Which rooster

[Quirkyfusion]

I currently have Cuckoo Marans, Blue Laced Wyandottes, Rhode Island Blues, and 1 buff Orpington. My goal is a small flock, but various colored eggs (daughter is an artist and “has plans”). I’m reading up on basic genetics but some things still elude me...hoping someone can tell me if these thoughts/assumptions are make sense
*Would it be more *efficient* to have a blue egg gene carrying rooster than it would to have multiple blue egg laying hens? I don’t want all blue eggs so I assume this would give me flexibility?
*I was offered a legbar roo split to opal. Based on my (limited) reading he should carry the blue egg gene...but one or two? And how does the lavender gene affect both eggs and chick colors? If he were bred with any of my “blue” hens...wouldn’t it produce black chicks?...that carry the lavender gene?
*I originally thought about buying a dozen cream legbar eggs and hatching them for a (hopefully) cream leg-bar roo, one hen, and selling the remaining chicks/pullets. Should I stick to this and forego the split to opal? I kinda feel like that might be getting me deeper into genetic stuff than my current knowledge allows.

 

[NatJ]

I suggest you get an Olive Egger rooster. Most of them are a cross of a blue-egg breed and a breed that lays dark brown eggs. So he would probably have only one copy of the blue egg gene, causing half of his daughters to lay blue or green eggs, and half to lay brown eggs.

Or you could plan on buying a new rooster every few years. Each time, pick a rooster for the egg color you "need" more of. Right now, you're short of blue/green eggs, so you would get a Cream Legbar, Ameraucana, one of those Whitings that McMurray hatchery sells, or even an Easter Egger. A few years later, when you have a bunch of his daughters, you might be short of brown eggs or white eggs, so you would buy a different rooster accordingly.