Blue Laced Red Wyandotte THREAD!

[shanshan51]

Yes, I already have his first girlfriend all picked out.

She is a lovely blue hen, quite a bit lighter than this fellow, but really striking. I can hardly wait for her to start laying. She went through a terrible awkward stage, and her color as a chick was all muddled and weird. I was even convinced for a couple of weeks that she wasn't a BLRW at all. But then her adult feathers started coming in, and all of a sudden she was the most beautiful chicken in the flock. Sometimes you just never know..

Where did you get your line from or have you been breeding a long time?

 

[mzstre]

I had my heart set on getting some chicks directly from the Foleys this past spring, but I was worried I wouldn't have my run and coop completed quickly enough and decided to wait until the spring of 2013.

I emailed Jerry yesterday to inquire as to when they will start taking orders. He advised that because they are so busy, they will not be accepting orders for chicks in 2013. I am devastated!

 

[DMRippy]

I had my heart set on getting some chicks directly from the Foleys this past spring, but I was worried I wouldn't have my run and coop completed quickly enough and decided to wait until the spring of 2013.

I emailed Jerry yesterday to inquire as to when they will start taking orders. He advised that because they are so busy, they will not be accepting orders for chicks in 2013. I am devastated!

Yeah, that is what he told me too. I am buying breeding pairs now. I have 1 young pr and hoping to buy 1 or 2 more in the next few days from him.

 

[mzstre]

Yeah, that is what he told me too.&nbsp; I am buying breeding pairs now.&nbsp; I have 1 young pr and hoping to buy 1 or 2 more in the next few days from him.</p>

I wish that was an option for me. I live in Louisiana and he isn't shipping because of the heat.

 

[shanshan51]

Yup I am waiting for a Roo from him but have to wait till Sept IF he has them left.

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

Where did you get your line from or have you been breeding a long time?

Not long at all. I got hatching eggs from two different forum members this spring. My hatch rates were pretty low, so I only have four birds remaining. Most of the eggs hatched roos

, and several wound up with single combs.

But next spring I'm planning to hatch more eggs from the birds I have. I'll probably order a few more from another breeder at some point to mix in some genetic variety.

 

[DMRippy]

Just a FYI, talked with Jerry Foley for a couple of hours and the one thing he STRESSED was DON'T ADD NEW BLOOD. IF you have good birds use them. They do better when you breed closely related birds to each other. Adding new birds will not help, but hurt your progress. Breeding his birds to others might help your birds but it would only hurt the quality of his. Countrypunk92 got a couple of pair of BLRW from Foley too and we are only going to breed the Foley birds and trade eggs to help with NEW Foley blood. If I had the money I would have bought all the birds he had for sale. LOL.

 

[shanshan51]

Just a FYI, talked with Jerry Foley for a couple of hours and the one thing he STRESSED was DON'T ADD NEW BLOOD. IF you have good birds use them. They do better when you breed closely related birds to each other. Adding new birds will not help, but hurt your progress. Breeding his birds to others might help your birds but it would only hurt the quality of his. Countrypunk92 got a couple of pair of BLRW from Foley too and we are only going to breed the Foley birds and trade eggs to help with NEW Foley blood. If I had the money I would have bought all the birds he had for sale. LOL.

Yup I have an older Foley line so I am trying to bring in his new line. I spoke with Foley and he said he will send me a Rooster hopefully in September. Crossing my fingers.

 

[desertmarcy]

Just a FYI, talked with Jerry Foley for a couple of hours and the one thing he STRESSED was DON'T ADD NEW BLOOD. IF you have good birds use them. They do better when you breed closely related birds to each other. Adding new birds will not help, but hurt your progress. Breeding his birds to others might help your birds but it would only hurt the quality of his. Countrypunk92 got a couple of pair of BLRW from Foley too and we are only going to breed the Foley birds and trade eggs to help with NEW Foley blood. If I had the money I would have bought all the birds he had for sale. LOL.

Now that is interesting. I originally bought hatching eggs from 2 different sources last year. I just sold the last of the hens for layers from one of the sources--they were all blues (the seller was breeding black X splash for all blues) and the blue colors were all over the map, mixed colors on the same bird (hackle feathers looking way different from saddle for instance). I was told they looked more like hatchery birds. I still have a nice blue cock and a black hen from the other source, and a small blue do-nothing layer (well hardly anything, she is just a poor layer and undersized) that I really should cull. I thought I might hatch chicks from the blue X black pair and based on what Foley told you, sounds like that would be okay. However, I am already working with enough breeds, so decided to put the BLRW on hold---but I just can't bring myself to get rid of them altogether

, they are so pretty and mellow personalities. BUT as a breed I do believe they need a lot of work and I already have my work cut out for me with the Marans--I can't afford another breed where I need to hatch out 100 chicks or more to get a few good ones, especially since they take so long to mature.

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

I find this interesting too. The thing is, that after a truly heartbreaking spring full of incubator problems, poor hatch rates, and with 80% of all hatched chicks at my house turning out to be roos this year, I ended up with really only 2 birds I'd like to breed, a blue roo and a blue hen, each from different breeders. Both beautiful, but is it a bad idea to start a flock with only 2 birds?

Another novice question...is it potentially problematic to pair a darker blue with a lighter blue? What shade of blue is more desirable?