Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[TillyPeeps]

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

Yes, she is such a beauty.

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

Same puffy crest and barely any face feathers

I never saw a silkie in person. She is so pretty.

 

[LadyBehir]

Prayers up!

 

[dheltzel]

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?

All the BH's have been returned to msladyhawke. I may pick them up again in the future if the CG's are not as good as advertised, or if the BH's show improvement in laying ability. There are several people, including our own msladyhawke, who are trying to return then to their former glory as high producing, dual-purpose layers. I hope that happens, it would be good for the hobby.

 

[dheltzel]

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.

Barred Hollands are good sized hens. So far, I've been happy with the sexlinks I made from them with a black Ameraucana. Those pullets seem even larger than either parent breed and they are laying earlier and better than the Welsummers they grew up with. Their large size is not necessarily what I want to be selling, since a lot of the ones I will sell next spring will be in mixed flocks with Legbars and Welsummers. The California Greys I replaced the Barred Hollands with lighter and flightier for sure, crossed to a black Am, I hope to get a Welsummer-sized pullet that lays a lot of light blue eggs. If they want a Legbar, they will also get a darker blue egg. And I expect to again sell olive eggers, and maybe make an autosexing "mint green" layer from Rhodebars and Legbars, for a really mixed color basket of eggs.

 

[fisherlady]

I never saw a silkie in person. She is so pretty.

Thank you, she is a real character...

But Hardrock (name of pictured hen) is at best a silkie mix, and even though her mother (Gracie) is (probably) a pure silkie she is actually a poor physical specimen of the breed due to (probable) poor hatchery genetics. But she was a rescue and is a wonderful little bird even if she is a poor physical example for the breed, her personality and tenacious mothering is a stellar example of what makes the little breed so well loved!

Media stories abound on puppy mills and kitten mills, but to me there is nearly as much trouble in the poultry industry with 'chick mills'. Breeds which are 'in' are hatched out in great numbers with little attention given to the very specific personality traits and physical characteristics (beyond pretty colors) which were hallmarks of the breed to begin with. I think many, many folks have bought a particular breed based on reviews or hatchery descriptions only to find the stock they bought had little in common with the breed they had read about because breeding practices had impacted the quality. There are still many quality breeders out there, but I believe there needs to be a great deal of 'buyer beware' mentality involved when looking for stock and lots of questions asked. A responsible breeder should be able to readily (and happily) answer any questions and should show good knowledge of the breed they are selling and its unique features. You can luck into some nice examples of a breed through a hatchery(depending on where they outsource their egg stock from) but it is riskier.

 

[fisherlady]

Barred Hollands are good sized hens. So far, I've been happy with the sexlinks I made from them with a black Ameraucana. Those pullets seem even larger than either parent breed and they are laying earlier and better than the Welsummers they grew up with. Their large size is not necessarily what I want to be selling, since a lot of the ones I will sell next spring will be in mixed flocks with Legbars and Welsummers. The California Greys I replaced the Barred Hollands with lighter and flightier for sure, crossed to a black Am, I hope to get a Welsummer-sized pullet that lays a lot of light blue eggs. If they want a Legbar, they will also get a darker blue egg. And I expect to again sell olive eggers, and maybe make an autosexing "mint green" layer from Rhodebars and Legbars, for a really mixed color basket of eggs.

Thanks for the heads up on the Hollands... I haven't seen them in person to get a handle on their frame, so good to know they are an option.

I believe dorkings may be an option also, will have to check with someone I know who breeds them.

 

[dheltzel]

Thanks for the heads up on the Hollands... I haven't seen them in person to get a handle on their frame, so good to know they are an option.

I believe dorkings may be an option also, will have to check with someone I know who breeds them.

We both know someone who has both, don't we . . .
@msladyhawke , where are you?

 

[Chaos18]

Barred Hollands are good sized hens. So far, I've been happy with the sexlinks I made from them with a black Ameraucana. Those pullets seem even larger than either parent breed and they are laying earlier and better than the Welsummers they grew up with. Their large size is not necessarily what I want to be selling, since a lot of the ones I will sell next spring will be in mixed flocks with Legbars and Welsummers. The California Greys I replaced the Barred Hollands with lighter and flightier for sure, crossed to a black Am, I hope to get a Welsummer-sized pullet that lays a lot of light blue eggs. If they want a Legbar, they will also get a darker blue egg. And I expect to again sell olive eggers, and maybe make an autosexing "mint green" layer from Rhodebars and Legbars, for a really mixed color basket of eggs.

How does one make an olive egger? I currently have brown eggers and am getting blue eggers from you. My son wants greens eggers as well because that's his current favorite color. Do you cross the brown over the blue or the blue over the brown?

 

[TillyPeeps]

How does one make an olive egger? I currently have brown eggers and am getting blue eggers from you. My son wants greens eggers as well because that's his current favorite color. Do you cross the brown over the blue or the blue over the brown?

I maybe wrong, but I think the rooster needs to be a pure blue egg layer breed and the hens should be dark brown egg layers. I thought Rhodebar eggs are not dark enough to breed olive egger. (Sorry, I was confused. I see Rhodebar is for mint green eggs).

 

[dheltzel]

How does one make an olive egger? I currently have brown eggers and am getting blue eggers from you. My son wants greens eggers as well because that's his current favorite color. Do you cross the brown over the blue or the blue over the brown?

Making green egg layers is easy, and brown egg laying breed crossed to a (purebred) blue (or green) egg layer (Ameraucana or Cream Legbar, for ex). It doesn't matter which is the roo, egg colors are not sexlinked (that anyone has noticed, anyway). But if the blue/green parent has only one copy of the blue gene, then half of the progeny will lay green eggs and half brown.

Olive eggs are just a special case of green where the brown egg layer is a "dark egg" breed, Welsummer, Marans, Pescadena, etc.

Because both brown and blue are dominant, this first cross is easy and can be guaranteed to produce 100% green eggs. Turning that into a true-breeding strain is a lot harder, if you cross 2 F1 OE's, you will get 25% that will lay brown, not green eggs. And the brown may lighten in many of the progeny as well, as the genes re-mix in each generation. It would take a lot of work to get a consistent egg color in a true breeding strain of OE's. I don't know if there is enough demand to warrant that, I feel like OE's are a bit of a fad, personnally, I think a good blue or dark brown egg is much more attractive than an olive-drab or khaki egg, so I'm breeding toward the bluest and darkest brown eggs, knowing I can create F1 OE's on demand.