Olive Egger Cockerels-Armstrong

These beauties are 6 months old. One has a pea comb of the Ameraucana, and the other has a single comb of the Marans.
Aren't they purty?



shows the colour better

Very pretty, indeed. I love the Ameraucana crosses!
The one with the pea comb almost certainly carries one copy of the gene for blue eggs - so half of his daughters will (probably) lay blue or green eggs. The one with the single comb is highly unlikely to carry the blue egg gene.

So does that mean the one with the single comb will transfer the dark egg colour? they both have feathered shanks too and both have the Ameraucana tufts

Both will give genes for dark egg colour.

ipf wrote:Both will give genes for dark egg colour.

i don't mean to be daft...but can you explain
If the hens out of this mix will lay green shelled eggs-and that is the blue that goes right through the shell, and i supposed the dark pigment around the shell (brown) gives the green colour.
So the Roo's: offspring if mated back to a marans?....or if mated back to an ameraucana?
simply if you can

Oh I totally agree with ipf, Amercaunas DO have the prettiest roosters, the colours are always so varied and most interesting. A beautiful couple of roosters you got going there....maybe I will see them today when I pop in for a visit    my intention anyways. Pea, rose, and cushion combs are good for the climate in cold areas. Anyways, stunning birds. Have a wonderful day, CynthiaM.

I'm not quite sure what you're asking?
Is it:
What would result from
1. a (Marans x Amer) X Marans cross, and from
2. a (Marans x Amer) X Amer cross?

1: Approximately half of the female offspring of that cross should lay green eggs, and nice dark ones too. The other half will lay dark brown eggs.
2: All female offspring will lay green eggs, not as dark green as the Marans x Amer cross.

All hens from a Marans x Amer cross should lay olive-green eggs.
Half of the female offspring of that cross should lay green eggs as well (shade depending on who they are mated to).
Yes the blue goes right through the shell, while some brown is through the shell and quite a lot (particularly in Marans) in in a thin fragile layer on the outside.

Your single-combed roo is not from a first generation M x A cross, and almost certainly doesn't carry a copy of the blue egg gene, so none of his offspring, unless resulting from an Amer cross, will lay blue/green eggs.

Here are a couple of old posts on this topic:

The gene for pea comb (P) and the gene for blue egg (O) are on the same chromosome pair, and quite close together (we call it tightly linked, in the trade) about 5 map units apart (more about units later). In a purebred Ameraucana (call him George), both chromosomes in that pair would each have a blue gene and a pea gene. I'll show that as OP/OP, one OP for each chromosome. George's offspring, mated to a white or brown egglayer with a single comb (she'd be op/op), would always be OP/op, where o is for non-blue eggs and p is for non-pea comb. Since both O and P are dominant genes, all George's daughters (and sons) will be OP/op and have a pea comb; all his daughters will lay blue (or green) eggs.

It's pretty much impossible to tell a OP/OP from an OP/op, although there are subtleties of comb shape and egg colour that give hints.

Now, this is where it gets complicated. Take one of those daughters (OP/op, right?); call her Suzie. Suzie's offspring , when mated to a roo from a breed with non-pea comb and non-blue eggs (op/op; call him Fred) will all get one egg colour gene (O or o) and one pea (or non-pea) gene (P or p) from Suzie, and one o gene and one p gene from Fred. 95% of the time, during Suzie's egg formation, the O and P or (o and p) will stay together. These offspring will be half OP/op (blue egg, pea comb) and half op/op (non-blue egg, non-pea comb). Thus, for this 95%, you can predict egg colour from the comb.

However, 5% of the time (that's the 5 map units mentioned above), during Suzie's egg formation, the chromosomes in that pair will cross over between the two genes before they separate to form the egg, so that half of this 5% (=2.5%) of her offspring will get Op from her, and another 2.5% oP. These offspring will be Op/op (blue egg, single comb), and oo/Pp (non-blue egg, pea comb), respectively.

So, to sum it up, usually a pea combed female that has an Amer in its ancestry will lay blue/green eggs, but not always. I suspect that most Amers sold by hatcheries are offspring of matings like Suzie and Fred, rather than pure Amers; some may be even further removed. I had a so-called Amer roo from a hatchery that had a lovely pea comb, but all his daughters laid brown eggs.
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Blue egg colour is governed by a single gene, while brown is influenced by at least 12 or 13 different genes, some of large effect, and some of small. Parents have approximately equal effect on eggshell colour of female progeny (I say approximately, as it is possible some genes are carried on the Z chromosome) - choosing a male that hatched from a good dark shell is (as Coopslave says) probably the quickest way to darken colour.

Blue egg colour is distributed evenly throughout the shell, while brown is partially within the shell and (especially in the darker eggs) partially a thin veneer that can be scraped off. This is why, when you cross a blue and a brown egg breed, you get eggs that are quite blue on the inside, but can be a dark olive green on the outside.

The chemical responsible for brown egg colour is protoporphyrin, an intermediate in heme synthesis. "Protoporphyrins strengthen the egg shell, and are deposited where the shell is too thin as a result of calcium shortage. Spotting therefore tend to be heavier where the local soil is calcium-deficient, and in the eggs laid last in a clutch."

The blue egg chemical is biliverdin, a breakdown product of hemoglobin. "biliverdin of egg shells is produced from the shell gland, rather than from the breakdown of erythrocytes in the blood stream." I don't think diet will influence blue intensity, but that's just my opinion, and may well be wrong.
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Linkage between the pea comb locus and the blue egg locus is 95.7%; what this means is that if you cross an Ameraucana with a non-blue-egg bird with a single comb, and mate the offspring to more non-blue-egg bird(s) with single comb(s), and then hatch out 200 pullets, you should get approximately 96 pea-combed blue-egg-layers, 96 non-pea-combed non-blue-egg-layers, 4 pea-combed non-blue-egg-layers and 4 non-pea-combed blue-egg layers. (Of course actual numbers will vary, but should be close to that).

To figure out if your bird is OO or Oo, just mate it to a known oo; and hatch out a bunch. If all the offspring pullets lay blue, you know the original bird was OO; if only 50%, then Oo. Hatching 7 pullets who all lay blue eggs leaves you >99% sure the mum (or dad) was OO.

What a great read ipf. It took me a couple of sittings to wrap my head around it...but very interesting indeed.

I am going to hijack this post somewhat ...as it is my own to do so...
My Blue ameraucana roo
His poppa was a black roo, momma blue
1/2 the babes came out blue, and half were black
If i breed this blue roo to a blue hen..do i get 75% blue and 25% black?

nope, mating two blues gives 25% black, 25% splash, and 50% blue babies.

what is a good resource for this info? Is there a particular book, or post here?..or online resource.
I think i need to be in the know
Thank you so much for this

This a fairly good visual on it Bigrock:



Here are the percentages that go along with it.
blue to blue = 50% blue, 25% black, 25% splash.
blue to black = 50% blue, 50% black
blue to splash = 50% blue, 50% splash
black to black = 100% black
black to splash = 100% blue
splash to splash = 100% splash

Hope that helps.

that works good for me :-).  veeeeerrrrry basic   . oh and yes, Bigrock I think your roo-boys are very purdy   .