MPC Super blue egg layer eggs

[Shezadandy]

The main reason I decided to try an SBEL cockerel (supposed to be my only cockerel but got a Welsummer "oops") was to try and continue the SBELs down the line (and not pay $24/chick plus $50 shipping) and in hopes of getting some good green and olive egg layers with my current layer flock. Folks who buy our eggs seem to really enjoy the color variety and I want to keep that going.

Here's the most up to date photo of our SBEL cockerel, Gus, and Lucy one of the SBEL pullets at 16 weeks:





I'm lucky to have gotten more of an Ameraucana type roo which is more in keeping with the rest of my flock.

 

[MiniHorses]

Gus is handsome! You lucked out.....got a hatch beyond F1.

Your pullet has that nice tiny comb (like my Ameracanas & TBWs)

My obviously mean leghorn roos are leaving this life soon. My pullets are ALL straight combed and I really resent the fact that MPC feels that they can charge such prices for both F1 as F2 or F3 -- KNOWING what they are sending is not what they are promoting. I can buy a nice fryer, processed and ready to cook for far less than the $20+ pd for these screwball roos. . Feeling MPC "owes" me.

That said..........your Gus is very similar to my Romeo, who is Amerraucana, purchased from a private flock as a chick. Yes, my customers love the colors -- most of them anyway. LOL And the buyer of the "backyard hen" in the large housing community in my general area LOVES to buy "one of each" for their flock. So the hens who do lay color are sought out. I'm looking to have fun and support the feed bill.

 

[Sea Wolf]

I'm going to sit down with the chicks this weekend and see if I can find any boys. Hope not as they were all supposed to be girls. Going to be looking at the feathering as well as combs. If anyone was interested, I notice that I have three different leg colors among the chicks. Body wise and appearance, they seem to be similar to white leghorns. Some have the black feathers but not all. But I have pinkish legs, grey/green legs and bright yellow legs mixed throughout the batch.

 

[Shezadandy]

Gus is handsome! You lucked out.....got a hatch beyond F1.

Your pullet has that nice tiny comb (like my Ameracanas & TBWs)

My obviously mean leghorn roos are leaving this life soon. My pullets are ALL straight combed and I really resent the fact that MPC feels that they can charge such prices for both F1 as F2 or F3 -- KNOWING what they are sending is not what they are promoting. I can buy a nice fryer, processed and ready to cook for far less than the $20+ pd for these screwball roos. . Feeling MPC "owes" me.

That said..........your Gus is very similar to my Romeo, who is Amerraucana, purchased from a private flock as a chick. Yes, my customers love the colors -- most of them anyway. LOL And the buyer of the "backyard hen" in the large housing community in my general area LOVES to buy "one of each" for their flock. So the hens who do lay color are sought out. I'm looking to have fun and support the feed bill.

I did notice the similarity to your Romeo- your boy has a much prettier face for starters! Anyways, here and there I actually wonder if they just send me an AM cockerel from a hatch that didn't meet an AM standard of some kind or other- but either way, definitely lucked out-- though until we get to the jacked-up hormones perhaps I ought not jinx myself.

That is a huge price for ... dinner. Ugh. I hope they've got enough size to make the meal worth the effort- stinks that they're aggressive.

As far as your straight comb girls, the proof will be in the eggs, I guess. If this foray into blue eggs doesn't pan out I'm not chasing it anymore. I know I've got a cream legbar cross pullet in my 7 week olds - not sure what we'll get there because she's from an egg from another farm- needed fertile eggs for a 1st time broody and didn't want to pay megabucks for shipped eggs without knowing if she'd stick it out-- she did. If the SBEL cockerel is at least a carrier that will be something for interesting eggs down the road from my brown layers. I'm glad you've got other carriers to work with assuming your pullets give some shade of blue.

While the SBELs aren't contributing to the feed bill yet, right now I've got orders for eggs that haven't been laid yet, and the feed bill is feeling much lighter! Counting down the days!

 

[Shezadandy]

I'm going to sit down with the chicks this weekend and see if I can find any boys. Hope not as they were all supposed to be girls. Going to be looking at the feathering as well as combs. If anyone was interested, I notice that I have three different leg colors among the chicks. Body wise and appearance, they seem to be similar to white leghorns. Some have the black feathers but not all. But I have pinkish legs, grey/green legs and bright yellow legs mixed throughout the batch.

I've noticed some variation between my 2 as well- one is greenish and the other has darkened over time to slate with yellow pads. Not sure if it means anything with respect to the egg color genetics or not. One has clear black feathers, the other has lighter gray feathers here and there-- neither has muffs.

If you do find a boy, remember to report it between 10-17 weeks so you can at least get your full refund for the error.

 

[MiniHorses]

Those pullets are lovely, nicely feathered, etc. Mine are all that but, straight red combs.

It seems the best we all can do is wait. That's the hardest part! BUT we are on the down slope now.

 

[Shezadandy]

Those pullets are lovely, nicely feathered, etc. Mine are all that but, straight red combs.

It seems the best we all can do is wait. That's the hardest part! BUT we are on the down slope now.

Yepp! Kinda like buying the first model year of a car! I suppose at the end of the day if we get healthy girls that lay lots of large eggs, whatever the color, it's not a total loss.

 

[MiniHorses]

My SBEL girls decided yesterday to bless me with cute little eggs....so yesterday & today, here's the pics.

I've put them on a white paper plate, obviously a brown egg to compare -- just your normal brown, not Marans -- and I placed a piece of BLUE & Yellow paper which are both primary colors to help out (because I haven't made a trip to a store for paint sample strips).






These girls were hatched 2/20-22 so 21 weeks. Not concerned with egg size as it will enlarge as they get older. While the eggs are "blue" they are a tinted, not deep. Doubt that will change much at all. If you lay a teal green by them, it is a little more that type blue.....not "really" green but.....if color was more intense, you would see the blue more easily. Now, since I have these at this stage, I will await the TBWhiting pullets and HOPE color more intense. If that works out, the TBW roo & the BBS roo will be used to make an attempt to add color. You can see the intense primary makes them look
different but I wanted to give a contrast.

Maybe I will have real blue eggs in Spring. LOL

Guess we will have a few more pics coming from you all still waiting. The roos are still mean but, I'm working on that.

Searching through hrs of read on here, I found one thread which said that using a Leghorn roo could help to stop/reduce the brown genes for the eggs. May have some merit. May save a life. LOL

 

[Shezadandy]

Quote:
So glad yours came out blue- maybe something to build from anyways! Still waiting- on week 17 now.

 

[Shezadandy]

Update:

Today we got our first SBEL egg from Lucy at 19 weeks and 4 days old. It's definitely more of a sky-blue. I also started a thread for pictures of SBEL eggs under chicken breeds.
All photos are taken on a white paper towel background.

Left: EE's green egg, Right: SBEL blue egg


Top: EE green, Bottom left, GLW, Bottom middle, SBEL, Bottom right, BR