Blue Egg Layers from University of Arkansas

[202roosterlane]

Well Jim I think it sounds very interesting. If you need someone to help you with your project, I can help. You just have to make a list of statistical data you want tracked. Types of photos for progression purposes etc. Of course I only want to help and not to get into any debate over names or any of the other drama. I am a true believer when someone is being counter productive to a thread, hopefully a moderator, who is a third party will make the decision if someone is being rude and needs a time out .

IMO some of these conversations should have been in PMs as to not stain a new and very interesting thread.

Let's all get along

Even if you don't need help, I hope this project continues with it's success. It sounds very interesting. And Kudos to all involved.

 

[Goose and Fig]

It appears in one image that the roosters are not completely dominant for pea comb.
This happened in the early stages of creating lavender ameraucanas, and all of those birds needed to be culled.

Also- assuming that these hens will produce 300+ eggs a year because they were bred using ex-bats, wouldn't it be necessary to disclose that they should also expect a shorter lifespan and shorter length of production?

Unless they are going to be raised in battery conditions, how can you assume they will produce the same?

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Well Jim I think it sounds very interesting. If you need someone to help you with your project, I can help. You just have to make a list of statistical data you want tracked. Types of photos for progression purposes etc. Of course I only want to help and not to get into any debate over names or any of the other drama. I am a true believer when someone is being counter productive to a thread, hopefully a moderator, who is a third party will make the decision if someone is being rude and needs a time out .

IMO some of these conversations should have been in PMs as to not stain a new and very interesting thread.

Let's all get along

Even if you don't need help, I hope this project continues with it's success. It sounds very interesting. And Kudos to all involved.

Thanks! I did buy the "Chick Chart" last year. Still trying to figure it out. I may try again and use it to track these with. Years ago I learned that projects are expensive. I also learned that a youth is best fit to a Standard recognized breed that needs very little work. asking a youth to help with the Arkansas Blue is not in the best interest of the breed or the youth.

I took a short break to check emails and BYC. I started Saturday afternoon with 457 UA hatching eggs. About 2 dozen or so I am hatching. Over 200 were given away yesterday to several 4H/FFA families. two more 4H families are picking up 100+ today. The remainder I am packing to ship to some 4Hers in other states. The eggs are free and they are paying the shipping.

The UA eggs are free to anyone that wants to drive to Fayettville, Arkansas and pick them up. The gasoline to go meet Elias was $3.55 a gallon. That was a 2.5 hour trip one way. Atwoods current price on 50# chick starter is $20+. I would be safe to say free eggs are not free. They are a good start. Dr. Bramwell stipulates we can not sell his eggs or the chicks from his eggs. But after they are grown the birds are ours to do with what we see fit.

Earlier this summer we shipped some Orpington eggs to Montana. I charged the 4H member $20 for shipping/handling. The eggs were even more expensive! It cost that 15 year old boy a 500 word essay on why he wanted to raise Orpingtons. I refused to accept the first submission. He misspelled Orpington several times. My wife, a Benchmark Literacy 7th/8th grade teacher with a Masters in English graded the essay. We shipped him over $100 of eggs for the essay and $20.

We have helped many youth get started. Its a lot of fun.

Well back to packing eggs!

Oh, Paulette, why don't you and your sister make a road trip to Fayettville? Take the cycle with the sidecar so you can bring some eggs back with you! I know you can get a case of eggs in those large and comfy sidecars!

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

It appears in one image that the roosters are not completely dominant for pea comb.
This happened in the early stages of creating lavender ameraucanas, and all of those birds needed to be culled.

Also- assuming that these hens will produce 300+ eggs a year because they were bred using ex-bats, wouldn't it be necessary to disclose that they should also expect a shorter lifespan and shorter length of production?

Unless they are going to be raised in battery conditions, how can you assume they will produce the same?

These were not developed from ex-battery chickens. The breeding flocks these were developed from were in large breeder pens at a research farm. The battery hens were developed from some of the same parent stock as the Arkansas Blue. The parent breeders of my birds are shown below on deep litter. So far we have not seen a shorter lifespan or shorter production. There is no proof to support either side of the question.

As far as culling for pea combs. When we have several flocks of these with enough birds in each flock to cull for a Standard, then we will. Meanwhile we will work to increase flock numbers, work towards a Standard and promotion. These are not Ameraucanas.

Raising a bird in a battery does not incraese its egg production. Even a battery hen, when raised on the ground will continue to lay at the same production level. I know, as I have had battery hens, but free ranged. They were cooped until about noon, then allowed to free range the rest of the day. I sold eating eggs all around Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma as a teenager.

Our own research shows better egg production with healthier and happier hens. That is one reason the commercial industry are going to larger cages. A healthier and happier hens produces better. If these do putter out after 2 seasons of lay, then we will hatch more and make dumplins out of the hens. That's what we do with our Orpingtons. (unless they are show winners, then they retire to pasture). We had a 13 year old Buff Orpington hen once... but that's a different story for a different thread.

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

jim just coreous if your pullet just started laying how have you had time to cheack fertilaty before selling the eggs for hatching ???? im just coreous

I also meant to ask you..... How many Arkansas Blue chicks did you hatch out of those eggs I gave your boy? pullets or cockerels?

Also, let me know when you have another swap. I will donate some more eggs. Maybe even some Arkansas Blues!

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

Someone privately asked a question that caused me to check the Standard of Perfection. The Araucana has yellow skin/foot pads. The Ameraucana has white skin and foot pads. the Arkansas Blue has slate shanks on most with some being yellow or partly yellow. Skin and foot pads are yellow.

The researcher who developed these took the parent stock for the commercial White Leghorn and mated these to a true (exhibition) Araucana. These breed true, thus are not easter eggers. Nor are they to be confused with Ameraucana. Unlike some lines of Ameraucana, these lay a true Blue egg. Since the Arkansas Blue is a young breed, we will still see some traits that are unwanted. Single combs, extra large pea combs, lopped pea combs etc.

The tufts and rumplessness are gone.(No beards or muffs either). As is the discolored eggs. With their higher egg production will they putter out after a laying season or two? I am not sure anyone can answer this yet. Are they still a "project"? Some would say yes.

"Rumor" has it some hatchery has acquired these and may have them available next year. No one will say which hatchery or what name they will be marketed under. Who is to say it will even be the same bird that we now have. What a breeder looks for and chooses as his breeders determine what the offspring will look like. Who is to say the hatchery will cull the single combs or the white birds.

In any case, we have approximately 5 or so breeders that have these. We can move forward as long as we work together and stay friendly!

 

[Hemlock Hill]

Wow is this them?
300 eggs a year, $100 a dozen....

edited by staff to remove link to outside auction site

 

[202roosterlane]

My granddaughter at the Arkansas State fair last year. I don't have a clue what they were but she was not happy. She thought they were homeless and thought someone was fixing to cook them up.

AWWW that's too bad, I hate to see any chicken go before they must and it would have been interesting to see a whole flock of them ugly chickens......Kim

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

That is a whole different story. Not the Blue Egg layers. banjo has some of these. Will let him explain it to you.

My granddaughter at the Arkansas State fair last year. I don't have a clue what they were but she was not happy. She thought they were homeless and thought someone was fixing to cook them up.

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[202roosterlane]

Jim you can send some of those blue egg layer eggs this way if you have too many.