Comb Identification

[Guest]

I recently bought what I thought was an Ameraucana, but when she laid her first egg it was lightly tinted brown. I thought she had a pea comb and beard/muffs so was confident she carried the blue egg gene. Upon closer inspection I\'m not sure what kind of comb she has. It looks a little like a rose comb, but not sure. Is it possible she has a mutated comb? There was a single combed bearded/muff rooster in the cage with her. I think he was her brother. Any chance she carries a recessive blue egg gene?

[Mike Gilbert]

The gene for blue eggshell is not recessive, it is dominant.  Your hen apparently carries no gene for blue egg.   The comb looks like a cross between single and something else, possibly pea.   The yellowish beak seems to indicate she may have yellow skin as well.  You may need to find some new stock if you want Ameraucanas.  Sorry.

[Guest]

Thanks. that\'s what I was afraid of. She has slate colored shanks, but I\'m not sure of her skin color. I plan on buying some Blue Wheaten birds from one of the members of the ABC this spring as breeding stock. I was hoping to get some colored eggs from her until then. I wasn\'t sure if a chicken can have a cross between two different kinds of combs. Thanks for clearing that up for me. She lays an egg everyday, even during the cold and with no additional lighting. I\'ll keep her around for that.

[John]

If she has yellow skin, as Mike said her beak color indicates, then I would guess she shanks are willow instead of slate.  If you check the pads of her feet you will see they are either pinkish white or yellowish.  
Check out the link below to a site that has some good photos and info about shank/leg color, combs and other stuff.
http://home.ezweb.com.au/~kazballea/genetics/mutations2.html

[Guest]

The comb does not look to be a single comb/pea comb hybrid. It would be much larger and flop over. It looks like a deformed pea comb to me. I raised quit a few pea comb hybrids and they did not have combs that even resembled a pea comb.  The little spike on the end does make the comb look like a rose comb

There are breads that have pea combs and do not lay blue eggs. Cornish or indian game is one example. They lay a light brown egg.

Tim