Is there a dual purpose chicken that lays blue eggs? New to chickens and deciding how to build flock.

[kaybiegirl]

I have a wide variety of chickens right now (all about 2 months old) from a "surprise box" from a hatchery (Probably 15+ breeds in my 37 chickens). This is fun and fine for now, but I do want to start focusing on what kind of flock I really want to build for the future.

I love the pretty colored eggs but seem to find most/all dual purpose birds lay brown or white. My plan is to have a dual-purpose rooster with same breed hens from which we can ...
1. Get lots of eggs (we are a family of 8 that eat eggs all the time, plus would like extra to sell)
2. Hatch more of the breed as needed to maintain flock size
3. Raise any extra hatched roosters for meat (and to process hens once they are past laying age)

Is there any blue egg laying chicken that fits that description?

If not, what breed would you recommend? The roosters I have currently are a Columbian Rock, Easter Egger (he's the dominant one), a couple wyandotte, and some cochin.

Thanks!

 

[black_cat]

Most blue laying breeds are on the small side, so I can't help you that much. The most commonly found ones are easter eggers and cream legbars. Easter eggers might lay green or brown. There are also araucanas, which are less common, and for real ameraucanas you'd need to go to a breeder because hatcheries rarely carry them. These are all generally lighter birds, so they won't be as good for meat as true dual purpose birds.

 

[kaybiegirl]

Most blue laying breeds are on the small side, so I can't help you that much. The most commonly found ones are easter eggers and cream legbars. Easter eggers might lay green or brown. There are also araucanas, which are less common, and for real ameraucanas you'd need to go to a breeder because hatcheries rarely carry them. These are all generally lighter birds, so they won't be as good for meat as true dual purpose birds.

That is what my own research was showing me, too. I may end up with my blue egg layers being just for fun eggs and choosing a brown/white egg layer for my primary flock.

 

[llandry]

I was just going to suggest that! I love the blue/green eggs to but I definitely feel like you sacrifice some other traits just to have pretty colored eggs.

Just my opinion, but I have always found my blue/green egg layers to be dmaller sized, skittish, and hard to gain their trust and affection. Again, just my opinion.

If you want a super friendly, beautiful, dual purpose bird, I'd go with something like an Orpington.

 

[Ridgerunner]

How obsessed are you with the size of the meat bird? Do they have to be that huge? You say you are willing to eat a spent hen, they aren't that large, much smaller than cockerels or roosters. Will you only be eating the cockerels that you hatch? What will you do with the pullets you hatch? If you are going to try to hatch enough for meat you will be overrun with pullets unless you eat them or sell them.

So you plan to feed eight people at a time. Dad kept a free ranging flock that had a lot of game in them, they were not that big. Mom could still feed a family with five kids in it from one chicken. If the chicken was young enough to be fried the choices on the platter included neck, back, gizzard, and liver. I don't know why she didn't cook the heart. There is a fair amount of meat on a neck and if it's breaded it's stretched even further. If it was an older hen chicken and dumplings is both a comfort food and a way of stretching the meat. Soup or stew stretched meat. Or you might package them in a way that better suits you. Maybe use four chickens for three meals. Or three chicken for two meals.

How set are you on breed? If you are going to be selling pullets instead of eating them purebred could help with sells and price. But if you are eating them what difference does it make?

The more different things you are breeding for the harder it becomes. I decided to create a colored egg laying speckled chicken, some red and some black, that was decent for meat and eggs and that went broody a lot. It took a few years but this is what I came up with.

First I think you need to decide what your real goals are and how important they are to you. Size of the bird, color of egg shell, size and number of eggs, and whatever else you want. Then breed to those goals. I don't know where you are located, there are people on this forum from all over the world, so I don't know what options are available to you. If you are in the USA and don't care about keeping them purebreds, I'd keep the best rooster from what you have and get some Ameraucana females for the egg shell color and start breeding them. Always hatch colored eggs. In the USA I would not use Araucana, ours have a fatal gene that can kill a lot of chicks in the shell before they hatch. Araucana in other parts of the world may not have that gene. Or if you can find another colored egg layer that is bigger than the available Ameraucana use those. Choose the chickens that come closest to your goals for breeding stock. If you concentrate on a very few traits you can see results in very few generations. If you spread the traits out like I did it takes longer. You can always eat the ones that don't measure up.

If you want to stay with one breed do the same thing. Breed the ones you want to eat and eat the ones you don't want to breed. Pay attention to which hens lay well and breed those. You should see the results in just a few generations.

Hens and roosters both contribute to the gene pool for all traits, including size and egg laying. Roosters don't lay eggs so you don't know what they are contributing, but if you know how their mother laid you have a pretty good idea of what they probably have to contribute. You may need to make some trade-offs on hen size and egg laying.

My main suggestion, decide what you want and get started. Try to not be too rigid but be flexible. These things hardly ever work out exactly as you plan. Just do the best you can, it's hard to do better and that should be good enough.

