Blue eggs

[AgnesGray]

This has been my goal for many years(for the last decade, but have been postponed for one reason to another), but it seems like Hendrix Genetics just got ahead of me, Hendrix genetics is about the largest egg layer provider in the world and they just created what they call The Azur which is a Leghorn that lays blue eggs, more than 330 of them per year. The Azur is available in Europe, but not in the USA yet


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https://layinghens.hendrix-genetics.com/en/our-brands/special-layer-breeds/azur/


It's really not that hard to do, it's just the Oocyan mutation introduced to exceptional white egg layers

If the picture is any indication, they have a nice small comb as well. Looks like exactly what I had in mind. Hopefully they will bring them to the US also.

Meanwhile I'm going to see what I can come up with. Thanks for sharing!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

We would like to hatch more of our own layers this year. Doing so, we are working out who should be bred with who for the eggs we want next year.

I'd like to increase the number of blue and colored eggs we get and I'm wondering if anyone has crossed blue layers with leghorns and what the outcome was. Ideally, we'd get a lighter blue egg and hopefully more per year, but is that realistic? TIA

Prairie bluebells are a blue egg layer mixed with leghorns

 

[DarJones]

It's really not that hard to do, it's just the Oocyan mutation introduced to exceptional white egg layers

Not hard, but definitely time consuming. I've been 8 years breeding to get oocyanin into a silver laced wyandotte background and just now to the stage most traits are consistent enough that I can focus on identifying homozygous blue egg roosters.

 

[Iluveggers]

Whiting True Blue are a newly developed breed. MCMurray is the only hatchery I know of that has them. They lay a lot of eggs.

 

[nicalandia]

If the picture is any indication, they have a nice small comb as well. Looks like exactly what I had in mind. Hopefully they will bring them to the US also.

Meanwhile I'm going to see what I can come up with. Thanks for sharing!

They are really trying to cater the Organic Humane raised egg layers that are becoming very popular in Europe. They have stringiest laws concerning the welfare of egg laying hens. In the USA this has yet to happen.

They have Production performance Marans, they call them Noirans

The Azur, blue egg layers

And Their Olive Eggers(Azur x Noiran cross)

 

[nicalandia]

Not hard, but definitely time consuming. I've been 8 years breeding to get oocyanin into a silver laced wyandotte background and just now to the stage most traits are consistent enough that I can focus on identifying homozygous blue egg roosters.

It's pretty straight forward if all of you are looking for are White Hens that lay colored eggs without following any Standard of Perfection or color pattern, just as much egg production as possible. Your path is more complex

 

[DarJones]

I thought about doing this in terms of introgressing the blue egg trait into a Leghorn background. Here are the breeding steps I would take.

1. Cross a blue egg breed X leghorn hens (F1 chicks produced)
2. Raise the chicks to maturity keeping only the hens and verify each lays a blue egg.
3. Cross the blue egg laying F1 hens to a leghorn rooster again (Back Cross 1 chicks produced)
4. Raise the chicks to maturity and again keep only blue egg layers (50% of hens lay blue)
5. Cross the blue egg laying F2 hens to a Leghorn rooster again (Back Cross 2 chicks produced)
6. Raise the chicks to maturity and keep blue egg layers (50% of hens lay blue)
7. Cross the blue egg laying F3 hens to a Leghorn rooster (Back Cross 3 chicks produced)
8. Raise the chicks to maturity and keep the blue egg layers
9. DNA test several roosters to find a few that carry the oocyanin gene.
10. Cross the blue egg laying BC3 hens x the oocyanin positive bC3 roosters. (Intercross 1 chicks)
11. Raise the IC1 chicks to maturity and DNA test at least 200 for homozygous oocyanin.
12. Out of 200 IC1 chicks, 25 hens and 25 roosters should be homozygous.

From that point, it is just a game of mating the homozygous roosters and hens and selecting for desired traits. It would take 6 years under ideal conditions.

Leghorns have simple comb so it would be much easier to start with a single comb blue egg layer. CCL's are possible, or if some of the Blue Egg laying Brown Leghorns could be obtained from Keith Bramwell, it would be dramatically easier. All you would really be stabilizing is the white feather color combined with blue egg.

This is much more complicated when a breed such as Silver Laced Wyandotte is the target for introgression. The first trait of concern is rose comb on chromosome 7. This has to be combined with straight comb on chromosome 1. Then add zinc white egg color, turn off porphyrin, retain columbian, pattern, and melanotic, silver, feather type, and about 10 more macro traits. Don't forget to get rid of that pesky partridge color pattern that causes speckled or stippled feathers.

 

[nicalandia]

I thought about doing this in terms of introgressing the blue egg trait into a Leghorn background. Here are the breeding steps I would take.

For Pure Production Purposes, I would advise against trying to create your own line, a single breeder can't really match the resources of Giants like Hendrix and Hyline. But we can take advantage of that by using those Terminal Cross Leghorn hens(often sold as Pearl White Leghorn by Hatcheries) as a Dame line and cross them with Pure Blue egg laying males, if you like Single Comb, I would go with Cream Legbar Males that were hatch from lines known for their blue eggs. Cream Legbars are pretty good egg layers too, The F1s that are destined for production only, will produce about 300 blue eggs per year.

I have seen reports that Cream Legbars produce about 260 eggs per year(non broody), Production type White Leghorns can produce more than 320 eggs per year. The F1s will inherit the average of both parents and will receive a 10% boost by way of heterosis. The F1s will lay within 10% of the production of the Pure Leghorns while being more vigorous.

 

[DarJones]

I would advise against trying to create your own line

Funny in a way, a lot of people said this to me in 2013. I told them that if I want to spend $100,000 developing blue egg laying Silver Laced Wyandottes, I have the money and will do it if I choose. Fortunately, the cost has been a lot less. I estimate about $20,000 mostly in feed costs. I've had immense fun in the process learning about chicken genetics and figuring out how things work that nobody to my knowledge has documented. I made a few stupid mistakes along the way, but I learned from them.

 

[Mason Farm and Ranch]

I'm not a breeding expert. But Cream legbars are blue layers that lay a lot of eggs so I'm guessing if you crossed it with a leghorn...

Those are going to be some big eggs too.