Will an EE and RIR or Red Star cross produce green eggs??

[chickenlover99]

Will an EE Rooster bred with a RIR have offspring that will produce green eggs? Will an EE Rooster bred with a Red Star have offspring that produce green eggs?

 

[Momo]

Well, it depends on whether the EE is homozygous or heterozygous for the blue egg gene. There are two base eggshell colour genes in chickens - blue and white - and blue is dominant over white. It doesn't matter whether the EE parent is male or female. If the EE is homozygous then each offspring will be heterozygous for blue, so the underlying shell of the egg will be blue, and if they inherit a brown egg tint from the other parent (a near certainty in your case), then the eggs will be green.

If the EE is heterozygous then only 50% of the offspring will have the blue egg gene (giving green) and 50% will have the white egg gene (giving brown because of the brown tint on top).

Oh, and don't forget that your EE could be homozygous for the white eggshell gene because not all EEs carry the blue gene, in which none of the progeny will lay green.

My EE roo is almost certainly homozygous because I raised a bunch of his chicks from BSL hens and all of them lay some shade of green or khaki eggs.

Clear as mud?

 

[buck431397]

i'll let you know in about 15 weeks.....

 

[denasfarm]

I have one EE X RIR (the red one) and one EE X Marans and they both lay green/blue eggs. very nice birds too.

 

[Goose and Fig]

denasfarm- doesn't your EExMarans lay olive eggs? Or does it have to be an EE roo x Marans to get olive eggers?

 

[ams3651]

well, i can tell you, my EEs lay blue green eggs, their offspring (crossed with a RIR roo) lay pink eggs. Not sure how it would work in reverse.

 

[Momo]

It doesn't matter which parent is which: each chicken gets one eggshell-colour gene from each parent. In your case, ams3651, I'd say your EE hens are clearly heterozygous for the blue eggshell gene and it happens that their progeny didn't inherit it. (Each chick will have a 50% chance of inheriting that gene.) A pink egg is technically a white egg with a small amount of brownish tint (makes it look pink).