# Easter Egger Genotypes?



## Sicilianu (Apr 28, 2020)

Hello everyone. Incubating eggs from someone with these Easter egger hens (images attached). Any ideas about their color genetics?

In particular, one of them seems different. Could it have Co/Db?

All of them have Bl and the two of them are at least e+ heterozygotes.


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I'm afraid you're in the wrong place to talk genetics at that depth. There are not a lot of people who understand them.

Someone might be able to pop in and give you more information on what to expect but having raised Silkies it won't be me since their genetics are a bit different than hard feathered breeds.


----------



## TomC (Apr 9, 2020)

Phew, I just barely passed genetics in biology.


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

This is the correct forum topic for your question but I don't believe we have anyone that does the sciency end of it anymore. Most of us are just backyard chicken owners that love our birds


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

I’m not too familiar on chicken genetics but did get my associates in biology On my way to livestock veterinarian. Easter eggers are hard to determine the color as they have so many hidden genotypes. Do you know what the rooster is? If it is the black one in the picture then most chicks will end up black.


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

Okay so I was wrong lol  We have Mitzy
I understood "livestock veterinarian, Easter egger, olive egger and allele's" I actually know what those are, as for the rest of what she said, lost on me!


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

Haha I'm sorry 
Since Easter eggers are a cross you never know what their parents are (unless you do) the parents genotype (genes) could be different than their phenotype (appearance) typically with the blue gene present which it looks like the hens have that is a recessive trait under black (if that is the dad of the eggs) so since the hens are blue that would mean they have a recessive genotype and since it is showing that means that their phenotype is also recessive (the blue coloring) blue crossed to black (dad) will produce a mixture of about 50 blue and 50 black. Sadly since the father is solid black most of the chicks will be solid black or solid blue. Cheeks and beards are dominant typically as is peacomb so the chicks should have 1 copy of cheeks (although it won't always happen as you don't know the moms lineage, as the moms look like they each only have one copy of cheeks) the pea comb should carry on to all of the offspring but it will be a wonky pea comb.


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Mitzy, you stepped in it now. I'll be hollering at you for questions that are about breeds I have no clue about. I understand Silkie genetics but I can't talk intelligently about them.


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

robin416 said:


> Mitzy, you stepped in it now. I'll be hollering at you for questions that are about breeds I have no clue about. I understand Silkie genetics but I can't talk intelligently about them.


Haha  luckily I've bred Easter eggers so I have a bit of knowledge on them. When I breed them to my true black ameraucana they always end up as solid black chicks


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Which is odd. Silkies are recessive white if I put a true black bird with a white, I get all black chicks. I'm surprised that you get the same with hard feathered birds. The black gene must be strongly dominant. 

But if I put that white bird with any other color, like happens with the EE's it's a surprise what colors pop out.


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

One of my SLW's has a wonky comb (my beautiful Ann) but she looks exactly as she should for a SLW in every other way, Does that mean she has a weird gene thing going on somewhere? (I know she has a rose comb, not a pea like you were talking about but does that happen no matter what kind of comb?)


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

I'm going to wait for Mitzi's answer because I know every once in a while a Silkie will have a single comb. Usually those from hatcheries.


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

Every once in a while Wyandotte's will have an odd single comb pop up somewhere from their lines, when that happens I just don't breed them (or sell chicks if it happens to pop up) Wyandotte's have had a few breeds added to create them and if I remember correctly Orpington was added for shape could be from that. I'm not sure if rose combs are dominant or not though.

For color breeding white is definitely dominant over black it's known as the eraser gene. It's always interesting breeding my rooster to my white hens, all of the pure bred hens chicks end up white while the crosses like my Austrawhite hers always come out black


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

That's the difference between the dom whites and recessive whites of Silkies. Put a white Silkie with anything but a true black and you'll get a mess of colors.


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

I've been wanting to breed silkies but I gotta wait until I move  I'll have to stick with my three breeds until then


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

You'll have to rethink some of what you know about the genetics from other breeds. Getting a true black can be daunting so many mixed blue and black. The blue is so dark it looks black. 

An example, even though the lavender Silkie is recognized as being lavender. It's actual color gene is self blue.


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

That sounds fairly similar to Ameraucanas! They are self blue not lavender


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Is there a lavender Ameraucana? 

Silkies were not happy when the Bantam Club insisted they be called lavender and not self blue.


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

Nope just self blue although a lot of people call their self blues lavender there is at least only self blue accepted and on the ameraucanas page it says self blue (sometimes called lavender)


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

There's one good thing about them being self blue, they won't have the feather issues that some lavender gened birds have.


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

Yes! That is good!


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

One for you to think about if you ever get Silkies is playing with the lavender and buff breedings. For the life of me right now I can't remember what they ended up calling them but they have the lavender body with buff heads. It was a very neat look.


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

I know for cochins there is something similar called lemon blues!


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Same thing but they call them something different. They were working on them about the same time I sold my breeding flock so the name just didn't stick.


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

okay so, I'm thinking I may have confused you guys. My SLW with the wonky comb still has a rose comb, it's just "broken", the back half is bent to the right in almost perfect "L". Would that then be a genetic thing or just "luck of the draw" that she has a wonky crink in her comb?


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

Ohhhh, I was thinking she had a different type of comb. Could still be genetic or just something that makes her a little special  you could always breed her and grow out a few chicks to find out


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

Except Sylie can't have roosters. 

It's possible it was an injury very young. But more than likely genetics. My Hamburg sisters were easy to tell apart, the good sister has a near perfect comb. The bad sister had one that was questionable.


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

an injury is always possible but in my case, since I'm an overprotective momma, the chances are very slim. I am leaning to genetics personally but as we already know, a "Genetics for Dummies" book would be useless, I would never understand it.

Robin is right, I can't have roosters, doesn't mean I wouldn't allow one if I accidentally came across one (mostly to piss off the city but hey...you have to do that now and then hahaha)


----------



## robin416 (Sep 8, 2013)

If you can hit on someone that can talk about genetics in plain English you'd get it. That's the only way I began to understand Silkie genetics. But I still can't do the alphabet soup they talk about.


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

Alphabet soup is easy, it comes in a can, has a label on it that is usually red and white, when you open the can, liquid crap comes out and so do a bunch of edible letters! See, I get alphabet soup!


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

Nooooooo! You need a rooster  I want to know now!


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

mitzy123point said:


> Nooooooo! You need a rooster  I want to know now!


Even if I had a rooster I couldn't tell you the answer "now" lol. in 9 weeks or so I might be able to


----------



## mitzy123point (Dec 21, 2018)

Deal!


----------



## Sylie (May 4, 2018)

hahaha! sadly, I don't have a rooster and have no "plans" to get one. I have a limit imposed by the city that I can have only 10 birds, all must be female and only certain kinds (no guineas or any loud kind) so purposely getting a rooster would be breaking the law...that said, however, if I were to fall in love with a chick in a straight run bin at TSC or somewhere like that and it just happens to be a rooster, hmm...


----------



## Izzy (Apr 30, 2020)

Im ok with guessing what color chicks would be with EE I dont really know my genetics all that good but we breed many different colors of them and can possibly give you a good estimate. I need to know what color the rooster is though.


----------

