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What can cause loss of egg color in pure Ameraucanas?

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Guest:
Would it be a recessive gene that might cause the blue to be lost after 4 or 5 years of breeding only blue eggs?

Or is the most obvious reason that somewhere before that, there was a cross?

John:

--- Quote ---Would it be a recessive gene
--- End quote ---

Probably.  Blue egg shell color is dominant to white, so if a hen and cock in your flock both carry at least one gene for white egg shell color they could produce offspring that are pure for it.
I\'ve had the same thing happen with a couple bantam wheatens (one last year and one this year) that lay tinted white to light brown eggs after about 20+ years or breeding from only blueish eggs.
 

Mike Gilbert:
The only way to be sure your birds are homozygous for blue egg gene is to test mate them with brown or white egg laying chickens.   It\'s a long process, because you have to raise the test pullets up to egg laying age.    Best to furnish a disclaimer when making sales, but I think most knowledgeable buyers are aware of the potential problem.
The hatcheries get away with it by claiming some of their chickens might lay \"pink\" or other colored eggs.

Blue Egg Acres:

--- Quote from: John} that lay tinted white to light brown eggs after about 20+ years or breeding from only blueish eggs.
  [/quote ---
Is it necessary to cull tinted white/light brown layers to eliminate the problem? or can one cross them with a cockerel that is out of a blue egg from another line  and get birds that produce blue eggs?
--- End quote ---

Guest:

--- Quote from: John ---
--- Quote ---Would it be a recessive gene
--- End quote ---

Probably.  Blue egg shell color is dominant to white, so if a hen and cock in your flock both carry at least one gene for white egg shell color they could produce offspring that are pure for it.
I\'ve had the same thing happen with a couple bantam wheatens (one last year and one this year) that lay tinted white to light brown eggs after about 20+ years or breeding from only blueish eggs.
 
--- End quote ---


That is probably what happened, the rooster was used on his daughers concentrating the genes.

So,  there shouldn\'t be a problem breeding pullets from that rooster who do lay a blue egg  to an unrelated rooster?

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