MPC Super blue egg layer eggs

If I'm doing the math right the offspring of two super blues. 25% will lay white eggs. Of the blue egg layers, 25% will have two copies of the blue gene so even bred to white layers, their offspring will all lay blue eggs. This 2 out of 3 of the blue egg layers or 25% over all will lay exclusively white eggs and will need to be bred back to a blue egg layer, which isn't hard if you are breeding and keep a nice Ameraucana roo, or even a cream legbar whose line lays blue eggs. White egg ;layers have their use in many breeding programs.
That said the mean roos don't surprise me. My mother had leghorns for a while but the roos were so mean she went to brown egg layers (Back in the day most chickens were called brown or white egg layers but the whites were leghorns. The browns might have been mixes.)
You can breed your own super blues for a fraction of the cost of purchasing them so if you like the blue egg gene don't give up. Leghorn hens are cheap and get one good Ameraucana or cream legbar roo to put with them shouldn't be over $20.00. Just make sure the cream legbar is from a blue egg laying line. Some lines lay greenish eggs At this point the purchased ones are all hubrids and still carry the genes for white down the road. Will this change ini the future? Maybe. But test breedings will have to be done.

What we found out is both the SBEL pullets and the SBEL roo were each heterozygous for the blue egg gene. On of my SBEL pullets crossed with a Welsummer rooster produced a brown egg, therefore she isn't a double blue. (or that pullet would lay green eggs)

Same thing with the SBEL roo- one of the daughters produced a brown egg when crossed with a Barred Rock--- and another laid a green egg when crossed with a white/pinkish layer, so he wasn't a double blue either.

Back in November we lost our original SBEL roo unexpectedly. I collected the eggs from the better of the SBEL pullets and got 4 of them to hatch, 2 pullets, 2 cockerels. One of the pullets and one of the cockerels were pure white with greenish legs. The other pullet and cockerel were splash with slate legs. All had rose

Right now I'm chewing my fingernails waiting for my SBEL F2 pullets to start laying. They're right at 21 weeks.

The white F2 pullet managed to amputate one of her toenails, so she's been in with my spring babies while she healed. We had a very very wet winter, so I couldn't put her back out into the muddy sludge. Now she's bonded with that group, so I will wait to reintegrate her. Never like to add just one to the flock. The splash F2 is squatting and has been mounted on a regular basis by our main flock rooster for the last week or two, so the first eggs should be any day now.

The white F2 cockerel is fairly large, 5.25lbs at 20 weeks. No behavior issues there, thank goodness.

But, disappointing news when it came to the splash F2 cockerel I was hoping to use. Rose comb and all, he turned into a terror. When he couldn't catch a hen, he chased her everywhere with his head down and wings out in what can only be described as a rage. He was starting to not be reasonable to handle as well, screaming the whole time. Last week I caught him chasing an older hen into the coop, over the roosts, trying to corner her, back out and all the way around their large outdoor run. I've had several cockerels this age and none have EVER treated a hen like that. Yes, we're all used to the sloppy first tries where the hen turns around and kicks the cockerel's butt, and screams while he bites and claws her in all the wrong places while he's figuring out the mechanics of his job, but this was NOT that. He has been dispatched.

The main flock rooster is a son of the original SBEL rooster. His mom lays a very pretty green egg. With his parents being single carriers, he's got a 25% chance of being a double blue, 50% chance of being a single carrier of the blue egg gene, and 25% chance of white/brown genes.

Overall we've had really terrible luck in the boys to girls ratio. From the original SBEL rooster hatches, we got 1 pullet and 6 cockerels, then 1 pullet and 5 cockerels, and then 2 pullets, 2 cockerels. I know the hen determines the sex of the chick, but to get 13 cockerels and only 4 pullets is 3:1 -- very disappointing.

Later this week I expect our broody hen to hatch 5 chicks from the main flock rooster. Two of them will be from my SBEL pullet, two from a green laying EE, and one from an Ameraucana mix hen (yes, I know that's an EE too) that lays green as well. All of these hens are single blue carriers. If he's at least a single carrier of the blue, we'll expect 25% blue, 50% green and 25% brown/white for however many pullets come from this batch. If he's a double blue, we'll expect 50% blue, 50% green. If he's not a carrier at all, we'll expect 50% green, 50% brown. I know a better test would have been on brown layers (no white layers of age yet) to determine the rooster's color genes, but for now I'm looking for my best chance for green/blue layers.

Once I see those first F2 eggs, I'll post them!
 
Way back in the beginning of this thread we were told:

"The F1 X F1 or F1 X AM have a much much lower chance of not carrying the blue egg gene and again should be distinguished by a straight comb. There will be a greater than 1/64 chance of the F2 not carrying the blue egg gene."


Based on both of my SBEL cockerel and SBEL pullet being only single carriers of the blue egg gene, I don't know how the math works out to a 1/64 chance of the F2 not carrying the blue egg gene.

As stated in my other post above, I know both were only single carriers because each has non-blue or green laying offspring. If they were double carriers I would have seen green when crossed with brown layers.

The 2 F2 Super Blues that are about to start laying hold 25% chance of double blue, 50% chance of single blue, and 25% of being white layers.

*** edited to add: Neither of my Super Blue hens (now 1yr old) have consistently produced large eggs. I get mostly medium eggs (1.8oz) with maybe one or two large (2.0oz) mixed in each week.
 
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A lot it read through, but I JUST placed an order for a SBEL from MPC. I just browsed the thread so far and am a little concerned :( Did anyone end up with good results. Maybe I can cancel.
 
I bought them and was disappointed. The blue isn't even close to the B/B/S Ameracauna. Not a robins egg blue but a pale, pastel blue. Like a watered down Legbar. They are intended to be a production layer of blue eggs. You will get a LOT of blue eggs but it is a very pale blue.
 
I bought them and was disappointed. The blue isn't even close to the B/B/S Ameracauna. Not a robins egg blue but a pale, pastel blue. Like a watered down Legbar. They are intended to be a production layer of blue eggs. You will get a LOT of blue eggs but it is a very pale blue.
Thanks. I also purchased cream Legbars. I may add some Ameracaunas from good breeders in the Spring. Well see what happens.
 

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