Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[OneMountainAcres]

Poor Ariel, her foot looks better than before.

What breed is Fria? Never see a chicken like heir. Is she molting or just don't have feather around heir face?

That's just the way she is. She's almost a year old now but she's not molting. She's a silkie/wheaten Marans mix. I think she's very unique looking with a nice crest on her head

 

[fisherlady]

That's just the way she is. She's almost a year old now but she's not molting. She's a silkie/wheaten Marans mix. I think she's very unique looking with a nice crest on her head

May be something about the silkie mix...here is a daughter of Gracie.

Same puffy crest and barely any face feathers

 

[dheltzel]

Really nice colors!

How about your black sex link? Is their egg color lighter or the same?

The sexlink's eggs are noticably lighter, because they only have a single gene for blue eggs (their mothers laid white eggs). There is a lot of variation in blue/green eggs, not as much as brown, but a lot.

Last year I used commercial white leghorns crossed to an Ameraucana. Not sexlinked at all and the resulting hens laid a very pale blue egg. Something about the commercial leghorns makes their eggs tend to white. Next to a white egg, they look sky blue, but next to a Am egg, they looked white. Also, the hens went broody all the time - and they were mean broodies (I have scars).

This year I used Barred Hollands and the resulting pullets are easily sexed and much heavier than the ones from last year. Their eggs are also very pretty. Not as blue as the Ams, but even next to the Am eggs they look sky blue. I only have 7 that are POL (4 black and 3 blue pullets), but they will be the stars of our laying flock this winter - I'm pretty sure.

 

[stake]

To all of you with many years of experiencing many breeds...what general breed would be of good size (5-6 lb hens) and lay a green or bluish egg? I want a few more green/blue layers but need a large fowl breed.
Actually, for my purpose a large fowl white egg layer would work also.

Fisher:

From my understandings, there are no pure breed LF green/blue egg layers....my CCLs and the only americuna that I had were not really LGs, I'd hazard a guess at around 4.5lbs for a pullet...I also have heard of some CCLs breeding a bit undersized pullets. I have one that is undersized and non-creasted..but she lays well...

I am not all that experienced in the breeding game, but I've been working on getting a good breeding group of CCLs for over a year...

 

[fisherlady]

Fisher:

From my understandings, there are no pure breed LF green/blue egg layers....my CCLs and the only americuna that I had were not really LGs, I'd hazard a guess at around 4.5lbs for a pullet...I also have heard of some CCLs breeding a bit undersized pullets. I have one that is undersized and non-creasted..but she lays well...

I am not all that experienced in the breeding game, but I've been working on getting a good breeding group of CCLs for over a year...

Thanks, the reason I am wanting larger birds is because the breeds we are planning to move forward with are all large fowl and the roosters are 10 lb plus birds. I only want to keep 4-5 hens of each breed at this time, so having the general eggers laying either white or green eggs means that I can keep a generic egger or two in the breeder pens and will be able to not confuse the eggs, since each of our breeds are brown eggers. This would also mean that as we cycle spare roosters through the general population when we don't have breeding pens set up that we don't have to worry that they will hurt the hens.
My experience with EEs has been similar to what you describe, generally a smaller framed hen...but most folks are happy with that, since often geared to lots of eggs with cheap feed conversion. I am looking toward keeping a flock which does double duty for eggs and meat, so leghorn types don't work.
I am hoping to find someone who maybe just has a mix for EEs with good size, or will go to a white egg option, which I think would allow some much bigger birds, but fewer colored eggs for mixing into the cartons. A lot of folks who buy eggs from us get a kick out of the green eggs, and one customer has a young daughter who loves eggs, but only her 'special green ones'... go figure.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Hey guys, this is off topic, but I'm looking for prayers. My Ma is having open heart surgery today to replace 3 heart valves. It's a 7 hour surgery, so all prayers would be appreciated. Thanks!

To keep it chicken related, we got back from the hospital around 10:30, and I was too tired to put my chickens away, my Rhodebar I'm sure has spent the night in the arborvitae getting rained on. At least it's plenty warm here...

 

[fisherlady]

Hey guys, this is off topic, but I'm looking for prayers. My Ma is having open heart surgery today to replace 3 heart valves. It's a 7 hour surgery, so all prayers would be appreciated. Thanks!

To keep it chicken related, we got back from the hospital around 10:30, and I was too tired to put my chickens away, my Rhodebar I'm sure has spent the night in the arborvitae getting rained on. At least it's plenty warm here...

Prayers sent! I know it will be a horribly long day for your family, but remember your BYC 'family' will be thinking of you...
I'm sure your roo will be fine!

