Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[stake]

Not all Cream Legbars lay blue eggs. I actually have the proof in my coop.

What color? Mine don't hatch as blue as an americuna that I had, and sometimes look a bit turquoise depending on the lighting or what eggs are next to them....

 

[stake]

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?

This is my experience:

Marans pullet (chocolate eggs)
CCL Roo (Blue eggs)
Offspring girl lays Olive
Mated back to a different CCL Roo
offspring (F2) lays green

 

[enola]

What color? Mine don't hatch as blue as an americuna that I had, and sometimes look a bit turquoise depending on the lighting or what eggs are next to them....

Green, one a light mint green, the other one a slightly greener shade, but definitely not blue.

 

[dheltzel]

Not all Cream Legbars lay blue eggs. I actually have the proof in my coop.

But it's green, not brown or white, right?
Technically, a green egg is a blue eggs with a coating of brown "paint" on the outside. The definitive test of whether a hen is "OO" or "Oo", and not "oo", is to open the egg and look at the inside of the shell. If the inside is blue, the hen that laid it has at least one copy of the "O" gene, and therefore has the phenotype of a blue egg layer. If the egg happens to be green, then they also have the phenotype of a brown egg layer.

blue + brown = green

 

[enola]

But it's green, not brown or white, right?
Technically, a green egg is a blue eggs with a coating of brown "paint" on the outside. The definitive test of whether a hen is "OO" or "Oo", and not "oo", is to open the egg and look at the inside of the shell. If the inside is blue, the hen that laid it has at least one copy of the "O" gene, and therefore has the phenotype of a blue egg layer. If the egg happens to be green, then they also have the phenotype of a brown egg layer.

blue + brown = green

I know that, but that doesn't change the fact that the egg is green. From a breed that is advertised to lay blue eggs. Any way you look at it, green eggs from a breed that is supposed to lay blue eggs is very disappointing, to say the least.

 

[Blarneyeggs]

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...

Hope the surgery went well, I feel for you. .

 

[OneMountainAcres]

It's trick or treat night here. Happy Halloween!

 

[dheltzel]

I know that, but that doesn't change the fact that the egg is green. From a breed that is advertised to lay blue eggs. Any way you look at it, green eggs from a breed that is supposed to lay blue eggs is very disappointing, to say the least.

I suppose you could accuse me of being pendantic, but really we are both right, we just had a different interpretation of your original statement. The question I was responding to was about whether CCL's had 1 or 2 blue alleles, and genetically, they are homozygous blue. For the genetic related question about whether a CCL is as good as an Ameraucana for making a green or olive egger, I think we can agree that they are. A green egg layer is the same (or maybe even better) for making olive eggers than a blue egg layer - subject to the same caveat about them being homozygous for blue if you want to be certain all the offspring will lay green eggs.

Personally, I'm with you that blue is better looking than green, but @Chaos18 's son wants green eggs (to go with the green ham, I presume). I don't personally care for the color of olive eggs either, but I don't object to a few in the flock "for variety". That has been a theme with my customers this year. Almost everyone wanted multiple breeds where the hens will look different and the will lay different colored eggs. The Olive Eggers were a big hit for that reason. I think having some that are "mint green" will be a big selling point too. I have had customers that want 1 or 2 of each color egg, so why not produce every shade possible? I aim to please my customers, and variety is a crowd pleaser.

Of course there are the "purists", like you and I, who want a consistent bright blue egg. I really like Ams for that, but then I really like Ams in general, good disposition for a penned up layer, cute facial adornments, pea comb that is impervious to frostbite, and reliable layers of bright blue eggs if you have a good strain. I have gotten a lot more excited about CCL's and the Reese line looks really neat, I hope they lay blue eggs really well, if so they will become one of my favorites.

It may not be obvious in this discussion, but it is easy to make a green egg layer from a blue one, but very hard to get the blue separated back out from a green egg layer, making the strains that produce really blue eggs extra desirable for their genetics, and the occurrence of a green egg in a strain that is supposed to lay blue eggs is disappointing indeed. I am getting 1 green egg from my flock of young CCL's. I will not be hatching those to sell as CCL's, but if I could ID which pullet it is, she would be ideal for making sex-linked olive eggers, I could just move her to my Welsummer or BCM flock and any green eggs will hatch into OE's.

 

[enola]

You are right about all of the egg colors and how to get them. I have never disagreed with you about that. I was simply stating that just because someone buys a cream Legbar they will not automatically get blue eggs. I am only disappointed in their egg color, they are such sweet hens, that get along with all the other chickens. And they lay every bit as well as my brown leghorns. If they laid blue eggs they would be as close to perfect as a chicken can get.

 

[dheltzel]

You are right about all of the egg colors and how to get them. I have never disagreed with you about that. I was simply stating that just because someone buys a cream Legbar they will not automatically get blue eggs. I am only disappointed in their egg color, they are such sweet hens, that get along with all the other chickens. And they lay every bit as well as my brown leghorns. If they laid blue eggs they would be as close to perfect as a chicken can get.

Seems like a good excuse to buy some more CCL's and see if you can get a blue egg layer. They are like potato chips, you can't have just one.