or egg color if I reverse the cross to WL roo over the BA hen? Either way I'd expect white from the Roo's dominant white color?

Reversing the cross will probably not change how the offspring look, but the egg color might be lighter (closer to white) than if you did the cross the other direction. One of the genes that affects white vs. brown in eggs is on the Z sex chromosome, which a hen inherits only from her father. So the pullets will be getting the Leghorn version if it (white) if they have a Leghorn father, rather than the Australorp version (not-white) that would come from an Australorp father.

Or does reversing the cross make some weird chicken woo that makes something explosive happen? Hey, they're chickens, just tiny dinosaurs without teeth, so anything can happen!

Crossing either direction will definitely produce chickens. Nothing explosive, unless you have a rotten egg in the incubator