The Legbar Thread!

[lonnyandrinda]

I would like to know if there are numbers of legbars out there that are heterozygous for the blue egg gene. I have got some (i believe) and also a friend of mine has one for sure. Is this a recognized issue? potentially if i crossed my hens with my friends roo we would make legbars that lay white eggs, but i am guessing would look just like legbars.

Yep I didn't have it last year but it's popping up now that Hugger's daughter's are starting to lay.. So he is hetero and some of my girls are, too. It's a headache. Plus I've got the white sport gene popping up, too. I've traded two pullets for two cockerels from another line so I will have them to work with in a few months. I'm loving the few boys I've saved but I don't know if it's worth the work to sort out which genes they have.

Rinda

 

[ChicKat]

I think there could be something to this for sure. And like you said hatcheries deal with volume- when you consider that some hens will likely produce alot more males than everything would eventually balance out with large numbers.

I'm going to start keeping close track of who is producing what and see if I can keep this going

I will also keep track. One nice thing about the lower volume approach is that these things are easier to track. Also Junibutt may have a solid point that there is a greater mortality rate in male chicks - Meant to say non-hatches of males.

 

[Runawaylobster]

I don't know the numbers, but yes this can be an issue if it's not nipped immediately. Two members of the CLC had a hen laying tinted eggs last year, and zi've heard about a couple laying white this year. There have also been varying shades of green, meaning that there is some brown coming from somewhere ( possibly from the ill conceived rumor going around last year that you needed to breed Legbars with PBRs to keep them autosexing

) I think a bunch of these eggs ended up on ebay. If your rooster came from a white egg, and the hen laid them as well, then yes you would have white egg layers. If the rooster came from a blue egg, the offspring would be blue egg layers.

Yep I didn't have it last year but it's popping up now that Hugger's daughter's are starting to lay.. So he is hetero and some of my girls are, too. It's a headache. Plus I've got the white sport gene popping up, too. I've traded two pullets for two cockerels from another line so I will have them to work with in a few months. I'm loving the few boys I've saved but I don't know if it's worth the work to sort out which genes they have.

Rinda

some of mine are laying blue eggs but they are very pale which what makes me suspicious.. My roos came from a different source so i will hatch these pale eggs because i need more hens and then after this next generation i will only set the deeper blue eggs, (assuming that my rooster is homozygous for blue) He did come from a blue egg.

 

[lonnyandrinda]

Quote:
My understanding is blue egg gene is dominant- one or two should create the same egg color. Not to say there aren't variations in shade, but there may be other genetics at play there. Kind of the way a cream carrier looks just like a gold with no cream because it is recessive. You don't know until you breed with it what exactly you have.

 

[Runawaylobster]

Quote:
in theory yes but i cross ameraucana roo with leghorn hens alot and they all lay blue eggs but paler than the ams.. so it may be only partially dominant or influenced by something else. hmm.. i am looking at my eggs as i type, i picked up two today, one is much bluer than the other but if you take them out in the sun the pale one looks almost white. but indoors if you put it next to a white (leghorn) egg you can see it is actually blue.

 

[enola]

Are you using white leghorn hens?

 

[Runawaylobster]

Are you using white leghorn hens?

not in anything to do with the legbars, totally separate pen and breeding project. i just used it as an example of the lighter blue coming out
when crossing a blue x white egg layer.

 

[enola]

I asked because I bred a Araucana rooster to white leghorns. Their pullets laid a pale blue egg. When I bred him to brown leghorns their pullets laid a much much bluer egg.

 

[Runawaylobster]

Thats really interesting yes all my leghorns are white or exchequer

 

[ChicKat]

in theory yes but i cross ameraucana roo with leghorn hens alot and they all lay blue eggs but paler than the ams.. so it may be only partially dominant or influenced by something else. hmm.. i am looking at my eggs as i type, i picked up two today, one is much bluer than the other but if you take them out in the sun the pale one looks almost white. but indoors if you put it next to a white (leghorn) egg you can see it is actually blue.

There is some research that also indicates that nutrition affects the blue of eggs---and beta carotene can intensify blue. It could even relate a bit to the way the different breeds metabolize beta carotene - or how much grass/green forage the particular hens are getting -- Just thought I would add another complication to the equation.

:O)