Chronic egg issues in hatchery stock breeds

[Iluveggers]

Oh that is not bad at all! Somehow I had a lot worse numbers in my head for that.


I just saw them for the first time this week; had never heard of them before that. Of course, I may never see them in the chick bin again this year now I've had a ponder about them, luck being what it is. I wasn't able to find much about them generally except that they are BR crosses which made me wonder if that would be kind of like the barnyard mixing I'm already doing...but if it's a cross between two high production lines then maybe not.

They are production breeds. We got 3 two years ago. Only one is left. Not sure what they were mixed with, but they were from Tractor Supply.

 

[DonyaQuick]

They are production breeds. We got 3 two years ago. Only one is left. Not sure what they were mixed with, but they were from Tractor Supply.

Oh no! That's really sad. I guess they're not really like a sexlinked barnyard mix then. TSC is also where I saw the ones earlier this week.

 

[Iluveggers]

Oh no! That's really sad. I guess they're not really like a sexlinked barnyard mix then. TSC is also where I saw the ones earlier this week.

I know. I figured I would tell you though and save you the heartache.

 

[DonyaQuick]

...so I went out for supplies and groceries and came back with....um....

Earlier in the morning I had the conversation with my husband that if I saw the right thing in the next few weeks we agreed I should get some to avoid having winter house chickens like I did last year (I hatched a couple way later than was wise then). I really did just go out for dry goods and groceries but some of those dry goods were at the local TSC. The person I talked to said they were unlikely to get anything else in the set of things I was interested in and might not get much else at all because of the time of year; they already have some older pullets piling up. I was always a bit iffy about mail ordering chicks because I've been having a some packages end up getting diverted to wonky places when going to my PO box, and just have this persistent worry that if that can happen to something inert then chicks could end up re-routing to Syracuse or something and getting delayed and bad things, so...now I have six olive egger pullets.

 

[Iluveggers]

...so I went out for supplies and groceries and came back with....um....

View attachment 3570509

Earlier in the morning I had the conversation with my husband that if I saw the right thing in the next few weeks we agreed I should get some to avoid having winter house chickens like I did last year (I hatched a couple way later than was wise then). I really did just go out for dry goods and groceries but some of those dry goods were at the local TSC. The person I talked to said they were unlikely to get anything else in the set of things I was interested in and might not get much else at all because of the time of year; they already have some older pullets piling up. I was always a bit iffy about mail ordering chicks because I've been having a some packages end up getting diverted to wonky places when going to my PO box, and just have this persistent worry that if that can happen to something inert then chicks could end up re-routing to Syracuse or something and getting delayed and bad things, so...now I have six olive egger pullets.

FYI if you ever order chicks, Mt Healthy shipped them at 11:45 pm, and they arrived to the post office at 1pm the next day. Fastest order ever. So whatever airmail they use to NY is super quick.

Congratulations on the Olive Eggers! Would love to see some close ups.

 

[DonyaQuick]

FYI if you ever order chicks, Mt Healthy shipped them at 11:45 pm, and they arrived to the post office at 1pm the next day. Fastest order ever. So whatever airmail they use to NY is super quick.

It's not the hatchery side of the shipping I worry about - it's the weird situation of post offices near me. Things don't go directly to my post office from a hub; they have to go through a neighboring town's post office, and that other office is very sloppy. Just since my original post in this thread they've put two different packages of mine on the wrong outgoing truck and sent them clear across the state before they finally come back make it to my town. I don't know if there's a way for me to have something held at that other office to stop that from happening; they won't do it with regular packages.

Congratulations on the Olive Eggers! Would love to see some close ups.

They're starting to come out from under the brooder plate and be curious. The lighting in the room is rubbish but here we go:

And this one has some feet fuzzies:

...and you know I just noticed some have a head dot and some don't. I know that means something in barred rocks...but I have read that should be meaningless in olive eggers since they shouldn't be sexlinked...oh man I hope it doesn't mean anything or I have been very dumb lol.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Nooooooooooooo I didn't need more boys dangiiiiiiiiit
"When Olive Egger eggs hatch, males often have a white dot on their heads, while females do not." from https://www.freedomrangerhatchery.com/shop/product/olive-egger/ but a bunch of other sites I'm now seeing say the same thing.

How did I get that wrong. UGH.

 

[Iluveggers]

Nooooooooooooo I didn't need more boys dangiiiiiiiiit
"When Olive Egger eggs hatch, males often have a white dot on their heads, while females do not." from https://www.freedomrangerhatchery.com/shop/product/olive-egger/ but a bunch of other sites I'm now seeing say the same thing.

How did I get that wrong. UGH.

It depends. If they used a male cuckoo or legbar and female non-barred, they won’t be sex-linked. The othet way around they would. What does Hoover’s site say? (Usually they source my TSC).

 

[DonyaQuick]

It depends. If they used a male cuckoo or legbar and female non-barred, they won’t be sex-linked. The othet way around they would. What does Hoover’s site say? (Usually they source my TSC).

I didn't know olive eggers could differ like that from hatchery to hatchery. I knew it was a mix, so I guess assuming it would be done exactly the same way everywhere was a bit dumb. I do think mine are from Hoovers. It doesn't say anything about being sex-linked; but it doesn't say anything about being sex-linked for sex-linked breeds either. All it says is this:

"One line is a cross of Americanas and French Cuckoo Marans. with this hybrid cross most of the females will be black but a few will come out blue. Another cross is between Legbars and Welsummers, our goal with these is to create a green egg that is speckled similar to the Welsummer's egg. Both of these crosses have a 5% chance of laying brown eggs. These are a mix and you could receive birds from either and or both flocks, there is no option to choose between the two."

So no clue about which is the rooster from the parent stock. I have also now seen some pictures of olive eggers with a splash of white on the head that turned out as hens so perhaps I'm being too paranoid.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well I guess either way it's wait and see now. Took them far less time than it should have to decide I'm mom. I had to really invest a lot of time to win over several of my original BOs but these chicks just walk into my hand lol.