EE breeding question

[otterway]

I have several EE hens, but no longer have an EE roo. I also have Orpingtons. If I use my Orpington Roo with my EE hens, with the offspring be EEs or just barnyard mix?

 

[donrae]

I'm not even going to get into the semantics of what defines an "Easter egger", because that differs from person to person. I'm going to answer on the assumption you're asking if the offspring will lay green eggs and/or have other typical EE characteristics.

If your hens lay blue eggs, breeding them to a brown egg layer will usually result in pullets that lay green eggs.
If your hens lay green eggs, breeding them to a brown egg layer can give you pullets that lay green and brown eggs.

Muffs seem to be an incomplete dominant type thing. When I cross my EE with clean faced birds, I get mostly muffed offspring.

I'm not sure how the white legs vs the dark legs will work out. Most of mine seem to have light legs.

Pea combs bred to straight combs usually throw pea combs or modified pea combs. Here's a pic of one of my girls from such a cross



Pea combs are linked to the blue egg gene, so the pullets with pea comb are more likely to be your colored egg layers.

If you're asking about using the term Easter egger to sell them, I don't when I cross my EE with another breed. I sell them as mixed breed pullets that have a chance of laying colored eggs. If I raise them to point of lay and know what color they lay, I sell them as a brown or green egg laying mix. I live in a small area and don't want to get a rep as selling a bird that's supposed to lay a specific color egg that actually lays something else

 

[Michael OShay]

X2 on what donrae says. I recently spent a fair amount of printing time debating another BYC member on the semantics of what defines and Easter Egger and we never did see eye to eye. Like donrae, I personally would not define the offspring of an EE and another breed as an Easter Egger (especially if it was a rooster, or a hen that did not lay eggs in some shade of blue, green, pink, or gold, or if I sold the hen before I knew what color of eggs she would lay). Like donrae, I would sell them as mixed breed pullets that had a chance of laying colored eggs.