MPC Super blue egg layer eggs

[Shezadandy]

SBEL mix chick update:

So our first batch of chicks from the SBEL turned out to be 6 cockerels and 2 pullets. Worse still, only one of those pullets is by the SBEL -- the other is by the Welsummer that got rehomed. Sigh.

Here are some pictures of them. 4 of the cockerels got rehomed this weekend.

The far left is my only Gus daughter- She is tiny!! But so is her mom, pretty sure it's my EE hen, and the far right (black) is from our SBEL pullet Ethel by a Welsummer Roo. In the middle are two of the cockerels that found new homes this weekend.













And this is our "keeper" for now-- his mom is a green laying EE and of course dad is an SBEL. Great personality!

 

[Shezadandy]

Here are our F2 SBELs, by the late "Gus" and from our SBEL hen, Ethel. They hatched 12/6/16 and are now 4 weeks old. With all my luck, I'll wind up with another 4 cockerels!


Two are totally white. They both started with yellow legs which are starting to turn green.
The other two are a light gray and started with dark legs.

#1



#2



#3



#4

 

[Sea Wolf]

Sadly, out of my original 7 SBEL birds, I now have 4. One was a nasty tempered roo that got put down. MPC refunded me the money for him

. One got killed by a hawk and one was possibly stolen when they were very little outside. Someone had been here asking if I had chickens for sale. Noticed the bird missing several days later with no sign of animal entry.

Unfortunately, one of the SBEL birds lays WHITE eggs!! I asked MPC about this and they did say it was possible. As it did not state that in the description when I bought the chicks, they refunded for that one too. I do have a rooster, a very pretty and huge Americauna and he does have the tiny little pea comb. I've saved out a bunch of eggs from the Super blues, two americaunas/ee's that lay blue eggs and two Rees Legbars. If fertile, they are all by just the one roo so no real surprises.

On day 13 now and of 33 eggs, all are developing. Fingers crossed.

This is the roo. protects the girls but is not aggressive otherwise.

 

[MiniHorses]

I'm so sorry you've lost Gus & Chuck. Just not fair!

My 8 SBEL pullets are laying pale blue. Three TBWs are laying 2 pale blue, 1 white. 4 Ameraucanas laying light blue. I EE lays pale green. Last week I was gifted a pure Lavender Ameraucana -- Can I say "happy dance!!!???". The 2 SBEL cockrels are still aggressive and not feeling they will be any help with blue!!! So, I see soup pot working both have been penned to feed out for another couple weeks.

I have two roos that were purchased blue eggs. Lady had black Americauna, CL & Marans hens & roos. Both have muffs & beards but both also have straight combs. So, somewhere we have CL &/or Marans mixed. I'm hoping that one is CL/BA crossed. They are tame, non aggressive and currently running with all hens except TBW....this includes some BOs, BR & Comets. Considering collecting a few of the SBEL eggs to incubate & see what eventually develops. I'm planning to house a few blue layers with the "maybe" CL/AM cross. Planning to put others with the LA. Then after time for hens to clear out eggs from any other roo, collect, mark, incubate and see what I get.

TIME, I just hate how much TIME we have to wait.

 

[Shezadandy]

Some updated pictures:


SBEL F2's, now exactly 6 weeks old (same order as before)

#1- should be a pullet. 100% white feathers at this point- legs started yellow, now going green.



#2, almost certainly a cockerel. 100% white feathers, legs started off yellow and are turning green.


#3- no doubt a cockerel. Medium gray with some dark grey feathers.



#4- hopeful for a pullet based on the comb, but is exactly the same weight as #3 above. Light gray with some darker gray feathers and excellent at giving a good stink eye.





SBEL mix-- my "keeper" by SBEL roo Gus 3 month old cockerel (3 months). Mom, fresh off her first molt, is a green laying EE (pictured below). Hoping for some good egg color genes!!

 

[Shezadandy]

Sadly, out of my original 7 SBEL birds, I now have 4. One was a nasty tempered roo that got put down. MPC refunded me the money for him

. One got killed by a hawk and one was possibly stolen when they were very little outside. Someone had been here asking if I had chickens for sale. Noticed the bird missing several days later with no sign of animal entry.

Unfortunately, one of the SBEL birds lays WHITE eggs!! I asked MPC about this and they did say it was possible. As it did not state that in the description when I bought the chicks, they refunded for that one too. I do have a rooster, a very pretty and huge Americauna and he does have the tiny little pea comb. I've saved out a bunch of eggs from the Super blues, two americaunas/ee's that lay blue eggs and two Rees Legbars. If fertile, they are all by just the one roo so no real surprises.

On day 13 now and of 33 eggs, all are developing. Fingers crossed.

This is the roo. protects the girls but is not aggressive otherwise.

I'm so sorry to hear your SBEL population has dropped by nearly half! Those leghorn-looking cockerels don't seem to have a good reputation, BUT, if that one did get stolen, I hope it ended up being one of the nasty cockerels! Sigh. I'm glad MPC has made good on the cockerel refunds and on your white laying SBEL- did notice that the description had changed to say 1/16 could be white eggs.

Very excited to see what your Americauna roo (very pretty!) gives you from that group. Sounds like fertility isn't a problem! Now it's just the 5-6 month wait for that first egg to be laid (AGAIN).

 

[Shezadandy]

I'm so sorry you've lost Gus & Chuck. Just not fair!

My 8 SBEL pullets are laying pale blue. Three TBWs are laying 2 pale blue, 1 white. 4 Ameraucanas laying light blue. I EE lays pale green. Last week I was gifted a pure Lavender Ameraucana -- Can I say "happy dance!!!???". The 2 SBEL cockrels are still aggressive and not feeling they will be any help with blue!!! So, I see soup pot working both have been penned to feed out for another couple weeks.

