Were blue eggs unnaturally created?

[TheOddOneOut]

I love my two EEs; this won’t change a thing about them to me. But..
I always thought that it was natural thing, a gene mutation, something. I was looking up Crested Cream Legbars because I’m a chicken math victim, and in the related searches was ‘are blue chicken eggs natural.’
I realized I didn’t know. Are they?
I clicked, and multiple sites mentioned the insertion of a retrovirus into the shell color genome. ???
But I’ve also heard it’s a natural genetic mutation.
Does anyone have answers?

 

[Rose Quartz]

I love my two EEs; this won’t change a thing about them to me. But..
I always thought that it was natural thing, a gene mutation, something. I was looking up Crested Cream Legbars because I’m a chicken math victim, and in the related searches was ‘are blue chicken eggs natural.’
I realized I didn’t know. Are they?
I clicked, and multiple sites mentioned the insertion of a retrovirus into the shell color genome. ???
But I’ve also heard it’s a natural genetic mutation.
Does anyone have answers?

It's natural in that chickens were exposed to the virus that caused the mutation originally in the wild, as in not introduced intentionally by humans to make them have blue eggs. Whether it was done by humans later, intentionally I don't know. But breeding to pass on the blue egg gene has been done. I read about it years ago, and don't have any reference links sorry.

 

[azure_]

All I know is when I had blue egg layering chickens there eggs were blue I didn't do anything to them

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Interesting, I didn't know it came from a virus. I love my EEs too. Thanks for asking the question, good topic!

 

[Rose Quartz]

Ah, there are names of wild bird here that you can look up if you'd like to do research. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130820083654.htm

 

[NatJ]

It's natural in that chickens were exposed to the virus that caused the mutation originally in the wild, as in not introduced intentionally by humans to make them have blue eggs.

That's what I've read, too.

As for whether it is "natural" for people to hatch eggs from chickens that laid blue eggs--that's just as natural as people hatching eggs from chickens with different colored feathers, or crested heads, or something like that. The mutation was not caused by people, but they choose to continue raising chickens who have the mutation.

It looks to me like any color a chicken egg can come in, there are also some kinds of wild birds that lay eggs that color. So in that sense, all those colors could be considered "natural" colors for eggs to be.

 

[Fallenone05]

That's what I've read, too.

As for whether it is "natural" for people to hatch eggs from chickens that laid blue eggs--that's just as natural as people hatching eggs from chickens with different colored feathers, or crested heads, or something like that. The mutation was not caused by people, but they choose to continue raising chickens who have the mutation.

It looks to me like any color a chicken egg can come in, there are also some kinds of wild birds that lay eggs that color. So in that sense, all those colors could be considered "natural" colors for eggs to be.

This makes me wonder if robins were exposed to the same thing that made their eggs blue.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

Yes, I know no one is injecting viruses now. I know that whatever happened it changed their genes.
But I am curious. If it was a natural virus, I'm OK with that. But if most EEs and other blue layers were descended from the manually changed ones(if they existed)...I'm not sure how I feel about that. Whenever people ask "Are they genetically modified for blue eggs (happens quite often, actually.) I say "No, no. It was a genetic mutation."
Now I'm not sure what to say.

 

[NatJ]

Whenever people ask "Are they genetically modified for blue eggs (happens quite often, actually.) I say "No, no. It was a genetic mutation."
Now I'm not sure what to say.

It sounds like people really mean, "Did some scientist mess with chickens to make this feature?" And the answer to that is clearly "no."

You could remind people that robins lay blue eggs. I think that's fairly common knowledge, and it makes the chickens sound more "natural" too.

 

[TheOddOneOut]

It sounds like people really mean, "Did some scientist mess with chickens to make this feature?" And the answer to that is clearly "no."

You could remind people that robins lay blue eggs. I think that's fairly common knowledge, and it makes the chickens sound more "natural" too.

Agreed. Thanks, that's a good answer.