Chronic egg issues in hatchery stock breeds

[DonyaQuick]

I realize I never updated on this thread after being worried about the head dots on the olive egger chicks I got back in July. All pullets as far as I can tell! Haven't got eggs just yet but there's not a single pointy hackle or saddle feather on any of them at 23 weeks old.

 

[DonyaQuick]

One more update on these pullets. This set of 6 "olive eggers" consisted of 2 solid black pullets and 4 barred ones, and all are laying now. The solid black pullets lay green eggs - one more of a brownish green and one more blue-green.

As for the barred ones....I've got 3 brown eggers and the 4th's eggs are pink with white splotches. I know there is a chance of brown eggs with olive egger crosses but...you know, feed store chick bin shenanigans and all that...and the fact that there was a barred rock bin riiiiight next to the egger one...I do wonder if I actually ended up with a bunch of barred rocks LOL. If it was an oops-into-the-wrong-bin sort of mixup and not simply a matter of being really unlucky with egg color, then I'm just going to count myself lucky I actually got all girls.

Whether I have barred rocks mixed in or not, I did notice these pullets collectively took their time to start laying and haven't been laying every single day either. I guess it could just be the fact that it's winter but I'm still hoping that's a somewhat good sign from a reproductive health standpoint.

 

[DonyaQuick]

So kind of a depressing update to make here that goes back to my original post about chronic health issues in hatchery stock.

• One of my original buff orpington hens is having some issues now as she's approaching 3. I thought she was hard as nails but it just took some chronic issues a while to surface I guess. She may not make it all the way to 3; she's in bad shape right now. So that's actually 50% of my original hatchery birds with various internal issues.
• I lost one of my F1 BOxBR crosses to a stroke. She laid eggs on the larger side for her body size. Her sister lays small eggs. I don't know whether to consider the stroke a random accident or something I need to worry about being hereditary.
• One of my now very obvious BR hatchery pullets (a striped "olive egger") has some kind of leg issue that seems to have gotten worse as she's grown. She has to kind of kangaroo hop to go fast. She was always timid and didn't tend to jump/run as much as her siblings but the nature of the wonky leg has become more apparent as she's filled out and gotten heaver. She's not a special needs bird yet, but that could be coming down the road.
• One of my actual olive egger "eggers" lays eggs that are quite big for her size now. That worries me from a long term reproductive health standpoint.

I love my little gimpy stripey girl, but between that and the very big eggs from the one olive egger, I may need to rethink my long term flock plan. I guess I'm worried now whether I should hatch anything more from my current hens or if I should really be aiming to dilute more with a hardier strain. The roos I've produced have amazing personalities that I would like to see passed onto any additional cockerels but this many red flags in the hens worries me.