True Blue Whiting info please?

[bowmanpoultry]

those are americauna blues if I ever seen any. not even close to what we are getting. Wouldn't it be great to have blue birds with blue eggs.

 

[donrae]

Is it just me, or are the MMM birds a little, well, skanky looking? I guess I could maybe get past it if they really churn out the nice true blue eggs, but the build and colors are not at all appealing to me. I have mixed breed blue feathered blue egg layers that I think are a lot prettier

 

[shortgrass]

Lol @donrae...skanky..I haven't heard THAT in a while But I agree 100% ha-ha... I really really think they could have went just one or two generations further and ended up with something like these....

Here is a pic some point of lay Whiting blue egg layers that were for sale at the local Murdochs this past summer. Again these are not necessarily the same as what McMurray is offering but come from the same background.

Now, THOSE, I would buy, hands down. I'm a nut for the uniformity, and I can see one or two birds in the MMM pic that have this same blue coloring, and almost an EE shape, and that's what I'm looking for! MMM looks like a mix of 5 different breeds in that picture, so I'm not sure I want a bunch of (for lack of a better term) mutts throwing odd splases everywhere. I do believe the eggs are blue, just a LOT lighter than the original pic, which is probably why they edited it and muted the colors in the picture.. They need a nice picture like the one above, that way people wouldn't be quite so turned off by them... Lol skanky

 

[enola]

This "breed" if you want to call it that is nothing more than a pathetic attempt at putting something on the market that no body else has. They want to compete with the companies that are offering new breeds of chickens that are laying blue eggs, without investing any money in decent breeding stock.

I agree with Donrea, skanky is a good word for the poor birds in that picture. All this "breed" is is another strain of Easter Eggers. But, people are so desperate for blue egg laying hens, they will buy them.

 

[MeepBeep]

This "breed" if you want to call it that is nothing more than a pathetic attempt at putting something on the market that no body else has. They want to compete with the companies that are offering new breeds of chickens that are laying blue eggs, without investing any money in decent breeding stock.

I agree with Donrea, skanky is a good word for the poor birds in that picture. All this "breed" is is another strain of Easter Eggers. But, people are so desperate for blue egg laying hens, they will buy them.

I beg to differ on it being a pathetic attempt without investing any money in decent breeding stock, quite the opposite IMO as some very experienced individuals have contributed to the development...

These are a Paul Whiting fork off of the University of Arkansas Blue layer, this is not some all the sudden MMM project... Paul has been selling these locally from his farm for years, MMM is simply a national distributor now... The initial goal with this project was to produce a high laying volume blue egg layer by mixing in commercial leghorns and what Paul has done beyond that with his fork off is anyone's guess... The University of Arkansas is well versed in chicken breeding and genetics and Paul is also well versed in breeding and chicken genetics, after all his company is one of the premier suppliers of feathers to the fly tying industry...

Sure the are not for everyone and many will just dismiss them as just another Easter Egger as you did, but that doesn't mean for one second that I placed my order out of desperation for another blue laying chicken breed as you claim... It's not like they are being sold for some huge premium over everyday generic Easter Eggers, and it's clear they are uniquely different then your run of the mill hatchery Easter Egger... For me personally I'm intrigued by the fact that have commercial leghorn mixed in and that should provide a high volume and decent sized blue egg, something that can't be said for many hatchery Easter Eggers or other blue layers...

As I stated earlier I to don't like the body shape and stance but if they have good egg genetics to build upon I will enjoy using them in my own blue and olive egg breeding projects based on those egg genetics...

 

[shortgrass]

I actually LIKE my EEs and want more like them... Lol at least I can count on my mutty EEs to givee eggs every day, snow or shine...


That's what caught my attention in that picture... The many different body shapes; that looks like MY flock and THEY lay blue eggs and mine don't. It doesn't really matter to me how blue the eggs are, just that they lay consistently well.


I can see opportunity for a picky color person like myself to breed the blues a few more times to get more uniformity, but other than that, most of my work has been done for me

If they're anything like EEs, I do want them... @MeepBeep, do keep me(us) informed on what the chicks look like when you get them, I'm curious if the hatches cover such a wide gap as well or not.

 

[Sierra987]

I would guess that the reason the chickens in the photos from MMM look a bit "rough" is their age. They're young and feathering in - chickens are never very attractive at that stage. MMM could do themselves a favor by putting up better pics of the adult chickens but oh well.

I think anyone that gets these will be happy with their production. And I think they would be excellent for making olive eggers. I happen to like a variety of colors and types in my small flock so that variety doesn't bother me. I have a young cockerel out there right now that is a cross between my black Silkie rooster and a Whiting green egg layer and he is really cute if you like mutts!

Dr. Whiting seems to quite enjoy developing different lines of chickens. His meat chickens are excellent too. Here is a link to one of the newsletters that tells a little bit about how he started with these chickens. Look at the "4B" article. Newsletter

I'm looking forward to hearing how the MMM chicks turn out.

 

[Sierra987]

@shortgrass I don't know where in northern CO you are but the Whiting chicks are offered at some Murdochs stores on the western slope every spring. If you really wanted a more uniform color, it might be worth a trip to pick some up yourself. Just call the store and find out what day they come in. Here are some pics I took this last spring of a bin of the green egg layers and the blue egg layers. I was so tempted but had my hands full so had to wait until this upcoming spring.

 

[MeepBeep]

@]MeepBeep[/@], do keep me(us) informed on what the chicks look like when you get them, I'm curious if the hatches cover such a wide gap as well or not.

By the time mine arrive (mid April) I suspect several others will have already posted pictures from earlier shipments... Also I only tossed 6 of theses into an existing order so my sampling will be small compared to others...

My initial plan is to use them in a trial olive egger breeding program, and see what happens after that, they might just become layers who knows...

 

[donrae]

shortgrass--glad to give you a giggle! My spell check kept wanting to change it to swanky. Nope, that's the opposite of what I meant!

I guess I like a rounder, fluffier bird. I was looking at one of my splash blue egger pullets yesterday just thinking how much prettier she is than those birds. Then this morning, I go out and she's dead under the roost. Poor thing hadn't even started laying yet, and she was so, so pretty. Yesterday she was fine, no idea what happened. I know birds just up and die sometimes, but this one was so nice and my own breeding for a few generations, so I'm sad about her loss.

Anyway, I could see possibly getting some of these for breeding stock, as the price seems right. But on the other hand, I really like beards and muffs so I'm thinking, why not just find some Ameraucana and get the real thing? Course, I'm at liberty to have quite a few birds and cockerels are not an issue. I understand the appeal of sexed pullets for most folks.