Which blue eggs for hatching

**Suechooks** · 14-03-2010, 10:34 PM

As I understand it the egg colour is passed through the cockerel so you need a boy who was from an egg of the colour you want. Obviously the hen has something to do with it too but my genetics is too basic to take it any further!

**its hilly** · 14-03-2010, 10:53 PM

Well both the boys are CL, Silver and Hoppy, its abad pic of him cos he never stands still.

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**Snadger** · 15-03-2010, 07:30 AM

I would say only use the colour of egg you want the chicks to lay and hope that Mr Legbar is from a dark blue egg laying strain?

Funnily enough I'm wading through Charles Darwins- Origin of the Species at the mo and I'm sure this is what he would advocate!

**RichmondHens** · 15-03-2010, 08:01 AM

Well my CLs lay much bluer eggs than the eggs they hatched from. Now it may be that the eggs get paler as the season progresses, like Welsummers. We will have to see. I too have one that lays slightly greener eggs than the others, who lay sky blue eggs. Why not set both and ring the chicks as they hatch so you know which colour eggs they came from so later on you when they start laying you can see if a chick from a blue egg lays a blue egg.

But like Sue I do understand that the blue gene is carried by the male, so I guess you would need to know how blue an egg he came from.

**Bramble-Poultry** · 15-03-2010, 08:55 AM

right, as i understand it, we are all on the right thread and together we are all off it! what we actually need to do (according to the genetics book on the shelf) is thus.

hatch both sets of eggs, identify the chicks. then if you get a cockerel from the light blue egg, cross him back to his mother to fix the colour. the colour is carried on the cockerel so to cross him back to his mother that laid the light blue egg should fix it in successive generations.

hope this helps?

**Shellintons** · 15-03-2010, 02:18 PM

Just to throw a spanner in the works, I crossed my Light Sussex cockerel with my Cream Legbars for someone else. The lucky chap has hens which look more or less like the sussex but lay blue eggs.

**Birdie Wife** · 15-03-2010, 02:40 PM

I was given to understand that the blue egg gene is a dominant gene so in theory, a cross with any cream legbar, male or female, would produce all blue-eggers (the cockerels would be carriers of the blue gene though they don't lay eggs). You would have to cross back to another cream legbar to be sure that all offspring carried two copies of the gene.

**Snadger** · 15-03-2010, 07:58 PM

Originally posted by Birdie Wife View Post

I was given to understand that the blue egg gene is a dominant gene so in theory, a cross with any cream legbar, male or female, would produce all blue-eggers (the cockerels would be carriers of the blue gene though they don't lay eggs). You would have to cross back to another cream legbar to be sure that all offspring carried two copies of the gene.

BW........you've just made my day.

I want a few blue eggs but don't want another cockerel.

This way I can buy a few blue egg layers ie Aruacanas or cream legbars, then cross them with one of my cockerels to give me a few more chooks that lay blue eggs.

**Hilary B** · 16-03-2010, 02:01 PM

Is the egg colour gene on the sex chromosome (like the colour from sex-linked cross)? If so, you will probably only get blue-egg laying hens from a blue-egg-gene-carrying cockerel.
What I read some time ago is...
Whereas in mammals the female has the XX and the male XY, in birds it is the other way about, and the reason sex-linked crosses work is because the Y chromosome isn't long enough to have the 'wrong' colour on. If this is right (and it may be that the book I read it in is talking rubbish, it was an old book even then) then the same is not unlikely to occur with egg colour.
On the other hand if hens are XX and cockerels XY, it may be that if the hen had a gene for a different colour, the one from the cockerel isn't dominant enough to overcome it.
I can't quite see how you would get 'compromise' colours (eg olive by crossing a blue-egg breed with a brown-egg breed) unless it was XX female, but......

**Birdie Wife** · 16-03-2010, 03:22 PM

No Hilary I don't think it is sex linked - or if it is, it would have to be on both the X and Y chromosomes, otherwise Shellingtons friend would not have ended up with blue egg-laying hens

**BUFFS** · 16-03-2010, 03:55 PM

Originally posted by Birdie Wife View Post

No Hilary I don't think it is sex linked - or if it is, it would have to be on both the X and Y chromosomes, otherwise Shellingtons friend would not have ended up with blue egg-laying hens

all that has happened is that there is probably lots of peeps out there like me,mad jealous that you get blue eggs,i wish id known about them at the start,ihad seen pictures of some,but to be realistic it would have meant a 250ml round trip to the nearest reputable (blue-egg) breeder,they are a bit thin on the ground up here,im just in the wrong part of the country,i am looking forward to any pics you put on the vine,to see how they all turn out...

**Birdie Wife** · 16-03-2010, 05:38 PM

Originally posted by BUFFS View Post

all that has happened is that there is probably lots of peeps out there like me,mad jealous that you get blue eggs,i wish id known about them at the start,ihad seen pictures of some,but to be realistic it would have meant a 250ml round trip to the nearest reputable (blue-egg) breeder,they are a bit thin on the ground up here,im just in the wrong part of the country,i am looking forward to any pics you put on the vine,to see how they all turn out...

250 miles?? I know you're in the middle of naewhere (join the club!) but I bet there's some closer than that! How close are you to Stirling?

**BUFFS** · 16-03-2010, 07:43 PM

Originally posted by Birdie Wife View Post

250 miles?? I know you're in the middle of naewhere (join the club!) but I bet there's some closer than that! How close are you to Stirling?

didnt know there were any in sterling,from here to there is about 80/85ml each way,but now we have bought the new rhoderocks,we wont have enough room for any more until such time as the numbers we have decrease,and as they are generally young and fit ,it will be sometime before we can consider any more,we havent got the space to expand at all so we must stick to our max so the birds are not crowded,they have3x5mtr coop area and 9x3mtr roaming area,so no more for now.

**Snadger** · 16-03-2010, 08:08 PM

Originally posted by BUFFS View Post

all that has happened is that there is probably lots of peeps out there like me,mad jealous that you get blue eggs,i wish id known about them at the start,ihad seen pictures of some,but to be realistic it would have meant a 250ml round trip to the nearest reputable (blue-egg) breeder,they are a bit thin on the ground up here,im just in the wrong part of the country,i am looking forward to any pics you put on the vine,to see how they all turn out...

I though EVERYTHING went blue up your neck of the woods?

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