first one is single comb, second one is either a pea or a rose can't tell at that angle. the info when i was searching the other day said, pea combs were linked to blue gene. i was gonna post a link for it but i forgot to. i'll see if i can still find it.
The Mystery of the Blue-green Egg
What angle would be better? I can take another pic tonight.
well actually u mabe can tell me. does her comb have little round bumps on the comb and flat? if so it's a rose or does it look more like a pea pod opened up? that is a pea comb.
CMoxon,
I think Allie is an Easter Egger ... = part Ameraucana. I thought she looked that way a couple weeks ago when you the 1st pic of her being loose without her chicks. I also noted her legs are the wrong color to be an EE or Ameraucana ... but if she's part Game Fowl or a myriad of other breeds ... she'd lay a greenish egg and have yellow legs. She really does have EE traits ... excepting the muffs and beard.
Kelly in Moxee
Interesting, so maybe she's not a Dark Cornish - Black Australorp cross. I am pretty sure she has the Australorp in her because that was the primary bird of Jim's original flock. Maybe a B.O. crossed with an Ameraucana?
CMoxon,
I'd say an Australorp/Ameraucana X would account for lots. Her having a brood for one. I had an Australorp ... my Broodylorp ... I called her. She hardly laid eggs because she was broody forever. She was the most worthless chicken I ever had. Keep the EE an egg layer ... at times not convenient a broody hen can be a royal pain in the A$$. Now I have 2 purebred Ameraucana hens ... both black and both broody for nearly a month.
Kelly in Moxee
Oops, I meant a B.A. crossed with Ameraucana. I don't know where BO came from! (not me, I used my deodorant today!). Interesting about their broodiness. I will keep that in mind. Maybe I could put other hens' eggs under her if she gets broody again. If one of my bantams ever lays anything, I could put it under her.
The seocnd comb is just a very small standard comb.
Nice job on the incubator, Claire!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CF
I looked at Diana's comb this morning. To me, it definitely doesn't look like an open pea pod. It does have bumps, but I don't know that they are round. They are just sort of random. She's definitely some sort of cross.
Dear Chicken Fairy,
Please go see my Red Rosie the Rescued Chicken thread. I think I need advice on her. She is a very sad case. I am doing the best I can for her for the betterment of chickendom.
Very bestest regards,
Claire
p.s. Please don't be stern with me.
The blue egg gene is dominant--you can't hide it in a hen, and the only reason you can in a roo is because, well, roos don't lay eggs, lol.
There are at least 13 different genes that affect egg colour, and most are not well documented or understood. Some work to make a brown egg darker, some work to clean up the white of white eggs, and then there is that single famous blue eggshell gene.
The peacomb gene is very closely linked with the blue egg gene, so you will usually find that hens who lay blue eggs have a pea comb (or at least the genes for it). While it is a dominant gene, several comb genes work together to create the variety of combs that chickens can have. For example, silkies have a walnut comb, which is a combination of the pea comb gene and the rose comb gene.
The blue egg gene affects the entire eggshell. Brown eggs are caused by a coating on the outer surface. So yes, crossing a white egg layer with a blue egglayer will give you blue eggs. Crossing a brown egg layer with a blue egg layer will give you blue eggshells coated with a brown tint: some variation of green/khaki.
The colour of the blue and brown can be additive, so a bird with one blue or brown gene will typically lay lighter coloured eggs than those with two genes. Also, during a laying cycle, the shells are darker at the beginning, lessening as she nears the end of her cycle. Once she has finished molting/raising chicks and begins laying again, the eggs will once again be at their darkest.
Suze
Wonderful explanation, Suze. Thank you so much.
The genes for leg colour, beard & muffs are unrelated to the genes for egg colour. The STANDARD for a breed dictates certain traits for the breed. Some of the traits include leg colour, beard, muffs, tufts, eye colour, body shape, skin colour, leg colour, number of toes, type of comb, etc.
Americaunas and araucanas are recognised breeds and have specific traits they should meet. But hatchery birds frequently do not meet more than the minimal description. There is no standard for Easter Eggers, although it is common for them to have some resemblance to ameraucanas or more rarely to araucanas.
