Are EB (Rosetta) birds really hardier?

[Susan Skylark]

So I’ve been dawdling round the interwebs and keep seeing statements that say EB/Rosetta/Tibetan birds are hardier/tougher/sturdier whatever, is this true? And also some say celedon layers are more delicate. Then you get the white/EB/roux/celedon bird line from thieving otter (formerly sw gamebirds) that says their celadons are hardier due to breeding (and EB?). What is true in general and what advertising, does it really just depend on your particular birds rather than color/egg color? I will say anecdotally that I have a mix of colors, when I was having 20 percent death loss in my 3 day old chicks I lost 4 Italians and 2 pharoah but not a single EB. My one celadon layer is also an EB, she’s a smaller bird but healthy so far, curious to hear your take on it, thanks!

 

[Nabiki]

Rosetta/Tibetan is not my favourite colour, so I don't have a lot to compare with. I have, however, raised several celadon lines, and yes, they do seem to be more delicate than my other birds. I lost my celadon lines after someone vandalized my greenhouse and let all of my birds out back at the beginning of April, though, so I now have a line of Myshire celadons. So far, these birds seem to be a lot healthier than the ones I had before, and their eggs, while a bit small, seem to be good too.

Another thing about the Myshire celadons is that so far, EVERY hen has laid celadon eggs. My last line only had about 80% of the hens lay celadon.

 

[Susan Skylark]

I like EB birds but I’m afraid they’ll inadvertently take over my little flock! I’m trying to breed for Italian and blue (one of my two Blau birds is EB, go figure) and have 2 Italian males to one EB. I had fertility issues with the one Italian and the other (with my Blau hens) seems to get 1 egg in the incubator for every 3 of the EB. I love the EB male’s personality (and fertility thus far) but I want a little more diversity in my flock (and feather sexability!). We’ll see what happens!