Rooster possibly to keep for EE pen - Question????

[CountryMom]

Last year we hatched out two eggs from a Marans hen and two roosters. One was our EE and the other was our Speckled Sussex. I had hoped for pullets, but with my luck both are roosters. The SSXMarans roos is really sweet and all, but I don't need him. So I will have to find him a home. Now the EEXMarans roos is turning out interesting to me. Seeing as EE's are mutts anyhow, would putting that crossed rooster in the herd turn out some interesting birds for us? He is a green legged, pea comb, and cuckoo patterned guy. I was thinking that the cuckoo pattern would be interesting, but do not want to turn the entire herd into cuckoos. LOL So to speak.

So those of you experienced in the EE's, what do you think?

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

Sorry CountryMom, I don't have anything for you, but I'm waiting on the answer with bated breath. I have some hatchery Cuckoo Marans hens I bought to make EEs with as part of my plan to breed good layers of large rainbow eggs for my customers.

 

[CountryMom]

Yes I am wondering if anyone has kept a rooster of a cross to add back into an EE line. Mind you these guys are nothing special other than hatchery stock, but we love the blue/green eggs. And they seem popular over all. I wouldn't mind a few cuckoo EE's and really had hoped it was a pullet to work toward olive eggers, but alais it is a roo. Not sure if crossing him back into the line would make those colors or ruin the egg color. Maybe better off in a crock pot than in the coop. Who knows.

 

[Kev]

While you got a roo, it's still good because if you breed him over EE hens you will get a few cuckoo EE hens.

Had it been a barred hen and you crossed it with EE, all of the barreds would be roos.. barring is a sex linked gene. You wouldn't have gotten any barred pullets out of the Marans hen.. unless a barred/cuckoo roo was bred with her.

No mention of the EE roo color.. if he was some kind of brown/red/gold then that EE/Marans roo should throw all kinds of colors over a mixed color group of EE hens- cuckoo, blacks, black& white patterneds, red/brown/gold patterneds.. including some of those having barring on them too. It'll be interesting and varied.

 

[Mahonri]

Go for it and once you hatch remember... pics

 

[horsegirl]

I would keep him, the thing is he is an EE, just one that is barred now, at least that is what I understand from what you said.

The charecteristics of the aracauna/ameraucana are dominant. The pea comb, blue/green egg, green legs. That is why we have EE in the first place.

Another thing is if he has the pea comb, he will most likely also carry the green/blue egg color, (the genetic people are thinking it looks very likely that that gene is linked somehow). So, he should be able to pass on that charecteristic. The only thing I am not sure of is the purity, like if he carries 1,2 or however many of the colored green gene to his offspring (I am not that advanced in poultry genetics, I know how the combs work, and the brown and white colors work, but I do not know the exacts on the blue). So I am thinking it is possible you could also produce some brown egg layers. Assuming he does pass on his charecteristics, the hens would lay an olive green egg, because the actual shell is green and then he also carries the brown color which would be "spray painted" on the outside of the shell making that interesting olive green color.

Since he shows all the charecteristics of a EE, with the green legs, pea comb ect, I would not be affraid to breed him. I will however not breed one that I have crossed and has yellow legs or a straight comb.

I know they say that the comb is linked to egg color, but I have had an ameraucana/Easter Egger crossed with something else that ended up with a straight comb and layed green eggs. I guess she must have been a freek of nature

.

Well, if something does not make sence, just ask, maybe I can make it clearer or some one else on this forum could!

 

[Kim_NC]

I have a barred blue EE cockerel from the Blue Ameraucana roo X BR cross mentioned in the other post today (link here).

He has a pea comb from his father , but no muff and small wattles from the mother. His legs are gray/slate. He's also very tall, long legged. I'll try to get a pic of him tomorrow. I can't wait to breed him and see what I get.

To add to the discussion - the genes for pea comb and blue egg are carried closely on the same chromosome. So a pea comb is a good indication that an EE is carrying blue egg genes. Of course, they'll also have at least some brown egg genes if one parent was a brown layer type - which is why they'll lay some shade of green...maybe mint, maybe olive, etc depending on the level of brown egg genes mixed with their blue egg gene.

(LOL...I hope that made a little sense.)

Horsegirl, I'm not surprised about your ameraucana/Easter Egger cross with straight comb and green eggs. She has egg genes in both blue and brown....lays a green egg as a result in spite of the comb. I also prefer to breed only pea combed offspring from any of my EE crosses.

Edited for typo

 

[horsegirl]

Yeah, I know...I just think it is funny that I have had that happen to me a number of times when it really according to the linking should not. But things do not necessarily always go the way they tend to go.

Kim_NC,
You seemed to know a lot about genetics, so is the green egg gene related to the white egg gene, so that it is on the same area, meaning that if the chicken was crossed (with a white egg layer) it's offspring could either get the blue or white gene, because of the splitting in meosis. I have not been able to find this anywhere on the internet (I have not looked that hard yet, but it is not an easy search). Because if that is so, that would mean that assuming this is simple genetics (I know the egg color is complicated with many factors, but just say hypothetically) there would be a 75% chance of blue egg layers when bred back to a homozygous and a 25% of blue egg layers when bred back to a non blue egg laying chicken. But that just does not seem right, so I am just a little confused on that matter.

It would almost make more sence if the blue egg gene was a gene of its own, but then the only way you should be able to get rid of it, is in the case of a genetic mistake durring meoisis, or would it.

Man, my genetics are getting rusty on me...I wish I could remember all the technicall terms, I tend to like to study them, but it has been a while since I have studied them in a biology room.

I think once I get this all figured out I will write a post in my blog on it

, that way I will have it all written down and maybe even help others!

 

[Kev]

Quote:
Well, the thing about EE is that there's literally no standard for them. So they can again, be or have/don't have literally 'anything'. There can be a frizzled EE with white legs and a walnut comb and even it lays a tan egg and nobody can say 'that's not an EE'.. especially if some of it's relatives laid blue or green eggs.

It's just mostly luck that most EE look 'ameraucana-ish'. It's tempting to define them as a mixed bird that lays blue or green eggs, but that does not cover the fact that a lot of EE lay eggs that are neither green or blue. Green legs have nothing to do with egg color, it's just a visual effect of yellow skin with leg pigmentation genes. A lot of EE have slate leg which is white skin with leg pigmenation genes.

I know they say that the comb is linked to egg color, but I have had an ameraucana/Easter Egger crossed with something else that ended up with a straight comb and layed green eggs. I guess she must have been a freek of nature

.

The pea comb and blue eggshell genes are located very close to each other on the same chromosome, which means they are even more likely to 'inherit together' but not totally impossible either.. your hen being evidence of this(it's called crossover in the genetics world). The chance of this crossover is something like one out of 400.. this is also well known and not a mystery. Most of my own blue/green layers have single combs btw.

There are only two eggshell colors- blue and white. Brown is simply a coating over a white eggshell; greens are brown coating over a blue eggshell.​

 

[CountryMom]

Thank you all for your information. I am seriously thinking of keeping him and trying him out. I hatched out a few of the straight EE's and did keep a young roo there also. However, they are much younger than this Cuckoo cross. I will have to try and get pictures of him tomorrow. My EE Rooster is not tuffed, but he is pretty. I have a picture of him and two of my EE hens, but his tail feathers were not in great shape. He has a dark green tail also.

Here is my EE Rooster "Mike Rowe"

So crossing a Cuckoo mix roo with these ren hens and a black one I also have would make something interesting? I also have a light colored pullet coming up behind him out of my exsisting stock, so they already throw interesting colors. She is what I would call a cream colore and blackish grey markings. These color genes are wild.