All of the chicks, regardless of sex, get half their genes from the male and half from the female. The male offspring get one Y from the male (and half of his other genes) and one X from the female (and half of her other genes). The female offspring get one X from the male (and half of his other genes) and and one X from the female (and half of her other genes).

The blue egg color is a dominant allele, so all of the chicks should carry the dominant allele for blue egg color if the rooster's genotype is homozygous: (two dominant alleles: OO), but the resulting color of their eggs will be a blend, depending on what color their mother's eggs were. If your hens lay white eggs, the offspring should produce shades of blue eggs. If your hens lay brown eggs, the offspring should produce shades of green eggs.

If the male is heterozygous (one dominant and one recessive allele: Oo) then only 50% of the offspring will have the dominant allele for blue eggs, and that is not linked to sex.

Since there seems to be no such thing as a purebred Araucana, the results will probably be inconsistent in any case.

My Lord! DPallas, I am deeply impressed!

gld

Not as scientific as DPallas' response, but I've found in my flock that the 'green egg gene' is a strong one and so far ALL of my mixed breed hens that have an Americaunas parent have laid vivid green or blue eggs. :)

Velvet ~:> *bu-cawck!*

Ok here's another question for you chicken wizards! I've noticed of my four americauna pullets all have different colored legs. two army green, one very dark green and another greyish blue. Is each chicken going to lay eggs specific to they're own leg color? or will every egg differ day to day chicken to chicken?

Thanks!
Sheila

I'll be interested to hear what Velvet Sparrow has to say about this, but the egg color shouldn't be related to leg color or anything else, so the two army greens may lay two different colors, which may be the same or different from the very dark green and greyish blue. Give or take nutritional and other environmental factors like temperature, each hen will generally lay her own color consistently, and it may not be blue or green - I hear you can get pink and even speckles from Americaunas. I've never had them, but always wanted to, just to see what happens.

gld: It's the ultimate irony that the only use I ever got out of an expensive university education was in becoming a goatherd ;-)

LOL__now, i wonder again, PDallas, the ex son-in law i mentioned in another post-with the expensive education? has a goat dairy--just couldnt resist telling you, the MMM hatchery says all of their Araucana chicks have some american bloodlines, so guess time will tell what i get.

I'll be interested to hear what you get, I think those birds are fascinating. By MMM do you mean Murray McMurray? All their Araucanas are Easter Egg layers - you can get every color of the rainbow from them... or at least from the hens. That's where I was going to order from. I'd love to have a goat dairy, but the USDA regulations are so tough that it costs a fortune to get started.

Yes, MurrayMcMurray, their chicks-and service, i think are outstanding.they even refund/replace anything you loose in first 48 hours.plus, the nicest people are available to help. i ordered 50 brown egg layers, 25 ornamental layers in may, then 2 weeks later 25 bantams.In the mix, i got 8 turkens, which i had to sell, one because i didnt like them, and two, because they were mean to others.BUT-- i only have the one Araucana/americana- and its beginning to look more every day as a rooster.

We have Cackle Hatchery right nearby. They have a small storefront, and when you walk in, there are thousands and thousands of day old chicks in stacks of trays. When I first arrived from the big city, I thought WOW!!! Chickens must be really popular here! I had no idea they shipped a million all over the country every year. tee hee! I've never lost a single chick I bought there, and I'd get Araucanas from them too, but they only sell straight runs. I've always been dubious about ordering live chicks through the mail, but it must work or people wouldn't do it. Going to give it a try next spring, so I'm glad you had good things to say about them.

PDallas,you must be fairly close to me.I am also impressed with your knowlege of breeding etc.My neighbor talks like that about horses.I had some aracaunas years ago that laid the different colored eggs but none of them looked like aracaunas so must have been second generation.Posy Pet

Hi Posy - I've noticed there are a couple people here who seem to live somewhere near Lebanon. I'm north of there, halfway to Camdenton.

I can highly reccommend Murry McMurray, also. I have had excellent and very healthy birds from them. Been ordering for years. One hatchery near Kansas City said they ship day old chicks all the way to Moscow...so what we do is no big deal. Good idea to ask your PO to call you, so you can pick them up, though. I really don't like the idea of them riding around in a route vehicle with the widow open even though I order for delivery the last week of April. Have your brooder all warmed up in advance, so they can get food water and warmth as soon as possible.

DPallas...they love fresh goats milk when they first arrive. My grandmother would feed her chicks the excess milk....yum...nothing like milk fed fryers.

Thanks for the tips, I appreciate it. The postmaster is very nice and I'm sure he'd hold live chicks if asked. I wish I'd thought of that with some roses that arrived in early May, they got baked to death. They were probably left in a sunny window all day because the box was as hot as an oven when the route driver handed it to me.

I have orderd from Mcmurry with great results. We received buff orphingtons and ameriarauicanas. My son had a gret time fraing them fron baby chicks. The just recently started laying eggs. The buff are beautiful brown eggs and the hen is like a dog that follows you everywhere and come right to you for some love. The americauna have been laying light green and light blue eggs and all are wonderfully tasty!

Hi, I have ordered from Mcmurray for about 25 yrs with excellent results. I always had the p.o. call when they arrived, usually 4am 0r 5am. They'll have to ship a lot farther now, I used to lived only 40 miles from there hatchery. We don't have a place set up for them down there yet, thought about letting them roost in the trees but the varmits would have them real soon I imagine. I have had aracaunas that laid blue, green, and rose colored eggs,