Does hen or rooster (or both) determine egg size and production.

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chickkrzi said:
Thanks for the info. After reading your post I had one of those "Duh that makes sense " what was I thinking.

I almost kept one of her sons and was going breed her back to him. But as I stated before I had 3 of the 8 chick's with Legg deformities. Also two of her pullets didn't start to lay until 7 months and the 3rd at 10 months. So I really didn't want those traits in my flock, so I got rid of him.
My next step (and please correct me if I'm wrong it)is to try and find a breeder in my area that has similar goals. Or breed her with my new rooster, take one of there sons and breed him back to his mother. Then breed him back to his daughters?
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I remember reading (might have been on one of Bob Blosl's entries) about a person that had a project of raising an extremely large egg flock. I think that would be fun, too bad I don't live near Baylor University, we could trade cockerels. Maybe you could move to Kansas City.
wink.png
Sounds like you have a start at least, I might have kept the five normal chicks, I would like them to start laying sooner also, seems like all my pullets wait for nine months.
 
If you can find a breeder in your area that is breeding to your goals, you are definitely get off to a really good start and save a few generations.

Improper incubation can cause leg deformities but with that many showing up it pretty much has to be genetic. I’d be extremely nervous about carrying on with her. You might be better off starting from scratch. It may have been the other hen’s chicks but I just don’t know.

How you breed them depends on the traits you see. Breeding her son back to her should enhance egg size in the next generation but after that you need to look at what the pullets are laying after they reach an age that you can determine egg size and make your decisions based on that.
 
Ridgerunner said:
If you can find a breeder in your area that is breeding to your goals, you are definitely get off to a really good start and save a few generations.

Improper incubation can cause leg deformities but with that many showing up it pretty much has to be genetic. I’d be extremely nervous about carrying on with her. You might be better off starting from scratch. It may have been the other hen’s chicks but I just don’t know.

How you breed them depends on the traits you see. Breeding her son back to her should enhance egg size in the next generation but after that you need to look at what the pullets are laying after they reach an age that you can determine egg size and make your decisions based on that.
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I think I'll try and breed her with the roo pictured above.just to see how things play out. Seeing she not pure heritage RIR anyways and I'm looking for egg size, quality and production capabilities any ways. I've had some luck with production reds getting that dark feathering and somewhat of a brick body type That most people like. I do explain to whomever I sale my cull chicks or pullets to that they ARE NOT heritage RIR and not APA standards. Their just OK egg producer with some eye candy on the side. :D

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This the hen in question.

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And this is 2 of the 3 pullets just after they started laying last summer.
 
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chickkrzi said:
Thanks, it never dawned on me that my barred rock might be a Barrd Holland. I'm will to bet you're right on that.
I'll try and compare her to my other barred rocks when I get home today.
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Well finally had time to check out the difference in my barred rock and Barred Holland hens they are VERY similar. Only difference (that hadn't nice till now) is the ear color on the barred Holland is white as you might be able to make out in pic below. Not that I'm going to do it but.... was wondering if I breed her to my RIR roo would I get a black see link that maybe lay cream eggs?

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(She's the one front left)
 
You will get a black sex link. That is easy as long as they are pure.

Exactly what shade of egg shell you get is unknown. Egg shell color genetics is pretty complicated. Whether it is white/brown or blue/green is simple, that’s just one gene pair and you will get white/brown with those chickens. But at least 13 different genes have been identified that affect the shade of brown. Who knows how many more are waiting to be discovered? Some of those are dominant, some recessive, and some only act if another specific gene happens to be present. One of them is even sex linked.

The one that is most likely to mess you up is one that cancels out certain brown. Some white (or blue) egg layers have some brown genes but they also have a gene that keeps that brown out of the egg shell. It is there but does not show up. I’ve crossed blue egg layers with brown, expecting to get green. Often I do but sometimes I get some very blue eggs. This brown-cancelling gene is the best explanation I can come up with for that. I just don’t always get what I’d expect.

The odds are pretty good you will get egg shells some shade of brown, probably not real dark but in between like you would expect. But I would also expect the exact shade of brown you get to not be consistent. There will probably be some variation in exact shade. And you could easily get some real surprises, either some a lot darker than you would expect or some basically white. It just depends on which genes are present and how they mix. That’s part of the fun of hatching for me, you never know for sure what you will get.
 
chickkrzi said:
Well finally had time to check out the difference in my barred rock and Barred Holland hens they are VERY similar. Only difference (that hadn't nice till now) is the ear color on the barred Holland is white as you might be able to make out in pic below. Not that I'm going to do it but.... was wondering if I breed her to my RIR roo would I get a black see link that maybe lay cream eggs?

400

(She's the one front left)
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California Grey more than likely. They lay extra large to Jumbo white eggs.
 
lazy gardener said:
I think it's a combination of genetics and environment. If a chick starts out with optimal nutrition, she'll develop the reproductive system that will support production of a larger egg. (I've noticed that my hens eggs are larger after they've had a good protein feast.) Also, when she is laying, if she has excellent nutrition, her egg will be larger, and produce a more robust chick. Continue this cycle for multiple generations, always choosing the best eggs from the hens who produce the biggest and most frequent eggs, and you'll end up with a superior flock. Choose your roosters from eggs hatched from superior hens. But, I'm not sure I'd want to push my flock in the direction of producing mega eggs which have resulted in egg binding issues. To OP: Why did you say you did not want to deal with Ideal? Is that where your original girls came from?
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What you're describing sounds like epigenetics. Good environment and nutrition can turn on or turn off ceratin genes. These changes can then be inherited by the offspring, but the changes can also be reversed over time.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4517414/
 

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