Arkansas Blue egg layers

[1muttsfan]

Ron, sorry to hear that. This breed has had some very bad luck the last few years, which does not seem to be related to their utility or hardiness. Even now with the weather turning colder my young cockerels seem to want to sleep outside at night. With both you and Crystal loosing your flocks that really cuts down on breeding birds. There are just not that many of them around, which is why I am reluctant to dispatch my extra cockerels - I may end up keeping one or two, even if it means providing water this winter (ugh). Hopefully next spring we can get a few more flocks going. John was kind enough to send me eggs last year when Crystal had to back out. I would be happy to send along some eggs too.

 

[ronott1]

Ron, sorry to hear that. This breed has had some very bad luck the last few years, which does not seem to be related to their utility or hardiness. Even now with the weather turning colder my young cockerels seem to want to sleep outside at night. With both you and Crystal loosing your flocks that really cuts down on breeding birds. There are just not that many of them around, which is why I am reluctant to dispatch my extra cockerels - I may end up keeping one or two, even if it means providing water this winter (ugh). Hopefully next spring we can get a few more flocks going. John was kind enough to send me eggs last year when Crystal had to back out. I would be happy to send along some eggs too.

Thanks! That is great news.

 

[Manningjw]

I was going to post that it would be hard to get them back to being a BBS Breed. They really are a breed since they breed true.

The eggs I have had from mine are as big as leghorn eggs already. It would be best to select for ones that lay bigger eggs--It wold be easier than breeding to leghorn.

I have some nice pure black hens that I have selected for out of a White Leghorn cross with BBS Ameraucanas. I don't know how they would look with the addition of blue diluting gene but I am looking forward to seeing what I get! It takes a minimum of 2 generations to get back to black(or BBS), really 3 generations when selecting for other traits as well. When you think about all of the variation within different breed colors accepted into SOP- IE: Lavender, Barring, Blue, Mottled - most of the time those started as a cross with a completely different/unrelated breed and were bred for several generations until they returned to SOP with the new color.

I guess it depends on what is labeled as a breed. By my standards yes they definitely are a breed. By the standards people apply when they look disparagingly at what hatcheries label as pure bred birds, I think they likely would say no. People are still deciding what traits should be the standard because of the variation that currently exists. I don't consider this a fault, I love the concept of this breed as it is, it falls in line with what I always wanted and that's why I am here!

I still would argue that the best breed to cross back to would be the breed that AB birds are most related to. Yes, it takes several generations of selection to get back to BBS and homozygous pea comb/blue egg gene but that is the fun part for me. The breeding/genetics side of chickens is why I enjoy this hobby so much! I would love to know how many generations it took to get to where the U of A did with this project breed, it would be very interesting.

 

[Sierra987]

I meant to show you guys a pic of the Whiting blue egg layer pullets that were for sale at the local Murdochs this summer. Later there was more variation in the pen but I don't have pics.

 

[ronott1]

I meant to show you guys a pic of the Whiting blue egg layer pullets that were for sale at the local Murdochs this summer. Later there was more variation in the pen but I don't have pics.

I have posted before that they originally came from there--Very nice!.

Are you going to breed them?

 

[Manningjw]

I have posted before that they originally came from there--Very nice!.

Are you going to breed them?

Did they come from there? There was definitely some disagreement about the origins on the previous thread about who actually did the breeding/development.

Jim Hall was pretty set that these were a different line from the Whiting blues being that they don't hatch out chipmunk colored but instead are mostly BBS.

 

[Manningjw]

I meant to show you guys a pic of the Whiting blue egg layer pullets that were for sale at the local Murdochs this summer. Later there was more variation in the pen but I don't have pics.

Is that bird on the far right bearded? Pretty birds, they must have bred splash to black to get all blue offspring? Or did you get to pick out blue only?

 

[Metella]

My one hen is 1.5 years old - maybe a wee bit older .... the rest are indeed pullets - but all the fertile eggs I used for hatching out were definately SMALL so I need to increase the size to make them a real viable "working" breed for me. I got eggs from 3 different AB people and they were all small - so it is nice to hear some of you have eggs in the large size category.

I had thought at first they were all just small .... end of story.

 

[ronott1]

Did they come from there? There was definitely some disagreement about the origins on the previous thread about who actually did the breeding/development.

Jim Hall was pretty set that these were a different line from the Whiting blues being that they don't hatch out chipmunk colored but instead are mostly BBS.

I contacted Mr. Whiting and he verified it. He is a friend to Professor Bramwell, the person that runs the program at the U of Arkansas.

They came from Whiting Farms and were improved by a grad student as a masters or phd project. They were not a breed then but there where some that look close to ours.

 

[Sierra987]

I have posted before that they originally came from there--Very nice!.

Are you going to breed them?

Probably not. I didn't pick up any of these pullets but may pick up chicks next spring when they're available again. I had my hands full this summer.
I'll probably grow out some pullets of these and the Whiting green egg layers, keep my favorites and sell the rest. Anyone interested in shipped, started pullets next year?