Selling Pullets / Hatching Eggs Ethics Question

[Dean126]

I am considering trying to sell some pullets in the spring for the first time (maybe fertile eggs as well) as prices have gone to around $45 per pullet in my area since the corona virus hit. My flock is made up of the following:

Rooster
1- Easter Egger

Hens
3 - Easter Egger
1 - Golden Laced Cochin
1 - Blue Laced Red Wyandotte
1 - Welsummer
1 - Light Brahma

I want to sell the offspring from the Welsummer as Olive Eggers (blue egg gene + brown egg gene = green egg), and the eggs from the other hens as Easter Eggers. My question is do I have this right, and can I sell the birds under these names, or would they all just be considered barnyard mixes. Can somebody who knows more about chicken genetics help me out on this one. I am not looking to rip anybody off.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

My only concern is to what certainty is your EE cock carrying the blue gene and is it on both loci? Being EE's to begin with you never know what the egg color will be from them until they lay the first egg. That same uncertainty of genetics is in the cock and he's passing off half his genetics to egg color.

With that in mind the only thing I personally would label is the EE eggs. EEXEE is EE. Other than that you can always say the possibility of olive egger or green eggs involved with all the brown egg layers. It's probable but not guaranteed.

As for the ethics of selling hatchery birds for $45...

 

[Mixed flock enthusiast]

I try to explain what I’m selling. You might label your hatching eggs as EE/barnyard mix. I know in our flock that the blue egg gene has been following the pea comb gene because I’ve raised the pullets and verified that those with pea combs have the blue egg gene and those with single combs do not have blue. Therefore, I give percentages, like, “these are F2 olive egger eggs that will produce pullets with a 50% chance of laying blue eggs.” IF your blue egg gene is following a pea comb, like ours have been, and your rooster has a pea comb and your EE hens all lay blue eggs, then your EE x EE should produce 75% pullets that lay blue eggs (most likely with a pea comb) and 25% non-blue eggs (probably a single comb pullet laying tinted eggs).

 

[Dean126]

If an EE isnt a true breed though and an EE mates w/ a non-EE, isn't the offspring still an EE anyways though since all EEs are mixed breed? To my understanding even w/o a blue egg it can still be an EE as they can lay blue, green pink or cream colored eggs. I am in an urban environment where most people know very little about this kind of stuff. So i dont want to be to technical in my advertisements.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

I would just call them colored egg layers with a possibility of blue, green or brown eggs.

 

[Dean126]

Ok. So if an EE mates with another EE it is still not considered an EE? This is more confusing than I thought. Is a bird only considered an EE if an americauna is mixed with something else?

 

[Dean126]

Ok. So if an EE mates with another EE it is still not considered an EE? This is more confusing than I thought. Is a bird only considered an EE if an americauna is mixed with something else and is a first generation bird??

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

I would just list the breed of the father and the possible breeds of the mother. An EE mix isn’t usually considered an EE unless it lays blue or green eggs. It also doesn’t make much sense to call all chickens with some EE or ameraucana in their ancestry EEs despite the fact that they don’t have EE traits. Technically, you could call them EEs, but it would be unnecessarily confusing.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Ok. So if an EE mates with another EE it is still not considered an EE? This is more confusing than I thought. Is a bird only considered an EE if an americauna is mixed with something else?

Those would be called EEs, since that’s how hatcheries breed them (EE x EE).

 

[Cinnamon Roll]

Last year I bred my EE rooster with my Orpington hen and got a hen that lays brown eggs. I tried again this year with a different rooster but those pullets aren’t mature yet.