NEED ADVICE ON PAIRING MY EE ROOSTER WITH THE RIGHT HEN

[getaway]

This is Tic Toc. He is almost six months old. We have White Leghorn, Ameraucana, Barred Rock and Buff Orpington hens. When they were all chicks we thought we had all little girls. Tic Toc surprised us but we are happy to have him. He is a beautiful and friendly bird. We do not want to pair him with all of of the girls, maybe just one or two. We are new at this and wanted some opinions, stories of past experiences like this and maybe even pics of offspring . We would appreciate your thoughts on which of our girls would be best to pair with Tic Toc. Thank you for your interest and response.

 

[sourland]

What do you want to accomplish with the matings? Egg color, increased production, dual purpose, etc -----------------------

 

[getaway]

Thank you for the response Sourland. Being new to this we don't really have any goals in mind. We don't want to hurt egg production. We are interested in egg color and feather coloring. We also want to make sure any offspring will be strong. This is a hobby for us so we are loving the birds and want to keep them happy and healthy. We were just wanting to hear from others who have had an EE rooster paired with other breeds.

 

[sourland]

EE cockerel (he's a beauty) X Ameraucana should give blue egg layers, X leghorn should give prolific layers of light blue eggs, X the brown egg layers could give olive eggers. As out crossed as all these matings would be, all should produce vigorous chicks. There is no reason to not mate him with all of the hens. Fertilized eggs will not start to develop unless incubated. Collect eggs daily and there will be no problems.

 

[getaway]

Thanks again for the reply. We thought about leaving them all together, however our present housing is too small for all. I have started on a much larger coop and run. We will decide what to do when it is finished. We just got our first two eggs from the White Leghorns. The others ahold to laying in a few weeks.