What will I get!?

[Nichole1]

Hi everyone! So as of recently, I have an aracauna hen thats decided to go broody. She HAS successfully sat,hatched and raised chicks before, so I have faith in her! Anyway! She currently has 3 beautiful blue eggs and 1 (stolen) brown egg she's warming. And it got me thinking! If you have a hen that lays blue eggs, and its bred to a (believed to be) Australorp rooster. What kind of chicks might this produce? Ultimately I'm wondering If she produces some female chicks, would they lay brown or blue eggs? I doubt I'll get a definite answer but the idea is interesting I think. thanks for any opinions in advance!

 

[BlueBaby]

If the blue egg hen was bred to the brown egg rooster, any pullet's from that will grow up to lay green egg's.

 

[FuzzyCritters]

So brown eggs are just white eggs with brown pigment, while blue eggs are blue through the shell. A green egg is a blue egg with brown pigment.

The blue egg gene (O) is dominant over the white egg gene (o). Araucanas should have two copies of the blue egg gene, and Australorps have two copies of the white egg gene. The offspring will inherit one copy of each gene, but since blue eggs are dominant the hens will lay blue eggs. Offspring will inherit different amounts of brown pigment, so you will get some more green eggs and some more blue eggs.

If your Auraucana only has one copy of the blue egg gene, some of her offspring will lay brown or tinted eggs. There is no way to tell if she has one copy or two copies of the blue egg gene.

 

[Pullet Press]

So brown eggs are just white eggs with brown pigment, while blue eggs are blue through the shell. A green egg is a blue egg with brown pigment.

The blue egg gene (O) is dominant over the white egg gene (o). Araucanas should have two copies of the blue egg gene, and Australorps have two copies of the white egg gene. The offspring will inherit one copy of each gene, but since blue eggs are dominant the hens will lay blue eggs. Offspring will inherit different amounts of brown pigment, so you will get some more green eggs and some more blue eggs.

If your Auraucana only has one copy of the blue egg gene, some of her offspring will lay brown or tinted eggs. There is no way to tell if she has one copy of two copies of the blue egg gene.

 

[NatJ]

Ultimately I'm wondering If she produces some female chicks, would they lay brown or blue eggs?

With a mother that laid blue eggs, and a father being a brown-egg breed, you should get one of these scenarios:
all pullets lay green eggs
OR
half of pullets lay green eggs, half lay brown eggs

(FuzzyCritters has the genetics explanation for why that is so.)

 

[BigBlueHen53]

These answers surprise me. I am an absolute neophyte when it comes to chicken genetics, but I thought some of the offspring might produce olive eggs: a blue egg with a brown coating. So much to learn, thanks for the abocve explanations!

 

[NatJ]

These answers surprise me. I am an absolute neophyte when it comes to chicken genetics, but I thought some of the offspring might produce olive eggs: a blue egg with a brown coating.

Blue egg with brown coating is green.
Blue egg with darker brown coating is olive.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Blue egg with brown coating is green.
Blue egg with darker brown coating is olive.

Thank you for making that so simple!

 

[Nichole1]

Thanks so much for the insight guys! Regardless of what's produced I'm excited to see the results . If we are being honest tho, with My luck she will hatch out all cockrels

 

[Ridgerunner]

These answers surprise me. I am an absolute neophyte when it comes to chicken genetics, but I thought some of the offspring might produce olive eggs: a blue egg with a brown coating.

Whether it is base blue or base white is covered above. That is simple dominant/recessive genetics. The uncertainty is in knowing what each parent is contributing.

The brown is more complex. Brown is added after the shell is formed in the shell gland, say in the last half-hour the egg is in there, if any brown is added at all. It goes like this.

Base blue + no brown = blue
Base blue + brown = green
Base white + no brown = white
Base white + brown = brown

That looks pretty simple and is. But the problem is that there are at lot of different gene pairs that affect the shade of brown. Some are dominant, some are recessive. I believe some are partially dominant which means if both genes at that gene pair are that specific gene you get one effect but if only one is you get a different effect. Some only act if a different specific gene is present. One is sex linked, which means the hens won't give it to their daughters but only to their sons. The only way a girl can get it is if their father has it. There is even one that can bleach some of the brown out.

The last I heard there were at least 11 different gene pairs that can affect the shade of brown. I did a quick calculation, I think that means there are about 40,000,000 different possible combinations if I did the math right. That's why you can get so many different shades of brown. To be fair, the naked eye probably can't tell the difference in all those. Mine sure can't.

If your Araucana is laying a blue egg then she is probably not contributing to any of these brown genes except maybe the bleaching gene. Technically she could have one copy of some recessive gene. There are always exceptions. In theory the only brown shell genes should come from the rooster and the only ones that should have an effect are the dominant ones. In theory. If you cross two brown egg laying breeds or a hen that lays a green egg with a brown egg laying breed rooster It gets even more confusing. The blue egg side could come from the father and the brown from the hen.

Often you can make a good guess of what the egg will look like if you know how dark brown the brown contribution is but sometimes you can get a real surprise. If that Australorp and Araucana are contributing what they should be you should get green eggs but probably not very dark. But the only way to know is to hatch the eggs and see what colors and shades the pullets lay.

Good luck on getting some pullets out of those three blue eggs. If you do get pullets think how exciting the first egg will be. From experience that waiting can be really frustrating.