 

[kaybiegirl]

How obsessed are you with the size of the meat bird? Do they have to be that huge? You say you are willing to eat a spent hen, they aren't that large, much smaller than cockerels or roosters. Will you only be eating the cockerels that you hatch? What will you do with the pullets you hatch? If you are going to try to hatch enough for meat you will be overrun with pullets unless you eat them or sell them.

So you plan to feed eight people at a time. Dad kept a free ranging flock that had a lot of game in them, they were not that big. Mom could still feed a family with five kids in it from one chicken. If the chicken was young enough to be fried the choices on the platter included neck, back, gizzard, and liver. I don't know why she didn't cook the heart. There is a fair amount of meat on a neck and if it's breaded it's stretched even further. If it was an older hen chicken and dumplings is both a comfort food and a way of stretching the meat. Soup or stew stretched meat. Or you might package them in a way that better suits you. Maybe use four chickens for three meals. Or three chicken for two meals.

How set are you on breed? If you are going to be selling pullets instead of eating them purebred could help with sells and price. But if you are eating them what difference does it make?

The more different things you are breeding for the harder it becomes. I decided to create a colored egg laying speckled chicken, some red and some black, that was decent for meat and eggs and that went broody a lot. It took a few years but this is what I came up with.

View attachment 2385320

First I think you need to decide what your real goals are and how important they are to you. Size of the bird, color of egg shell, size and number of eggs, and whatever else you want. Then breed to those goals. I don't know where you are located, there are people on this forum from all over the world, so I don't know what options are available to you. If you are in the USA and don't care about keeping them purebreds, I'd keep the best rooster from what you have and get some Ameraucana females for the egg shell color and start breeding them. Always hatch colored eggs. In the USA I would not use Araucana, ours have a fatal gene that can kill a lot of chicks in the shell before they hatch. Araucana in other parts of the world may not have that gene. Or if you can find another colored egg layer that is bigger than the available Ameraucana use those. Choose the chickens that come closest to your goals for breeding stock. If you concentrate on a very few traits you can see results in very few generations. If you spread the traits out like I did it takes longer. You can always eat the ones that don't measure up.

If you want to stay with one breed do the same thing. Breed the ones you want to eat and eat the ones you don't want to breed. Pay attention to which hens lay well and breed those. You should see the results in just a few generations.

Hens and roosters both contribute to the gene pool for all traits, including size and egg laying. Roosters don't lay eggs so you don't know what they are contributing, but if you know how their mother laid you have a pretty good idea of what they probably have to contribute. You may need to make some trade-offs on hen size and egg laying.

My main suggestion, decide what you want and get started. Try to not be too rigid but be flexible. These things hardly ever work out exactly as you plan. Just do the best you can, it's hard to do better and that should be good enough.

Thank you so much for that reply! It is incredibly helpful! I will refer to it many times, I’m sure, as I’m figuring out exactly what I want.
I love your speckled chickens! What did you start with for those? They look great, and I appreciate the time and effort you spent in developing them. I hope to accomplish the same in some number of years!

 

[3KillerBs]

You can eat any size chicken. There are the meat-stretching measures mentioned above (I fed ten or twelve people with two "packing peanut" Production Red males contributing to some of the best chicken and rice the gaming group had ever eaten).

Or you can just use multiple chickens to feed people on a more meat-heavy diet. We're low-carb and I like getting leftovers for lunches so for 4 people I routinely use two modest-sized grocery-store chickens for one dinner then make chicken salad with the easily-picked meat before I freeze the carcasses for a batch of Crockpot Chicken Stock.

That said, I plan to raise Cornish X for the majority of our meat but I'll keep on turning skinny cockerels into meat-and-broth for various recipes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What did you start with for those?

It's not that easy to answer, I did not start out with this as a final goal. I just liked playing with genetics. After I got these I changed goals and brought in Buff Rocks to lighten up the feather color.

I started off with hatchery Speckled Sussex, Black Australorp, Buff Orpingtom, and Delaware, just wanting a mixed color flock for eggs and meat. I decided I wanted the colored eggs so I got some Ameraucana from a breeder. At the time hatchery Ameraucana were just EE's, no guarantee of egg shell color. Now there are a few hatcheries that actually sell hatchery quality Ameraucana. Some aren't hat bad. I can't think if that hatchery right now. But some hatcheries still sell EE's as Ameraucana.

Anyway, that's the breeds that went into the mottled EE chickens. If I were to start over making them I'd do it differently.

 

[3KillerBs]

Now there are a few hatcheries that actually sell hatchery quality Ameraucana. Some aren't hat bad. I can't think if that hatchery right now.

Cackle sells both EEs and Ameraucanas.

https://www.cacklehatchery.com/baby-chicks/colored-egg-layers.html

 

[Mrs. K]

I am going to go also with the meat and laying flock. It works best for me. A single meat bird will make several meals for my husband and me. I tend to part them out for us, but keep one or two whole. A dozen birds will take care of us for a year...however, we are cattle people and chicken is more of a novelty meat for us.

Personally, I use excess roosters, and older hens as casserole and soup birds. It is a different texture that grocery story bird.

But mostly - I love a mix of flock, so don't think you have to only have dual purpose birds, I would have a few of those, and a few layer birds, and my meats in an old coop, one a year.

Mrs K