Magnolia Hill

MagnoliaHill

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Joined
Feb 13, 2017
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Location
Myakka City, Florida
Hello! We are so excited to be a part of BackYard Chickens! We live in South Florida and have one Speckled Sussex rooster, one Olive Egger rooster, seven Red Star hens, and six Easter Egger hens. We have a beautiful 4x8 red and white coop, and a 8x10 run. We rented a small excavator and dug a two foot deep/two foot wide trench and wrapped our run with wire cloth down into the ground and skirted it out AND put concrete blocks all around before we filled the dirt back in! We've heard plenty of stories of predators and didn't want to take any chances. Our chickens are about five months old, and our Red Stars just began laying about two weeks ago! No eggs yet from our Easter Eggers, but their faces are getting more red and their combs are finally developing.

Besides grit, food, and water, what else do my chickens need? They mostly free range and roost themselves in the evening. Several days a week when we are not at home they are confined to their run.

Do Easter Eggers carry a blue gene? I know we aren't guaranteed to get blue eggs with Easter Eggers, but we would like to eventually let a Easter Egger hen sit on a clutch of eggs, and depending on which rooster we allow to fertilize the eggs, will the blue gene be 'gone'? We would like a nice range of colors. Does anyone out there have a Speckled Sussex rooster crossed with an Easter Egger? Speckled Sussex rooster crossed with a Red Star? Same but with an Olive Egger rooster?

I wrote a lot in a single post! I may need to post individual threads based on each of these topics. But hello to all, and any beginner advice would be much welcomed and appreciated!
 
Welcome to BYC! It's great to have you with us.

The blue egg shell gene is dominant, so if your EEs do carry it 50% of their offspring will likely carry the allele. The reason I say 50% is because EEs are not purebred and yours likely do not carry two copies. They would lay green eggs because blue x brown = green eggs.
 
Greetings from Kansas, MagnoliaHill, and
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! Pleased you joined our community! I know zilch about genetics so I will defer to those with expertise in the matter. Thank you for joining BYC and if you'd like to chat with local poultry folk, find the Florida thread in the link below and stop by and say hello!! https://www.backyardchickens.com/f/26/where-am-i-where-are-you
 
G’Day from down under MagnoliaHill
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Welcome!

I hope you enjoy being a BYC member. There are lots of friendly and very helpful folks here so not only is it overflowing with useful information it is also a great place to make friends and have some fun. Unlike non chicken loving friends, family and colleagues, BYC’ers never tire of stories or pictures that feature our feathered and non feathered friends
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PS you will also need strong wire fencing,* with very small openings to keep predators from snagging a chicken and biting off any part they can reach. Plus a top on runs to prevent climbers, jumpers (from roof or trees) and aerial raptor attacks. A solid top can protect somewhat from the weather & provide shade.


* 1/2" hardware cloth securely affixed to framework is strongly suggested.
 
Hello there, and welcome to the big, happy BYC family! I am so glad you joined us, please make yourself at home. I hope you will enjoy it here as much as I have! :frow

~Cuz
 

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