Can I breed an EE roo with white leghorns?

[ohnoicantfly]

Hi! I plan on hatching some chicks soon, and was wondering if breeding white leghorns with an EE roo is a bad idea? I mean, would people buy them? Are there any advantages to mixing these breeds? I also have EE hens and some ISA brown hens. I have 3 that are maybe Rhode Island reds, but most likely not.

 

[nuthatched]

They'd be mixed breed chicks with the slim possibility of pastel eggs. I wouldn't buy them personally, but I find ees to be sickly.

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

Potentially they could lay more than the EE you started with but still have colored eggs (if the rooster carries the gene and passes it on). Mixed with a brown layer you’d get brown or green; mixed with a white layer you’d get blue or white. Again, assuming he has a blue egg gene himself.

Many people prefer easter eggers that look like ameraucanas though, so if the new genes water that down too much people might not be a fan.

If you have any barred hens AND your rooster is NOT BARRED, you might have a chance at sex-linked chicks. Being able to guarantee pullets, especially pullets who lay colored eggs, would increase your market a lot. But check in with niclandia or mysterychicken or one of our other genetics experts first…but I would be very intrigued by the concept. I think you’d want to keep and raise a few first to confirm that they are successfully sex-linked and be able to show people what they’re getting. After that, you could market hatching eggs or chicks with the photos you took of the first batch.