Barred Easter Eggers...Any Interest in Them?

[Kim_NC]

I'm working on the same thing - Blue Ameraucana roo over Barred Rock hens. I may be interested in some eggs from your line later in the season...Summer or something like that. I won't have enough 'chick space' free before then.

My goal is to eventually develop both blue barred and black barred that fit the Ameraucana body type standards, and get the eggs as blue as possible. Thought they'd be fun to have in addition to the pure Blue Ameraucanas.

The other thing I like about the 1st generation cross is they hatch as sexlinks. I refer to them as Sexlink EEs.

 

[speckledhen]

True, they would be sexlinked with the BR hen. Good luck with your project! BR hens can be used to create so many different sexlinked birds. I've had some with various sires.

 

[onthespot]

I am glad to see a lot of interest in the barred EE projects. I think they are just a lovely and extremely practical variety.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

If you want the eggs as blue as possible, then you should try for a cross between a barred bird who lays a white egg, not one that lays brown. It's supposed to be hard to clear up the brown once it's there.

 

[speckledhen]

True, about the egg color. This is not a project, per se, ,for me personally. This is a cross that will lay a green egg. Im not trying to improve the color on these. Just offering a fun bird for a colorful egg basket.
If someone could find Barred Hollands that really did lay the white egg they are supposed to, that would be a great cross. Unfortunately, so many hatchery Hollands lay a creamy beige egg these days. Jim Cox used to breed these and he told me some had white eggs and some had the beigey tone.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

The barred hollands from Sandhill lay a mostly white egg. I have had a few hatchery barred rocks that lay an off white egg.

 

[speckledhen]

Michael, I dont have any white egglaying BRs, though one is a light creamy color. Jim Cox said he got his BHs from Sandhill.

 

[Kim_NC]

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Yeah, that's true. I could not come up with a white layer in a barred or cuckoo breed though.

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Thanks, I'll look into those. The line of BR hens I have now lay a pale brown egg - paler than any of the other brown layers we currently have (white rocks, partridge rocks, black australorps, delawares, red sexlinks, nh reds). Between their pale egg and the sexlink trait, it made the best option I had for a start.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

It seems that even if they had pale eggs that the eggs would be more blue with a slight green tint and maybe with good breeding the blue would show through, lol.

 

[Kim_NC]

Yeah, I hope so. Still another 4-6 weeks before I see any F1 eggs. The anticipation is killing me. LOL