Blue eggs

[AgnesGray]

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

 

[PippinTheChicken]

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...

 

[DarJones]

Leghorns carry the zinc white gene. Presuming you cross leghorn hens with a homozygous blue egg laying rooster, all the chicks will inherit one copy of oocyanin (blue egg) and one copy of zinc white. The result should be 100% of the female chicks laying sky blue eggs. Caution that using a rooster from a green egg laying line will give different results. Most likely will be blue eggs with a tan overcast.

Quantity of eggs laid will vary considerably depending on the rooster used. My experience has been that the "setting" trait has an inordinate influence on this. My crosses of Silver Laced Wyandottes X Blue Egg laying Brown Leghorns ranges from 200 up to just over 300 eggs per year. There is a lot of room in the crossbred stock to select for improved egg quantity. F1 crosses won't give this variability and will tend to lay somewhere in between the leghorn and blue egg laying parent quantities.

 

[nuthatched]

I believe many hatcheries sell legbar x leghorn crosses, I think they are called white sapphires.
It can be done.

 

[AgnesGray]

Leghorns carry the zinc white gene. Presuming you cross leghorn hens with a homozygous blue egg laying rooster, all the chicks will inherit one copy of oocyanin (blue egg) and one copy of zinc white. The result should be 100% of the female chicks laying sky blue eggs. Caution that using a rooster from a green egg laying line will give different results. Most likely will be blue eggs with a tan overcast.

Quantity of eggs laid will vary considerably depending on the rooster used. My experience has been that the "setting" trait has an inordinate influence on this. My crosses of Silver Laced Wyandottes X Blue Egg laying Brown Leghorns ranges from 200 up to just over 300 eggs per year. There is a lot of room in the crossbred stock to select for improved egg quantity. F1 crosses won't give this variability and will tend to lay somewhere in between the leghorn and blue egg laying parent quantities.

Any suggestions on the best "blue" breed? I was thinking of crossing CCL with my leghorns.

 

[AgnesGray]

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...

That is my plan. Would love to see some eggs from that mix.

 

[nicalandia]

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

Productive performance of Easter egger crosses of Araucana and Schijndelaar roosters with white Leghorn hens
https://www.semanticscholar.org/pap...trov/ae4fd9522c44c1bf01195d72f7d799a3e5107a17

You will be very good egg laying performance from the F1s

 

[AgnesGray]

I believe many hatcheries sell legbar x leghorn crosses, I think they are called white sapphires.
It can be done.

Too bad they're sold out. Nice that they offer them though.

 

[AgnesGray]

Productive performance of Easter egger crosses of Araucana and Schijndelaar roosters with white Leghorn hens
https://www.semanticscholar.org/pap...trov/ae4fd9522c44c1bf01195d72f7d799a3e5107a17

View attachment 3013663


You will be very good egg laying performance from the F1s

Wow, I hoped it would be something like that! If I can get the increased size and higher numbers of the leghorn in a blue egg, I'll be a happy chicken keeper.

 

[nicalandia]

Wow, I hoped it would be something like that! If I can get the increased size and higher numbers of the leghorn in a blue egg, I'll be a happy chicken keeper.

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

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