Recent content by DarJones

For breeding objectives, here are a few things that can help. 1. Blue egg is dominant but a single copy of the gene usually produces lighter blue eggs than 2 copies. With practice, you can select homozygous hens based on eggs they produce. 2. Any trace of porphyrin (brown eggs) in your...

Single comb and pea comb are different alleles of the same gene on chromosome 1. Rose comb is from a combination of the rose comb inversion on chromosome 7 plus single comb on chromosome 1. Rose comb on chromosome 7 plus pea comb on chromosome 1 gives walnut comb. Two versions of rose comb...

Most Ameraucana chickens are relatively light weight. A cold tolerant breed generally runs between 7 and 10 pounds. Pea comb, rose comb, cushion comb, and flat rose comb are common on cold tolerant chickens. Yellow legs are an important trait for cold tolerant chickens. White eggs are mostly...

I'm getting ready for another year of selection and breeding. My SLW's are laying about 8 eggs per day and should ramp up quite a bit in early February. One desirable trait in SLW is laying even in the coldest weather so long as they have plenty of food. I have a two year old rooster tested...

Beautiful chickens, comb is not typical rose, appears to be flat rose as typical of Foley's birds.

She was both rumpless and a white egg layer so two strikes you're out of the breeding pool.

Some interesting side effects from crossing Silver Laced Wyandotte with blue egg laying Brown Leghorns might be useful. I've had both red ears and white ears with chickens that visually are Silver Laced Wyandotte. I think there is an interaction with egg color as white ears correlate with sky...

Neither of the pictured birds is good enough for serious breeding. A has problems with smuttiness in saddle feathers and pointed lacing. B and C have too much black in hackle feathers. A is the better choice of the pictured birds. One of the issues is from the slow feathering variant in...

Do you have a particular color in mind?

"Laying eggs in winter in a cold climate doesn't sound like an evolutionary advantage to me" Humans shaped chicken evolution for roughly the last 3500 years. We provided selection pressure to lay eggs in quantities well beyond what jungle fowl lay. We wanted chickens to lay in cold climates...

Single comb is an advantage in hot climates. Light body size is also an advantage. Light colored feathers are another heat advantage. What about cold climate advantages? Pea comb, rose comb, cushion comb, and flat comb are all advantaged to different degrees in cold climates. But it takes a...

I've posted pictures here a few times. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/silver-laced-wyandottes-that-lay-blue-eggs.1559583/page-4 should show a few. I have several single comb hens currently though I am gradually shifting the genetics toward rose comb.

The blue egg laying Silver Laced Wyandottes I have would be close to ideal for your purposes. You could easily have a silver laced Orpington that lays blue eggs in a couple of years. Other than that, one of the stable Ameraucana lines would be viable.

Sounds like breeding elephants. You only get to observe one or two generations. Seriously, it could be effective, but has potential to compromise a lot of other traits.

IME, zinc white affects shell structure (making it slightly thicker) and color (by inhibiting production of porphyrin). It has positive effects on blue egg coloring. The prettiest eggs I am currently collecting are intense sky blue with the typical white background from zinc white combined...