Quote:
I hope I'm not comeing off as an arrogant know-it-all, and rereading my own posts makes me fear that I am. I have, however, spent some time studying and memorizing the genetics of the blue egg, and also a bit on pea combs........................ and learned both by breeding and by studying other's research that some information I frequently heard concerning the connection between the two is wrong. They [the two allees] are thought to be located next to or near each other in the chromozonal sequence....................... but certainly not inseperable. There are many breeds with pea combs that lay brown or tan eggs; Brahma, Cornish, and some games to name a few. In fact, if the blue egg layer was actually a S. American native, it would be probable they were originally single combed; the pea comb being introduced by a bird from a more northern climate where cold weather made the pea comb more advantageous to winter health [or from a game breed, where either a dubbed single comb or a naturally close fitting pea comb gives an advantage in fighting]. Both O [for blue eggs] and P [for pea combs] being dominate genes, coincidently located close to each other in the genetic information, it would soon lead to the majority population of blue egg layers being pea combed.
As far as the bird that is heterozygous for both pea comb and blue eggs being crossed to a brown egger that is single combed, here are the probable numbers for 1000 female offspring:
485 @ pea combed blue/green egg layers
15 @ pea combed brown egg layers
485 @ single combed brown egg layers
15 @ single combed blue/green egg layers
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= 1000 total [and this is why they say to only keep the pea combed EEs; out of the 500 to keep, only 15 will lay brown eggs...................... of the 500 culled, only 15 would have laid blue/green eggs]
Thank you, my very first EE cross was an EE hen to a New Hampshire rooster And she laid brown eggs (I guess she is special) although she now lays white. I have made many test matings and the offspring from these will mature this fall. To be honest, I am very glad that the O gene is not inherited the way I once thought. This will make my future project planning much easier. Thank you.
