Egg Color

[Jean]

Hello!

I am looking at some of my new pullet\'s eggs and was wondering what the rest of you would do.  The eggs on the left are what I usually keep as breeders as long as the chicken looks correct according to standard.  The eggs on the right are very blue and very green, would you consider hatching from these?  There is also a brown and a couple green eggs on the top added for contrast.

The picture does not do any of these eggs justice.  The new eggs in person look like real colored easter eggs.

Jean

[bantamhill]

Jean,

I personally would keep and breed from them agressively. I will be interested to see what others think.

Michael

[Mike Gilbert]

We should all have such a nice \"problem\" to deal with.   While I do prefer the eggs on the left, I would sure use the two on the right if the hen that laid them is good in other respects.
On my computer screen even the two on the top don\'t look all that bad.   I look at a host of other things first before cutting for egg color as long as they are reasonably blue.    What I might do, however, is keep roosters for breeding only from the eggs on the left if possible.   Just my opinion.

[Jean]

I\'m going for the \"total package\".  :p

Jean

[Mike Gilbert]

Okay, my curiosity is up.   What variety of Ameraucanas laid each of the three different colors of eggs?   Let me guess:
blacks/blues laid the ones on top, wheatens/blue-wheatens the ones on the left and maybe buffs the ones on the right with the \"extreme\"coloring?   How close am I?

[Jean]

Mike,

To tell you the truth, I have no idea.  I put all of last years pullets in one big room in the new building two weeks ago tomorrow.

My husband is going to finish a room or two tomorrow so I can seperate my silvers and my wheatens/blue wheatens.  If I get lucky he will get three rooms done and I can pull out the whites too.

My theory is that the wheatens/blue wheatens are laying the light blue and possibly one of the silvers.  

My buffs do not have good egg color, so I would guess the greens came from them or the whites.

I do not keep any blacks or blues for breeding that lay that green of an egg, so shouldn\'t be them.

The extreme ones I have not figured out yet.  I have been trying to breed the best blue egg program here.

I have around 150 chickens right now.  When I get the pens set up, the first thing I am doing is removing hens and pullets which do not lay a blue or minty green egg.  They will go into my laying facility and if they don\'t produce there, they will be culled.

I hope to hatch alot of eggs again this year to propigate the blue egg gene.  I have a black hen that lays a spectacular egg and I plan to use her to improve my whites egg color and to improve the general qualities of my silvers.  She will be a busy lady.

When I find out which variety is laying those eggs I will let you know.

So much for my life story.... :rolleyes:

Jean

[Jean]

Mike,

The rounder one on the far right is being laid by a blue hen. I caught her in the act yesterday.

Jean

[Guest]

I can never judge color very well on the internet, but at least on my monitor, those are the nicest blue eggs I\'ve seen yet.  

I\'m curious, are the birds producing these colors, good layers? I\'ve read that the better blues tend to come from birds that do not lay as well. Any truth to this?

[Jean]

Thanks for the compliments, but I would like to point out that I got my original black and blue stock from John Blehm, Paul Smith and Lisa Cree.  So they are truely the founders of my blue eggs.

I personally don\'t think the color of the egg has anything to do with laying ability.  

My pullets were slow to lay this past winter because they were exposed to the elements and other \"things\" I will not mention as I would be pointing fingers.  :rolleyes:

But since I have put them inside they have started up and been very regular.

Jean

PS I think the egg color in the picture is pretty accurate since I put the brown and green eggs in there, usually my photos  tend to look greener than the actually are.

[Paul]

I finally found time to put my two cents in.  I would not set the browner colored egg laying horizontal on the left.  I would set the rest of them and watch for a good breeding male out of the bottom four.  Good egg color is not easily achieved.  We have some blue and black pullets, full sisters, that are from three generations of good blue eggs.  Their mother, a blue pullet, laid our best blue eggs last year.  She was mated to a good black cockerel out of a blue egg.  These pullets started laying about a month ago they laid every shade of blue and green imaginable at first, but now have started laying good colored blue eggs.  The weather has changed so much this season, and with not putting lights with a timer on the females this time, its been difficult to get eggs.

[Jean]

Paul,

The brown egg is from a Delaware.  It\'s strictly for eating!

I think everyone is behind this year.  I know I am way way behind.  I just keep telling people give me a month or so and get back to me.....

Thanks for the input everyone.

Jean

[Guest]

Is *deep* blue (such as that of 2 eggs on right) actually undesirable? If so, why? I had thought pale blue was the basic, and deep blue perhaps an even stronger (& therefore better) version of the desired gene. Obviously, I\'ve got some learning to do!
Laura

[NGaAmeraucana]

I know this is an old post but I have an egg color question.

My pullets/now hens all lay gorgeous blue eggs.  They were mated to a nice roo who came out of a gorgeous blue egg.  The resulting pullet from that mating (gbe hen x roo from blue egg) is laying for all practical purposes.. a white barely tinted blue egg.  

1) Will that pullet\'s eggs darken?
2)  What cuased her to lay nearly white eggs when both of her parents lay beautiful blue or came from a beautiful blue egg?

3)How does the blue egg gene work?  
4)Is there a genetics chart anywhere?

[Mike Gilbert]

You didn\'t say how long the pullet has been laying, so I\'ll guess at least a couple of weeks?  My opinions follow in the order the questions were asked.

1) no
2)The sire\'s father was not taken into account, he was probably hetero for the blue egg gene (O) and did not pass O onto his son, the father of the pullet in question.   You did the right thing, but unless you know the entire pedigree there are no guarantees.  
3)It is a single dominant gene.   That means it is expressed by one gene (O), but in order to breed true for blue egg, a chicken must inherit O from both parents, not just one.
4) Entire books have been written on poultry genetics.  What are you looking for?   I would recommend the poultry genetics website by Sellers for starters.  Here is the address:
http://sellers.kippenjungle.nl/page3.html

Just as an aside, the term roo is generally held in disdain by many experienced poultry folks.  The correct and therefore favored terminology is cock, cockerel, or rooster.  

[NGaAmeraucana]

Sounds like simple genetics.  Is it this simple?  

OO hen = blue eggs
Oo hen = white eggs

is that correct?  Or are there alleles (sp?) involved?

I know the words, lol. Our boys are named
Roo1, Roo2, Roo3,etc...  It\'s habit regardless of age for the main boys. The boys being sold are listed with the correct words to classify age when being sold.  That\'s the only time I\'m anal about using the correct words..  Otherwise I\'m pretty laid back.