The New Hens I Posted About Are Laying Eggs

[NorthernHomestead]

A week or two ago I posted about the young hens I bought on Facebook Marketplace for ideas on what breed mixes they may be. Three of the four are going to the coop with my BOs every night. The elusive one is still staying out at night (even though she forages with the rest during the day. I'm certain they're all laying eggs now. There have been more eggs than normal, and a few shell-less eggs (my girls haven't done that for over a month now). They're all brown layers. Until I saw one in the pile of hay in my rabbit hutch today.

For contrast, I have three of my brown eggs that I'm used to seeing, a white store-bought egg in the center, and then there's the one on the right. What breed mix is that from?

 

[Jener8or]

Do you have a picture of all your birds? I looked back at the previous threads and it wouldn't be from your Orpingtons, Speckled Sussex or the Barred Rock, (unless they are mixes) so I think it could be coming from the partridge-looking one. (I think it might be a Cream Legbar cross.) None of them have crests, do they?

 

[NorthernHomestead]

Do you have a picture of all your birds? I looked back at the previous threads and it wouldn't be from your Orpingtons, Speckled Sussex or the Barred Rock, (unless they are mixes) so I think it could be coming from the partridge-looking one. (I think it might be a Cream Legbar cross.) None of them have crests, do they?

No crests. The only ones I'm (hopefully) sure aren't crossed are my BOs (I purchased them from a hatchery, I I hope I got what I ordered). The ones from Marketplace were advertised as barred rock. Obviously it's a barnyard mix, but the price was right for eggs and if they're nice, cold-hardy, egg-producing hens, I'm not too particular.

My husband said she looked like a legbar, but he knows about as much as I do about chicken breed ID so...

 

[Jener8or]

Yeah, that's my guess. Cream Legbars are supposed to lay blue eggs and have a crest. If you cross a blue egg layer and a brown egg layer, you get a green egger.

Crests are a dominant trait, but if only one parent or both parents were heterozygous crested, then only 25% or half of the offspring would be crested, so I think that's a possibility.

Fun you are getting a green egg!

 

[NorthernHomestead]

Yeah, that's my guess. Cream Legbars are supposed to lay blue eggs and have a crest. If you cross a blue egg layer and a brown egg layer, you get a green egger.

Crests are a dominant trait, but if only one parent or both parents were heterozygous crested, then only 25% or half of the offspring would be crested, so I think that's a possibility.

Fun you are getting a green egg!

I was already aware that green eggs existed. You should have seen the look on my 17 YO's face when I showed him.

 

[NorthernHomestead]

No crests. The only ones I'm (hopefully) sure aren't crossed are my BOs (I purchased them from a hatchery, I I hope I got what I ordered). The ones from Marketplace were advertised as barred rock. Obviously it's a barnyard mix, but the price was right for eggs and if they're nice, cold-hardy, egg-producing hens, I'm not too particular.

My husband said she looked like a legbar, but he knows about as much as I do about chicken breed ID so...

The only one you didn't see was the pics of Cocoa Puff. She was IDed as a Chocolate Orp mix.

 

[Jener8or]

The only one you didn't see was the pics of Cocoa Puff. She was IDed as a Chocolate Orp mix.

Yeah, I saw her. She's pretty!