The EE braggers thread!!!

[BackyardCoop]

My sweet Bantam EE babies that are almost 1 week old. Can't wait to see what color they mature to.
I would love to hear anyones guesses on what color they might mature to be.... I am a first time chick mamma so I have no idea at all..

The third one looks like my baby! I was wondering the same, about the colours when she is older. =)

 

[qball53]

We have a number of different breeds of chickens. We love our Easter Eggers but we are hoping to increase the size somewhat. The issue is that most of the really large breeds of birds are brown egg layers. We are hoping to preserve the bluest eggs we can and feel like the right way to do that is to cross with a white egg layer. I understand that the blue egg gene is dominant to white, so will the resulting chickens all lay blue eggs or will there be a mix of white and blue or maybe just lighter blue eggs? So thats our first question does anyone know what the blue egg layer bred to a white egg layer will produce in terms of color of eggs? The second question is what is the largest white egg layer you know of. We would prefer not to introduce a crest or top hat or feathered legs for that matter.

We are starting an Olive Egger pen and have a Splash Marans over the Easter Eggers at this time. I know this is going to increae the size of the birds but it will also obviously darken the eggs as well.

 

[ronott1]

I would try Mille Fleur Leghorns:

http://www.dieflyranch.com/index.php/our-breeds/mf-leghorns

Ron

We have a number of different breeds of chickens. We love our Easter Eggers but we are hoping to increase the size somewhat. The issue is that most of the really large breeds of birds are brown egg layers. We are hoping to preserve the bluest eggs we can and feel like the right way to do that is to cross with a white egg layer. I understand that the blue egg gene is dominant to white, so will the resulting chickens all lay blue eggs or will there be a mix of white and blue or maybe just lighter blue eggs? So thats our first question does anyone know what the blue egg layer bred to a white egg layer will produce in terms of color of eggs? The second question is what is the largest white egg layer you know of. We would prefer not to introduce a crest or top hat or feathered legs for that matter.

We are starting an Olive Egger pen and have a Splash Marans over the Easter Eggers at this time. I know this is going to increae the size of the birds but it will also obviously darken the eggs as well.

 

[CSWolffe]

I can't answer your question about genetics, but I can suggest you try to get hold of a breeding pair of Cream Legbars. Besides being productive layers of large blue eggs, they are one of the only auto-sexing breeds: that is can tell the males from females right at hatching. That way you don't have to try to make crosses yourself, someone else has figured out the genetics for you.

 

[DMRippy]

I have been selling and hatching my Super Blue Egg Layers. They are a cross with my Lavender Ameraucana roos over several white leghorn pullets. Almost all have had pea combs. They are not laying yet but are close and getting pink.

For me these are going to be my layers. Leghorns are great layers of VERY LARGE EGGS. Mine are already laying jumbos on occasion and have not yet molted so they may get even bigger. I may end up breeding these to each other or breed them back to an Ameraucana to keep the color up. Time will tell on that.

These have been very popular eggs.... I have a waiting list

 

[BackyardCoop]

I have been selling and hatching my Super Blue Egg Layers. They are a cross with my Lavender Ameraucana roos over several white leghorn pullets. Almost all have had pea combs. They are not laying yet but are close and getting pink.

For me these are going to be my layers. Leghorns are great layers of VERY LARGE EGGS. Mine are already laying jumbos on occasion and have not yet molted so they may get even bigger. I may end up breeding these to each other or breed them back to an Ameraucana to keep the color up. Time will tell on that.

These have been very popular eggs.... I have a waiting list

Once I get an incubator I'd love to get on the list for super blue egg layers!

 

[DMRippy]

Quote: Just PM and let me know when you want them. I can sometime squeeze a 2nd doz out of them if needed in a week.

 

[qball53]

I would try Mille Fleur Leghorns:

http://www.dieflyranch.com/index.php/our-breeds/mf-leghorns

Ron

Thanks for your suggestion Ron. We have some Exchequer Leghorns and so far are unhappy with them. They have been very unthrifty for us. We will not purchase anymore and we have three remaing roos and hens. If they survive and thrive perhaps they will change our minds about leghorns. However we are looking to increase the size of our birds not the size of their eggs. Our Easter Eggers are already laying large to jumbo eggs. Thanks for weighing in, Mike

 

[qball53]

I have been selling and hatching my Super Blue Egg Layers. They are a cross with my Lavender Ameraucana roos over several white leghorn pullets. Almost all have had pea combs. They are not laying yet but are close and getting pink.

For me these are going to be my layers. Leghorns are great layers of VERY LARGE EGGS. Mine are already laying jumbos on occasion and have not yet molted so they may get even bigger. I may end up breeding these to each other or breed them back to an Ameraucana to keep the color up. Time will tell on that.

These have been very popular eggs.... I have a waiting list

Thanks for the suggestion. We had Wheaten/Blue Wheaten Ameracaunas and just sold our flock yesterday. They laid a nice blue egg but frankly more often than not the Easter Eggers laid a larger egg and many are just as blue. We are getting Wheaten Marans to replace them, not for the eggs but for the birds. We do have a flock of Lavendar Ameracaunas, we really like the color of the bird and your are correct they lay a beautiful blue egg. However after getting Marans and seeing the size of those birds we are not happy with the size of the Lavendars. We had intended to work on increasing the size of the Lavendars but feel like that is just too far to go. Our flock of about 16 Lavendar Ameracaunas is now for sale. I don't think the leghorn will acomplish what we want to try with our Easter Eggers. We already have large / jumbo eggs we want to increase the size of the birds so that the rooster culls will be worth raising to eat. Thanks, Mike

 

[DMRippy]

Quote:
I thought you were talking about the egg size too sorry. You can make Olive Eggers with the Marans and that should increase your size. I made the cross to increase egg size and hopefully feed conversion too. I love my blue eggs. My Easter Eggers lay a good size egg, but not as big or as often as the Leghorns. I don't think other color leghorns would help with that as much as White Leghorns. I don't think anything lays as well as a White Leghorn, ounce for ounce of bird.

but a MF Leghorn would make some pretty chicks