WHY DO EASTER EGGERS LAY BROWN EGGS ON OCCASION?

Everyone loves a basket of blue, green and teal colored eggs from a flock of fluffy-cheeked Easter eggers. But sometime even in a flock of Easter eggers, you’ll end up with brown, or white eggs… why?

Well, what exactly is an Easter egger. This is an article in itself, but an Easter egger generally refers to a chicken that lays colorful eggs. Typically an Easter egger has an Ameraucana background giving the hens beards, pea combs, and blue or green eggs. A hen will only lay one color of egg for her whole life- the only thing that may change is the shade of whatever color she lays. Many times you’ll have an Easter egger who lays brown eggs. Let’s explain how genetically this works.

Egg color genetics (simplified)

Both hens and roosters carry genetics for egg color. Blue in chicken eggs is dominant and can be expressed whether one or both of the parents passes the gene down to the offspring. Brown eggs can be ether recessive or dominant, depending on what breed carries the gene. A combination of the blue egg gene and brown egg gene results in a green egg layer. Many Easter eggers will have one copy (heterozygous) of the brown egg gene, and/or homozygous for the blue egg egg gene (two copies of gene). This gives the offspring a chance to have ether blue eggs or green eggs, but in the occasion of two parents who carry only one blue egg gene, there is a 25% chance of a brown or white egg layer in the offspring… well really a 12.5% since the hens are the ones who lay the eggs.

So, if you were able to follow that, you’re probably ready to learn more about genetics. Stay tuned, everyone!