Speckled egg genetics?

[Svarthona]

I have one hen which hatched out of a speckled egg (off-white with medium brown speckles) and I really liked this colour combination with the unusual speckled look. The young hen does not lay yet she´s just 21 weeks old. So I don´t know yet if she inherited the ´speckled egg gene´ from her mother and the flock she came from. But if she did I would like to know how I can breed more speckled egg layers or which percentage of them I can expect next year with the roo I have which is out of a non speckled egg.
So does anyone know about the genetics of this egg colour? I tried searching but most likely I used the wrong words and came up with nothing. I know many wild birds lay speckled eggs and often those old genes are dominant, but yeah does anyone know or has tried this?

In case you´re all wondering about what a speckled egg is, I don´t trust my wording skills *lol*, but I couldn´t think of a better word... a picture of the egg shell my hen hatched from. It does not show true colours, had to put water on it to get more contrast for the picture

but I hope you´ll get the idea.

Should be clickable I hope.
Thanks in advance

 

[Krys109uk]

What a pretty egg. I don't think I've ever seen an egg like that before. I can see why you want to have more. What breed of chicken is your hen? Sorry I can't help with the genetics. Maybe Henk will know.

 

[Svarthona]

Yeah it´s an interesting egg colour. I´ve maybe seen a hand full of them yet and they are far from being common, so I was extra happy to get a hen out of is egg.
My hen is a Hedemora hen (old Swedish breed) and descriptions of that breed say that sometimes there occur speckled eggs. Not overly often, but sometimes. But I could not find anything about the genetics of the speckled eggs in Swedish, so I was hoping anyone here would know. There seem to be some breeds where dark speckled eggs occur, like Welsumer or Maran, which should be the same gene on a different base colour... and I figured it may be possible that someone has mixes of those breeds and can tell me something about how the speckled egg gene is inherited.

 

[Svarthona]

Bump.

No one?

Are speckled eggs that uncommon that nobody knows how the genetics of them are?

 

[patandchickens]

Are you talking about birds that throw speckled eggs *occasionally*, or do you have some that *always* lay speckled eggs?

Occasionally-speckled is probably just an occasional glitch in the egg-formation mechanism, which may (or may not) have some genetic basis of some sort, but is quite likely not 'a' gene.

Always-speckled I would not even speculate about, have never seen one.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[ella]

I have some hens that lay speckled eggs. If you scrub the eggs do the spots come off? Mine do, I always figured it was a normal variation in laying don't know what causes it though.

 

[Svarthona]

I´m talking about hens regularly laying speckled eggs, not occasionally.

Like certain breeds lay white, brown, green, blue or any inbetween colour.
I asked the woman who gave me the speckled egg from the picture. She said that the hen which layed this egg always lays eggs like this (very light brown / bone white eggs with darker brown speckles) and that there occasionally occur hens in her flock laying this kind of eggs. Sadly she is not overly interested in finding out more about it and doesn´t keep track of it. For her egg is egg and hen is hen

I found some pictures on Swedish sites showing this specled eggs from the Hedemora breed. Apparently most Hedemora flocks lay plain non-speckled eggs, but there are flocks where they occur. Not sure if that helps, but here´s the admittedly horribe google translation of a Swedish site with a picture of the egg variations of this breed. Just scroll down some there.
Since my hen from my pictured egg hatched back in May I can´t tell if the specles were removable with some scrubbing. I didn´t try that, but I don´t think so... the speckles were not raised.
Gaah! I never waited that impatiently for a first egg like with this hen

 

[evonne]

Svarthöna :

I´m talking about hens regularly laying speckled eggs, not occasionally.

Like certain breeds lay white, brown, green, blue or any inbetween colour.
I asked the woman who gave me the speckled egg from the picture. She said that the hen which layed this egg always lays eggs like this (very light brown / bone white eggs with darker brown speckles) and that there occasionally occur hens in her flock laying this kind of eggs. Sadly she is not overly interested in finding out more about it and doesn´t keep track of it. For her egg is egg and hen is hen

I found some pictures on Swedish sites showing this specled eggs from the Hedemora breed. Apparently most Hedemora flocks lay plain non-speckled eggs, but there are flocks where they occur. Not sure if that helps, but here´s the admittedly horribe google translation of a Swedish site with a picture of the egg variations of this breed. Just scroll down some there.
Since my hen from my pictured egg hatched back in May I can´t tell if the specles were removable with some scrubbing. I didn´t try that, but I don´t think so... the speckles were not raised.
Gaah! I never waited that impatiently for a first egg like with this hen

i love the speckled eggs.. and would like to know if it's possible to get them all the time too... i got one of my green ones with some chocolate speckles the other day... was really cute...​

 

[osukrazykate]

I too have a hen that lays speckled eggs. When rinsing off the egg the speckles turn a little darker and look purplish. At first I thought it was just a freak incidence, but I have noticed that the hen who laid it seems to always lay speckled eggs.

 

[Mahonri]

My GC Maran egg yesterday had speckles on it. Kinda cool.

I have an EE that lays a tannish egg w/ whitish speckles on it.