My JUMBO Italian Celadon Project

[Coturnixxx]

Oh nice! Well first of all how old are your birds? For the first few weeks they dont lay quite as big eggs. Then they usually get larger.

Then just FYI im not entirely sure about your experience with celadons. If you cross them with your non celadon italians your only going to get non celadon eggs. Then crossing those together you will get 25% celadon eggs. Then from there its a whole process eliminating non celadons and trying to figure out a celadon rooster. Meanwhile I dont think this will make your eggs much bigger. If I were you I would set up some cages for spiral breeding. Then just start selecting the largest eggs and larger birds. USUALLY larger birds lay larger eggs. It might not be a quick process but I think thats the best way to do it besides looking online and finding someone with large celadon egg size averages. But thats kind of cheating . I havent weighed my celadon eggs recently but they are just a tiny bit smaller than my other ones. Ive got two pharaohs that somehow lay 18-19g eggs daily! When I get the chance I am definitely gonna work on those.

Thanks for your reply! My birds are 6 months now, so the eggs are what they are...
Yes, I am aware of the fact that I need two generations to get an Italian celadon hen, if I keep breeding with a pure celadon male... I'm on my first generation now: white male celadon on my Italian hen laying the largest eggs (15g). I'm keeping only females (they are 4 weeks old now), and will then cross them again with the father...

Those 18-19g eggs are worth working on!

Regards

 

[WallacetheKhakiCampbell]

Thanks for your reply! My birds are 6 months now, so the eggs are what they are...
Yes, I am aware of the fact that I need two generations to get an Italian celadon hen, if I keep breeding with a pure celadon male... I'm on my first generation now: white male celadon on my Italian hen laying the largest eggs (15g). I'm keeping only females (they are 4 weeks old now), and will then cross them again with the father...

Those 18-19g eggs are worth working on!

Regards

Oh okay. Sorry you never know peoples prior knowledge on stuff like this . Well if you do do it please share! I would love to know more about that. I would be curious how that works. Because I know a lot of people that complain about smaller celadon eggs, but I wonder if that is because in most lines the breeder just focuses on color and not size. And I would love to know if the egg size genetics kind of blend like one would hope or if your celadon genetics will keep those the same. If it doesnt work I would just start weighing all your eggs and incubating the biggest ones (not obvious double yolks). Good luck!

 

[WallacetheKhakiCampbell]

Well I had a successful hatch! Not 90%+ hatch rate but low 80s. I had a bit of a scare when my chicks were without heat for AN HOUR!! Somehow they all made it! I had some curled toes hatch out. Most of which hatched late an didn't survive. But the brooder is looking mostly italian, manchurian, blue fawn, some pharaoh, and a few EB and Tux things. I also had 2-3 grau eggs in there that all hatched out. Anyways there is a long few weeks before I can really start telling them apart! But since this wasnt a very organized hatch these will all go to my fawn/blue fawn breeding program and not my celadons. Now ive got 3 cages set up for my first breeding a mentioned in my plan (like 10 pages ago). Ive got manchurian roos with celadon hens, and then a blue italian celadon rooster (I know he looks awesome! and already carries fawn!) with italian hens. In a few weeks I will hatch out some of their eggs. I am running out of space to put new cage and I have gotten much more busy recently so things have to slow down a bit. Not to mention the beginning of winter and fall I only do one hatch at a time and wait till they are fully feathered until I do another batch.

 

[FloorCandy]

This older thread has a photo with some large celadons:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/incubator-loaded-for-first-time.1411751/#post-23175187

 

[Coturnixxx]

Oh okay. Sorry you never know peoples prior knowledge on stuff like this . Well if you do do it please share! I would love to know more about that. I would be curious how that works. Because I know a lot of people that complain about smaller celadon eggs, but I wonder if that is because in most lines the breeder just focuses on color and not size. And I would love to know if the egg size genetics kind of blend like one would hope or if your celadon genetics will keep those the same. If it doesnt work I would just start weighing all your eggs and incubating the biggest ones (not obvious double yolks). Good luck!

I will! Thanks!

 

[BlackwoodQuail]

You can look up sweettweets on ebay, they have several celadon colors they have been working to isolate and I thought Italian was one of them. That may give you a jump start on the egg aspect.

 

[Coturnixxx]

You can look up sweettweets on ebay, they have several celadon colors they have been working to isolate and I thought Italian was one of them. That may give you a jump start on the egg aspect.

I really wish I could!!! But I live in Europe, Spain. Thanks for your help anyway!

 

[Coturnixxx]

Hi everyone!
I'm trying to breed for larger celadon eggs. My biggest celadon eggs are now still rather small (12/13g) compared to my other normal quail laying big eggs (15/16g), which are mostly Italians.
So... My goal is now to cross them to increase the blue egg size.
Any thoughts or experience out there?
How much do your biggest celadon eggs weight?
Thanks a lot for sharing!
Kind regards

Hi everyone!
1 year later, I have improved my line. Now finally (almost) all my celadons are feather sexable, and eggsize is stable at 13/14g.
Have a nice day!