Punnett Squares are a type of visual planning tool used by geneticists and breeders all over the world. They make complex allele inheritance much easier to understand. I have found these incredibly handy to use when it comes to breeding for egg color in chickens. Here you can find the entire collection of chicken egg color breeding punnet squares I’ve made for fast, easy reference:
Egg Color Breeding Punnett Squares
Our unique Punnett Square graphics are organized below by egg color. Simply scroll down to find the colored egg laying birds or cross you’re researching. Remember, most of the Punnett squares are by egg color, not breed, so a “chocolate egg roo” could be a Marans, a Welsummer, a hybrid Cocoa Egger or a dark brown laying “failed olive egger”. Likewise a heterozygous blue egg layer could be a Blue Easter Egger, a Prairie Bluebell Egger or a new blue egg laying hybrid offered by a hatchery. Everything is based on egg color genes.
Note: You CAN switch the rooster and hen and get the SAME percentage color layer outcomes!
Obligatory Disclosure: I use the lowercase letter “t” to represent any 1 and up to all 13+ of the known genes that control egg color tint overlay. Tint is not a single gene/allele. It is up to 13+ different genes. It is shown here as a single letter allele or double letter gene for visual simplicity and to remind you it is always passed on, even if only lightly.
Blue Egg Color Punnett Squares
Easter Egger Green Egg Color Punnett Squares
The Punnet Squares below are helpful if you’re not using a dark chocolate egg rooster and you’re wanting to know the outcome from a common grocery store brown egg bird or a cream egg breed bird. You CAN switch the rooster and hen egg color genes and the percentages of colored laying offspring will be the SAME!
Olive Egg Color Punnett Squares
Browse the various Punnett squares below for the closest match to what you’re wanting to cross. Breeds are not always listed so go off egg color. Speckling is never guaranteed so it is not shown.
Various Egg Color Punnett Squares
Sometimes you have no idea what you would get when you cross some of your birds! If these Punnet Squares do not help, visit our Genetics Page for even easier visuals on what your rooster is expected to produce when crossed with a large number of different colored egg laying hens.
I Need More Help…
If you are struggling to understand chicken egg color inheritance and just want someone to walk you through every step, you’re going to LOVE my breeding recipe PDFs available in my shop! It’s like stealing pages from my secret recipe book where I explain in detail, with lots of helpful images, how to breed for the colored eggs you want. There are even troubleshooting sections where I go over issues that may arise and how to easily correct them:
Michelle Mace says
The Punnet square gives a perfect visual of what percentage to expect from crossing colored egg genes. It takes the guess work out it for those of us who are not mathematicians. I have been following you for over a year. Wish I had come across you sooner. I would have started with different chickens. I thought I just wanted brown laying friendly chickens. HA HA, when I saw the colored gems I could find in the nesting box, that idea became a boring memory! I’m looking forward to learning more from you. Thanks Tay for sharing your experiences.