It would be trivial to make EE's with single combs, there is no real correlation between pea combs and egg color. They reside on the same chromosome and since most EE's were derived from real Ams w pea combs, people assume they are somehow causal. Perfect exception is the Cream Legbar, single comb and beautiful blue eggs.
The real take away from this is to buy from trustworthy sources, some feed stores do a great job of handling and marketing chicks, but most are simply trying to drive add on sales and can't be bothered to invest in either good stock or employee training. I can't blame them, making those investments are not guaranteed to improve their financial results, and this industry doesn't have a lot of excess funds for experimental marketing.
I think this could be changed with dedicated "poultry people" making an effort to help out in the local mom-n-pop feed stores. I am doing this with the Agway down the street. I've become friends with the owner and have sold them some great chicks that they made money selling during a time of the year when they normally would not have sold any chicks. In the spring we will expand this and I will be training their workers and (hopefully) conducting some weekend chicken raising seminars at their shop. Since this is a hobby and I don't have to turn a profit, I can take time with new chicken owners to answer all their questions and make recommendations for their specific circumstances, something businesses can't really do. I would urge others with significant experience to consider something like this. By improving the points of supply, we can have a much greater effect than selling a few chicks on the side.
I did supply purebred BBS Ameraucanas to Agway and they sold a few dozen of them. I intend to make them available again next spring.
