Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[Chaos18]

Making green egg layers is easy, and brown egg laying breed crossed to a (purebred) blue (or green) egg layer (Ameraucana or Cream Legbar, for ex). It doesn't matter which is the roo, egg colors are not sexlinked (that anyone has noticed, anyway). But if the blue/green parent has only one copy of the blue gene, then half of the progeny will lay green eggs and half brown.

Olive eggs are just a special case of green where the brown egg layer is a "dark egg" breed, Welsummer, Marans, Pescadena, etc.

Because both brown and blue are dominant, this first cross is easy and can be guaranteed to produce 100% green eggs. Turning that into a true-breeding strain is a lot harder, if you cross 2 F1 OE's, you will get 25% that will lay brown, not green eggs. And the brown may lighten in many of the progeny as well, as the genes re-mix in each generation. It would take a lot of work to get a consistent egg color in a true breeding strain of OE's. I don't know if there is enough demand to warrant that, I feel like OE's are a bit of a fad, personnally, I think a good blue or dark brown egg is much more attractive than an olive-drab or khaki egg, so I'm breeding toward the bluest and darkest brown eggs, knowing I can create F1 OE's on demand.

Is this the case with CCL's? (the red lettering)

 

[TillyPeeps]

Making green egg layers is easy, and brown egg laying breed crossed to a (purebred) blue (or green) egg layer (Ameraucana or Cream Legbar, for ex). It doesn't matter which is the roo, egg colors are not sexlinked (that anyone has noticed, anyway). But if the blue/green parent has only one copy of the blue gene, then half of the progeny will lay green eggs and half brown.

Olive eggs are just a special case of green where the brown egg layer is a "dark egg" breed, Welsummer, Marans, Pescadena, etc.

Because both brown and blue are dominant, this first cross is easy and can be guaranteed to produce 100% green eggs. Turning that into a true-breeding strain is a lot harder, if you cross 2 F1 OE's, you will get 25% that will lay brown, not green eggs. And the brown may lighten in many of the progeny as well, as the genes re-mix in each generation. It would take a lot of work to get a consistent egg color in a true breeding strain of OE's. I don't know if there is enough demand to warrant that, I feel like OE's are a bit of a fad, personnally, I think a good blue or dark brown egg is much more attractive than an olive-drab or khaki egg, so I'm breeding toward the bluest and darkest brown eggs, knowing I can create F1 OE's on demand.

Oops, seems that I was confused about breed sexlinks and green egg layers.

I thought all EEs from hatcheries are F1 hybrid birds. Do they breed EE to EE? Then how can anyone know which 25% lay brown eggs?

 

[dheltzel]

Is this the case with CCL's? (the red lettering)

CCL's are true breeding for blue, just like purebred (heritage) Ameraucanas. Geneticists call it "homozygous", we can think of it as always breeding true for that trait. Bit of trivia, the gene for blue eggs is designated as "O" and white eggs are "o" (capital letters reflect what is dominant). So a BBS Am would be "OO", so would a CCL, but the "black sexlinks" I made with Barred Hollands as the female parent, are "Oo", they do not breed true for blue eggs. If you put them with a CCL roo, the chicks would all be black barred like a Barred Holland and would all lay blue eggs. If you selected only the deepest blue eggs for the next generation, those should all be "OO" and you'd have a black barred blue egg layer that should breed true for blue eggs.

 

[dheltzel]

Oops, seems that I was confused about breed sexlinks and green egg layers.

I thought all EEs from hatcheries are F1 hybrid birds. Do they breed EE to EE? Then how can anyone know which 25% lay brown eggs?

Hatchery EE's can be just about anything. Their "claim to fame" is that you won't know what color eggs you will get until they start laying. They are not necessarily hybrids, they are probably just a bunch of mixed breeds. If they would get complaints about not enough blue and green eggs, they could put pure Ameraucana or CCL roos in there to turn all the chicks into blue and green layers, at least for the first generation.

 

[msladyhawke]

We both know someone who has both, don't we . . .
@msladyhawke
, where are you?

Maybe, lol.

 

[enola]

Not all Cream Legbars lay blue eggs. I actually have the proof in my coop.

 

[fisherlady]

Maybe, lol.

I would love some dorkings, but you are on the wrong end of the state for me to pick up hatching eggs. Gracie is broody again so I figured it was a great time to add to the Egger side but not a brown egg layer.

 

[TillyPeeps]

I would love some dorkings, but you are on the wrong end of the state for me to pick up hatching eggs. Gracie is broody again so I figured it was a great time to add to the Egger side but not a brown egg layer.

Me too. I like dorkings, even they don't lay well. If you get some, maybe I can get chicks from you in the future.

Now, the problem become the size of my coop. I promised no more than 5 chickens the first year and 10 maximum for our 4x12 coop.

 

[Chaos18]

Me too. I like dorkings, even they don't lay well. If you get some, maybe I can get chicks from you in the future.

Now, the problem become the size of my coop. I promised no more than 5 chickens the first year and 10 maximum for our 4x12 coop.

This is my first year with chickens as well. I started out only wanting 3-4 of them in one coop. On everybody's advice I made the coop bigger than needed for that number of birds. I now have 7 chickens, 2 turkeys and 4 more chicks coming next week......and I have 3 coops also.

 

[stake]

I would love some dorkings, but you are on the wrong end of the state for me to pick up hatching eggs. Gracie is broody again so I figured it was a great time to add to the Egger side but not a brown egg layer.

me too!!!, But MsLadyHawke is just a few miles down the road from me....I have one red hatched from her group and hope to swap her some CCL eggs for Dorks in the spring!