What would I get if.....

[Serrin]

I crossed an Araucana roo with any of the following:
Barred Rocks
Buff Orpingtons
Golden Sexlinks
Light Brahma's

What I'd like to know is, if I cross an Araucana roo with any of these breeds, would the eggs the resulting hens lay be brown or of the easter egg variety?

There's a very handsome 5 month old Araucana roo up for adoption about 2 hours south of me...and I'm just kind of kicking this notion around in my head. I've been wanting to add a roo to the flock, as well as EE's. If the crossing of an Araucana roo with the above mentioned breeds would result in future EE laying hens, that would be a definite bonus.

So, your thoughts? I'd really love to hear from those of you who have a good working knowledge of what begets what in the chicken world!

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Easter eggers do not all lay blue or green eggs. Some lay brown or even white eggs--it depends on which genes they inherit from each parent. In general the genes relating to egg colour are not sex-linked.

 

[Serrin]

So, in other words, I'd have about a 50/50 shot of the resulting offspring of such a cross producing blue or green eggs eh? Nuts! I was hoping for a little bit better odds than that.

Thanks for the input though. Much appreciated. Guess I'll sew a button on that idea and go with birds that are bred specifically for the color of eggs I want. Sounds like even then it's no guarantee though?

 

[ChickenWisperer]

Quote:
If you buy TRUE aracauna and ameraucana birds ( NOT EASTER EGGERS ) and establish a PURE flock, all those hens and ALL of their offspring will lay blue/green eggs.

However, the offspring from a crossing of a EasterEgger, Ameraucana, or Araucana with any other breed of hen will be an easter egger - and they do not necessarily lay blue / green eggs - they can lay any colored egg.

 

[ChickenWisperer]

And you would only have a 50/50 shot of blue/green - egger babies in your flock if the rooster you purchas has 2 copies of the blue egg gene.

Hope all that helps

 

[juliecox]

Still, it would be an interesting experiment, wouldn't it? I'd like to see what happens with an Ameraucana or Arauacana rooster with a group of decorative birds - say, Polish, Wyandotte, Silkie, frizzled cochin, etc. Of course, you'd have to gather the eggs, then incubate, then hatch, then let them grow up and separate the hens from the roosters. Then let the hens lay, cull the white and brown layers, and cross them with roosters from the same flock, and when you let that second round of chicks grow up, generate an obsessive compulsive spreadsheet that made your husband/wife/kids/dog think you were nuts, seeing what crosses produced chicks that laid which color eggs ...

So, several years worth of a project. But it would be fun!

 

[Henk69]

Tipp: follow the peacomb.
No use if you cross with another peacombed breed that lays white or brown eggs of course.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
No, if he has two copies, all his offspring will inherit a copy, and the girls will lay an egg with a blue eggshell.

If he only carries a single copy, then half will inherit and half won't.

If he doesn't carry the gene, and other than breeding records, there is no way to know whether he inherited the blue eggshell gene or not (unless you can figure out how to get a roooster to lay

)

 

[Henk69]

Peacomb is closely linked to blue-egger. So if the rooster has inherited his peacomb from the araucana chances are he carries the blue egger gene.
If the araucana somehow doesn't have peacomb then cross to light brahma and do the opposite.

 

[ChickenWisperer]

Quote:
No, if he has two copies, all his offspring will inherit a copy, and the girls will lay an egg with a blue eggshell.

If he only carries a single copy, then half will inherit and half won't.

If he doesn't carry the gene, and other than breeding records, there is no way to know whether he inherited the blue eggshell gene or not (unless you can figure out how to get a roooster to lay

)

LOL, thanks for pointing that out. I don't know what I was thinking.

And I sure wish I could get my roosters to lay

I know the facts about the blue eggshell and genes, but do you know how the green (brown overlay) comes into play? Or the facts behind that?