Hi sol2go, thank you! She is a lovely hen, but I am still working to get more consistent hackle color and combs on my hens, and of course, darker eggs. My hens generally lay in the range of 5-6 on the scale, with the occasional 7-8 (Yay!). In this heat, they tend to lighten up a bit, but I'm satisfied that they lay well despite the heat and are still in the acceptable range. Here are a couple pictures from today...the second picture has a couple of my Orpington's eggs for comparison:Hi Amy,
your FBCM hen has nice hackle color. Do you also have pictures of her eggshell colors?
Do you have BLRW breeding pairs (not BLRWxgold laced) ? The mahogany in the BLRW is pretty specific and the gold will wash that out.
Regarding the BLRW...I do have one beautiful BLRW hen, but she unfortunately suffered a dog attack when the neighbor's dog got into our yard. I lost all of her sisters, and she does not lay since the attack. It's very sad because she is a beautiful hen, and I spent a lot of time searching and hoping for some hens like her. I realize I may not get the right base color from the gold laced hen, but at the very least I will end up with some great layers. We also send my culls to the freezer, so I'm never afraid to experiment. I have been casually looking for a BLRW hen for my rooster, but I have had trouble finding a correct one. I hung onto my rooster because I really like him. Here is my sweet BLRW hen that does not lay. She is my yard art!