 

[SilkieSensation]

Oh no! Which 1 was it? It wasn't the black

Yeah, it was Lottie Dottie. I don't have any chickens with feathers like hers, she was really neat. And she and Snowflake were buds. I had only let them out of their cage in the coop to integrate with the big chickens two days prior to the dog attack. If only I had procrastinated a little longer, they both would have been safe in the coop. Romeo did a good job alerting the big girls to get in the coop and was standing guard in the run when we got home and saw the dog in the yard and the damage done. But it doesn't seem like he has much drive to protect younger birds... all the birds we lost through the summer were always the younger ones, but we've seen Romeo take on a predator (and get half plucked!) to protect his mature girls.

That sucks! I wish I had another for you with that coloring.

Yeah, it was Lottie Dottie. I don't have any chickens with feathers like hers, she was really neat. And she and Snowflake were buds. I had only let them out of their cage in the coop to integrate with the big chickens two days prior to the dog attack. If only I had procrastinated a little longer, they both would have been safe in the coop. Romeo did a good job alerting the big girls to get in the coop and was standing guard in the run when we got home and saw the dog in the yard and the damage done. But it doesn't seem like he has much drive to protect younger birds... all the birds we lost through the summer were always the younger ones, but we've seen Romeo take on a predator (and get half plucked!) to protect his mature girls.

When did you get her? She looks like a silver pencil mix and I gave eggs to silkie really early this year. If she was from our eggs I can get you some hatching eggs for your next broody and you may end up with a similar pullet. Edit to add...the eggs hatched 5/20, so should help figure if they could have been our mixes

It's possible, but pretty sure this was 1 from my olive egger girl. She is part barred, part laced. We get a chick looking similar to her a couple times a year & always from an olive egg.

To all of you with many years of experiencing many breeds...what general breed would be of good size (5-6 lb hens) and lay a green or bluish egg? I want a few more green/blue layers but need a large fowl breed. Actually, for my purpose a large fowl white egg layer would work also.

I have some really heavy bodied barred roos that should be carrying genes for blue/green. My batch of boys came out nice & meaty this year. They are still young but you can just see how stocky they will be.

Fisher: From my understandings, there are no pure breed LF green/blue egg layers....my CCLs and the only americuna that I had were not really LGs, I'd hazard a guess at around 4.5lbs for a pullet...I also have heard of some CCLs breeding a bit undersized pullets. I have one that is undersized and non-creasted..but she lays well... I am not all that experienced in the breeding game, but I've been working on getting a good breeding group of CCLs for over a year...

Thanks, the reason I am wanting larger birds is because the breeds we are planning to move forward with are all large fowl and the roosters are 10 lb plus birds. I only want to keep 4-5 hens of each breed at this time, so having the general eggers laying either white or green eggs means that I can keep a generic egger or two in the breeder pens and will be able to not confuse the eggs, since each of our breeds are brown eggers. This would also mean that as we cycle spare roosters through the general population when we don't have breeding pens set up that we don't have to worry that they will hurt the hens. My experience with EEs has been similar to what you describe, generally a smaller framed hen...but most folks are happy with that, since often geared to lots of eggs with cheap feed conversion. I am looking toward keeping a flock which does double duty for eggs and meat, so leghorn types don't work. I am hoping to find someone who maybe just has a mix for EEs with good size, or will go to a white egg option, which I think would allow some much bigger birds, but fewer colored eggs for mixing into the cartons. A lot of folks who buy eggs from us get a kick out of the green eggs, and one customer has a young daughter who loves eggs, but only her 'special green ones'... go figure.

Mine have EE, rock, marans & wyandotte in the mix for my heavier bodied birds. I always use a peacombed roo who hatched from a blue or olive egg over my girds. My only single comb roos are a marans & a cream legbar mix. The legbar boy is lighter, but my marans boy is chunky.

 

[TillyPeeps]

Hey guys, this is off topic, but I'm looking for prayers. My Ma is having open heart surgery today to replace 3 heart valves. It's a 7 hour surgery, so all prayers would be appreciated. Thanks!

To keep it chicken related, we got back from the hospital around 10:30, and I was too tired to put my chickens away, my Rhodebar I'm sure has spent the night in the arborvitae getting rained on. At least it's plenty warm here...

I'm sure every thing will be fine.

 

[TillyPeeps]

The sexlink's eggs are noticably lighter, because they only have a single gene for blue eggs (their mothers laid white eggs). There is a lot of variation in blue/green eggs, not as much as brown, but a lot.

Last year I used commercial white leghorns crossed to an Ameraucana. Not sexlinked at all and the resulting hens laid a very pale blue egg. Something about the commercial leghorns makes their eggs tend to white. Next to a white egg, they look sky blue, but next to a Am egg, they looked white. Also, the hens went broody all the time - and they were mean broodies (I have scars).

This year I used Barred Hollands and the resulting pullets are easily sexed and much heavier than the ones from last year. Their eggs are also very pretty. Not as blue as the Ams, but even next to the Am eggs they look sky blue. I only have 7 that are POL (4 black and 3 blue pullets), but they will be the stars of our laying flock this winter - I'm pretty sure.

Sounds very good. I cannot wait to see how your CG x Ameraucana girls will do. Do you still have any Barred Holland in your flock?