I have two roos that were purchased blue eggs. Lady had black Americauna, CL & Marans hens & roos. Both have muffs & beards but both also have straight combs. So, somewhere we have CL &/or Marans mixed. I'm hoping that one is CL/BA crossed. They are tame, non aggressive and currently running with all hens except TBW....this includes some BOs, BR & Comets. Considering collecting a few of the SBEL eggs to incubate & see what eventually develops. I'm planning to house a few blue layers with the "maybe" CL/AM cross. Planning to put others with the LA. Then after time for hens to clear out eggs from any other roo, collect, mark, incubate and see what I get.

TIME, I just hate how much TIME we have to wait.

Even if your naughty SBEL boys looked like they should be blue carriers, the disposition is not worth passing on-- enjoy that soup!! It makes me realize how lucky I was to get what I did - and all the sons have been well mannered to date. Sounds like they should strongly consider which lines they continue using in those SBEL pens. Nobody wants to spend that kind of money on cockerels that consistently turn out to be dinner due to bad behavior!

It sounds like you've got some great options for continuing and maybe even improving on the blues! Can only imagine- the Lavender Ameraucana!!!

Time is the great torment!! The only thing worse than waiting all that time is winding up with a bunch of cockerels (6/8 in my last mix group) that give NO clue what's in the gene pool - after all, until that blue egg pops out, it's all guess work. I have exactly 1 Gus daughter from my mixed group due to lay in late Feb or March. With my luck, she'll lay brown eggs! The other pullet did come from an SBEL -- but by way of an SBEL hen (Welsummer dad) - so no help there! We must enjoy the suspense of it all, otherwise we are nuts!

 

[Sea Wolf]

One egg had hatched and I went out shopping for the day. Came back after several hours and the incubator had exploded. One chick was now 28! I'm waiting now for one last chick to come out of the egg fully. 100% hatch .. which I was not expecting. All but 4 are now in a large brooder setup and many are already eating and drinking. Can't figure the colors though. Only 3 breeds were in the mix. My Ameracauna roo bred to SBEL, Ameracauna and a Rees Cream Legbar. I have white speckled chicks, chipmunks and black/silver grey ones. Maybe those are the legbar mix? The whites are obvious and the chipmunks are probably the Ameracaunas. Reaaly curious as to what these black ones turn into. Going to be fun.

 

[Shezadandy]

One egg had hatched and I went out shopping for the day. Came back after several hours and the incubator had exploded. One chick was now 28! I'm waiting now for one last chick to come out of the egg fully. 100% hatch .. which I was not expecting. All but 4 are now in a large brooder setup and many are already eating and drinking. Can't figure the colors though. Only 3 breeds were in the mix. My Ameracauna roo bred to SBEL, Ameracauna and a Rees Cream Legbar. I have white speckled chicks, chipmunks and black/silver grey ones. Maybe those are the legbar mix? The whites are obvious and the chipmunks are probably the Ameracaunas. Reaaly curious as to what these black ones turn into. Going to be fun.

Congratulations! How fun!!! Now the waiting begins! At least you've got enough colors to have some clues to go by... lots of puffy cheeks. My favorite.

We wound up with a bunch of gray and black chicks, 5 of which I couldn't tell apart for the longest time. One (the keeper cockerel) turned into what I'm going to call a lavender splash. They were also broody-raised, so it was hard to see them long enough to distinguish. =)

Of our two pullets (6/8 were cockerels) hatched in early October, both had SBEL parents- one was from one of the SBEL pullets and by the Welsummer cockerel (they had an affair until he got rehomed). The other is from my pinkish-white laying Easter Egger (I think) by the SBEL cockerel who died unexpectedly.

Today, at 16 weeks and 5 days of age, after the coldest, snowiest winter we've seen- the Welsummer x SBEL pullet (now named "Glenda" because she's a little witch) laid her first egg today, a medium 1.8oz'er with a surprisingly full yolk considering other 1st eggs I've seen. That's a full 3 weeks younger than her mom, and by far the youngest to lay in my flock. I'll put the egg in the light green category. But, I'm confident the blue egg gene lives on.

She wound up being black with a serious green sheen. Her legs are slate like mom's but you can see through her toes and the bottom of her feet, the Welsummer's yellow coming through. Edited with better pictures of her eggs. Hers are in the middle- light green.

 

[Shezadandy]

"Ethel", the SBEL pullet with the best of the blue eggs, now has 6 chicks.

My post above is incorrect concerning those light green eggs in the middle. As it turns out, "Lucy"- my other SBEL hen, actually lays those- she had taken a nice long break from laying, and I thought they came from the black pullet at 16 weeks -- well, not so much. Lucy's eggs always looked drab to me and now I know why... they were light green, not light blue.

The black pullet in my post above, Ethel's chick by a Welsummer roo, wound up laying a brown egg (bottom row below). This isn't a huge surprise- so now I know Ethel is definitely heterozygous for the blue egg gene.

The grey pullet, by Gus the SBEL roo and out of a light brownish-pink egg laying EE, does lay a pretty green egg (top row).



My friend has 2 Gus daughters from brown egg laying hens who are a good month or more from laying that first egg. If either lays a brown egg, it will be confirmation that Gus was a single copy blue. Unfortunately, of his 17 chicks, only 6 turned out to be female.

My SBEL F2s are now 14 1/2 weeks old, weeks and weeks away from my first SBEL X SBEL pullet eggs. Overall they've got a 75% chance of laying some variety of blue if both parents were single copy blues-- Looking forward to those eggs to see if there was any improvement on my 'best blue'.