Blue Egg Layers from University of Arkansas

[banjoejoe4783]

it helps that pea comb is a dominant gene, just worry about the egg color and keep the ones that have pea combs..

from talking to dr bramwell they have worked hard on elemanating the " single " comb but because pea is dominate and single is resssive there is a chance of ressive single combs poping up later doun the line so we need to do more that "just worry about the egg color and breed pea combs"

we need to breed for true small pea combs and not the large floppy pea comb that is showing the peresantce on the single

we also need to breed for leg color bright yelow is what i perfer

we need to make shure that we keep the egg color pure for blue and never add a brown egg gene

i sugest we breed for the med typ body and tails like the leghorn ex

if we whant this bree to be around for years to come them we need to treet them as a breed and not just as a colored egg layer

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

I agree with banjoe! However, we also need to hatch more numbers, then cull heavy for the traits we desire. Swapping eggs between us is also a good idea. keeping the most diverse of genetics.

 

[banjoejoe4783]

verry true Jim you can't cull for trate you whant unless you hatch enufe birds to cull i have allready hatched several batches of my eggs and there girls dont miss a lic they are verry good layers so there will be alot more chicks in the future lol

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Personally speaking, frostbite is a HUGE concern with the mediterranean class as a whole. Since Leghorn was used to being this, I do not want to have to worry about a single-combed bird walking around with a nasty frost-bitten comb. This whole project entices me as a pea-combed bird would do much better in a colder climate than a bird with a large single comb would. I can kill a Silkie in a month flat so the bird with the least amount of maintenance is what I will be shooting for. And that, for me, is a pea-combed breed that I do not have to worry about frost-bite with.

I agree. Mine was just a point that I have seen straight comb birds lay blue eggs.
Out west though the mediterranean's are better able to handle the heat so a straight comb is not so bad out our way.
However in developing this breed I know you want the pea comb's

 

[Bentley]

The blue egg gene and the pea comb gene are located VERY close to each other on the chromosome therefore we call them linked. This does not mean you can't have one without the other, it means it is more difficult to keep the blue egg trait while eliminating the pea comb trait. This has been done but it is more difficult because of their location to each other. Once you get since comb and blue egg gene in both parents you are home free because the pea comb will not just randomly pop up at a later time (barring the occurrence of a true naturally mutation) and the parents will breed true for SC.

 

[banjoejoe4783]

The blue egg gene and the pea comb gene are located VERY close to each other on the chromosome therefore we call them linked. This does not mean you can't have one without the other, it means it is more difficult to keep the blue egg trait while eliminating the pea comb trait. This has been done but it is more difficult because of their location to each other. Once you get since comb and blue egg gene in both parents you are home free because the pea comb will not just randomly pop up at a later time (barring the occurrence of a true naturally mutation) and the parents will breed true for SC.

like the cream legbars witch are blue egg laying single comb birds

and the UofAs lite brown leghorns that lay blue eggs and are single combed

 

[ronott1]

Quote: I like them too. They are fine for places where it does not freeze. I live in Northern CA, where we get 30 plus days a summer over 100 and no rain for 5 months or so. The record low here is 17 degrees above zero. This year the coldest low was about 25 which is pretty cold for us. My water fountains had slush one morning but all was thawed by 10 in the morning.

Conversely, I had 2 marans die in the heat this summer. We need to use heat hardy breeds here if we want to keep chickens without adding things to keep them cool.

These Blue layers with the pea comb should be both cold and heat hardy because the are half leghorn. Hopefully I will find out this summer!

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Here is what hatched this weekend. Blue basket is Orpingtons. White basket is Arkansas Blues! Curious what color the one with the spotted head will be. Any guesses anyone?

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ETA: Its nice to see the eggs are fertile!

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I have a bunch of eggs due this week! So excited!!!

Bentley, which would you suggest breeding for? The single or the pea-comb?

The Brahmas I raised had little issues in the heat. The feathering was their biggest issue, but since these birds have less feathering (thanks to both sides of the parentage) and are lighter in overall frame, I don't think heat stress will be that big of an issue.

The fertility on these things seems to be amazing! I've had several early development deaths, but that's probably because of the postal system playing dodgeball with the boxes and the displaced air cells. I swear...the postal system in Oklahoma was SO much better on eggs...

 

[Bentley]

I don't think you have a choice. The blue feathered line never had single combs. It's possible their is some recessive SC in there but I seriously doubt it. Guess it would have been cool to have them in both like the LB SC line.