I'm a little over half-way through my first hatch. I am cautiously optimistic! My daughter (10) is quite excited. She has day 21 marked on her calendar in her room. My roo is at the very least an EE. I was told by the lady from whom I bought him that he was Ameraucana. He has ear muffs and slate legs. This is him coming out of a molt. (If you google images for "Ameraucana rooster", you will see several images that look like my guy) I retrieved eggs from two of my store-bought easter-eggers that he has taken a liking to. One lays green eggs, and has ear muffs, slate legs, and a beautiful beard. The other lays light brown eggs, and has no discernible EE features except for the slate legs. What are my odds that I'll get tinted (green) egg-layers out of my green eggs? Alternatively, what are my odds from the light brown eggs? Any science to it? Or is it pot luck with the EEs? LOL!! (My luck, I'll get roos out of all of my green eggs ) Secondary question; I will be getting rid of any roos that hatch - Given the info above, how would you classify them when describing them in an ad? Easter eggers? Thanks!! Wade
OK, I'm no expert but this is what I've learned so far. If someone who knows more than I do sees misinformation here, please speak up: Green laying hen would have a brown gene + a blue gene. Brown laying hen would have either two brown genes or a white and a brown. No blue can be present with her because blue expresses if present. There is no way to tell what your rooster has at this point since he obviously hasn't laid an egg. If green hen passes her blue, resulting pullets would lay either blue or green eggs depending on what rooster passes (white + blue = blue). If green hen passes her brown, resulting pullets would lay either brown or green depending on rooster (brown + brown = brown, brown + white = brown, brown + blue = green) If brown hen passes brown, resulting pullets would lay either brown or green depending on rooster. If brown hen passes white, resulting pullets would lay either brown or white depending on rooster (white + white = white). So, as you can see, any egg color could be seen in the offspring and the offspring can definitely lay a different color of egg than they hatched from themselves. However, we cannot calculate odds since we don't actually know which genes the birds possess.
Correct. This is how I like to look at it (NOT X) since it's the absence of color, not presence of white (which gets confusing when considered in both genes), that is a controlling factor: Brown + blue = green Not brown + blue = blue Brown + not blue = brown Not brown + not blue = white I'm sure there are abbreviations that the genetics folks use but I'm not up to date on those.
@debid - Your comment about my roo obviously not having laid an egg literally made me lol!! (Hit me just right) Thanks for all the info - and it was a LOT of info! @Happy, why do you say he's def an EE and not an Ameraucana? I'm not arguing, just looking to learn. Thanks! Wade
The main reason would be because he is not any of the Ameraucana standard colors. http://ameraucana.org/scrapbook.html You can actually have 2 Ameraucanas, say a Silver and a Blue Wheaten, but if you breed them together, their offspring would be considered EEs because they would not be one of the accepted colors in the Ameraucana SOP.