When you cross breeds, the offspring will have some resemblance to each parent, depending largely on the dominant genes inherited. Some, such as the colour of the eggs are not physically apparent, allowing that trait to be retained when breeding back to get the correct type and other features when care is taken,
A number of folks have created small lines of various crosses to get blue eggs from other breeds: silkies, turkens, leghorns, showgirls are one I am aware of.
Suze
Thanks, Catscan :)
Suze--Can you suggest a good book or site on chicken genetics?
Thanks Suze!!! Great information. I know a lot about plant genetics, but next to nothing about chicken genetics, so this is tremendously helpful.
where did u find this info? i would like to look more into it and do some research on some of those crosses.
thanks,
silkie
A good starting place for chicken genetics information is at http://pekinbantams.com. You can find more at http://home.ezweb.com.au/~kazballea/genetics and http://home.ezweb.com.au/~kazballea/belgians. Hutt's Genetics of the Fowl is probably the most commonly recognised hard copy book, but I believe it is out of print. The 2nd link above has an impressive list of references that include all the big names in poultry genetics.
As for crosses to add blue eggs to a breed, I've read about various efforts over the years on various message boards. A friend crossed her ameraucanas to her white leghorns and was pleased with her start--unfortunately a dog got into her pens and killed off that entire line. I'm not sure if she is planning to re-start that project.
My statement about crosses looking somewhat like each parent was pretty general, but not inaccurate. Recessive traits will be hidden if the offspring gets a copy from only one parent, hidden recesssives can show up when the offspring receive hidden copies from each parent.
Suze
Thank you so much for the input Suze, looks like you showed up just in time to get us all on the right track! I will be studing all those websites.
Fran
Thank you, Suze!
Hi Suze, I couldn't get the first or third site to work (the first opens to a page about art?), but the second site is incredible.
Thanks!
i fixed the first link:
http://www.pekinbantams.com/
oh i have a 5 hens that lay eggs that color but i think im going to guess and say Allie (the pic is of one of the bluish-green egg layers Coco)
For the 3rd link, remove the spaces and try
http: //home.ezweb.com.au/ ~kazballea/belgians/
Suze
got it to work, thanks!
here is the page with color info, including lavendars:
http://home.ezweb.com.au/~kazballea/belgians/genetics.htm#colourchart
Well, the mystery is finally solved.
About 10 days ago, I moved Allie in with the other coop and I moved Dappled Daphne, who in my opinion looks pretty much identical to Dappled Diana, into the Eglu. That meant I had Henny Penny (who used to be in there by herself so I knew she lay brown eggs) and the two Dapple girls. It took this long for Diana to start laying again, even though Henny Penny was laying all along. I couldn't figure out why - maybe she was just disturbed by the change. Anyway, she and Daphne are both laying as of the last couple of days, and they are both laying blue eggs. So, Allie laid the huge double yolker brown eggs, and Daphne laid the blue eggs.
Sooooo....that means that the CHICKEN FAIRY was WRONG!!!!! (see Post #5429965)
Shocking...
Claire
It was a test!
Hmmmm....an interesting theory! And I just blithely believed....
well, cna 't recall if i guessed, was i right? i am NVER right... going tomorrow to sex some California Whites for a guy... about 3 months old. so i will do BOITH flip tests, check feathering, foot size, combs, color of feathers, jpelvic bones.... behavior.... what else?
hmmm, maybe the CF was wrong, or maybe your theory is not workign... or maybe she does NOT check her list twice!
It is a question of faith--the CF is nudging Moxon into using her own growing powers to make the identifications. Perhaps a Midwest CF Representative in the making?
Feel the power, Claire!
in the making? she seems pretty full fledged to me. the example she is setting for others, what an enabler ;-P
Exactly. I was being tactful. She is an enabler in full bloom.
yeah, th inking i can afford to take a little vacation now. maybe a fishing trip?
Do your districts overlap? Maybe she can take yours on temporarily as part of her trainee process. Or is it hazing?
define hazing?
When you make people go through horrible and demeaning situations to prove their worth---like in a fraternity.
That does pretty much describe being a CF's representative doesn't it? We don't get any respect.
THAT'S IT! I'VE BEEN HAZED!!!!!!!
ROFLMBO!!!
lol