Whiting True Blues

[Kung_pao]

She definitely could be.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Awesome! Mine too. And these girls give me 6/wk

My Betty broke her old record, and laid for 30 days straight this year!

 

[Birdsonghill]

My WTBs have entered their first real molt period and have stopped laying completely. Two years old. They are bedraggled looking and now the Black Minorcas are going the same way. I have started supplementing the coop light again for the season and the Welsummers have not missed a beat laying eggs! MY patrons have to settle just for the dark brown speckled eggs for now, along with a smattering of light colored eggs from my buff Orpingtons. The blue eggs are loved and a mixed carton of all the colors was most popular. I have enjoyed looking at the WTBs variety and they are fairly calm as adults and not too flighty, though not lap chickens by any means! I have to catch them in the nest boxes , by surprise or with a fishing net! The Minorcas are similar. The Orpingtons and the Welsummers are friendly and come for attention. All the birds have things I like about them. Besides the blue eggs, the size has been reliably large, with rare exceptions this past year and they have excellently produced eggs at five or even six per week most weeks. I have a healthy flock, thank God! Based on the two seasons, I would endorse the WTBs as excellent layers of blue eggs, starting medium and becoming large in the first season. Some are very attractive to look at but variety is their overriding characteristic. I had just about every chicken color represented in my small flock.

 

[Kung_pao]

Thank you for the information, that’s great to know.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

My Betty broke her old record, and laid for 30 days straight this year!

My bad, 28 eggs in a month

 

[Kung_pao]

My bad, 28 eggs in a month

That’s still impressive!

 

[Auntiejessi3]

That’s still impressive!

I think so too, especially considering she's almost 3 1/2 yrs old.

 

[RedwoodCoastChick]

they are fairly calm as adults and not too flighty, though not lap chickens by any means! I have to catch them in the nest boxes , by surprise or with a fishing net! The Minorcas are similar. The Orpingtons and the Welsummers are friendly and come for attention.

Granted I only have one WTB in my varied flock of 8, but "Martha" was the most flighty pullet I had - until the hormones kicked in and she started laying. From that time onward, she squats for me and seems to enjoy being picked up and petted, and follows me around the chicken yard, hopping up to peer in and see what I'm doing around the coop and generally keeping me company. Not a lap chicken in the sense of voluntarily hopping into my lap, but not averse to a petting session (doesn't try to get away, just relaxes in my arms). And she's laying about 6 nice-sized eggs a week. If/when I ever need more chickens (8 is PLENTY for the 2 of us and a local daughter! All are young & healthy.) I'd certainly get more WTBs.

Martha's very pretty, too, white with silver-gray splashes.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Granted I only have one WTB in my varied flock of 8, but "Martha" was the most flighty pullet I had - until the hormones kicked in and she started laying. From that time onward, she squats for me and seems to enjoy being picked up and petted, and follows me around the chicken yard, hopping up to peer in and see what I'm doing around the coop and generally keeping me company. Not a lap chicken in the sense of voluntarily hopping into my lap, but not averse to a petting session (doesn't try to get away, just relaxes in my arms). And she's laying about 6 nice-sized eggs a week. If/when I ever need more chickens (8 is PLENTY for the 2 of us and a local daughter! All are young & healthy.) I'd certainly get more WTBs.

Martha's very pretty, too, white with silver-gray splashes.

That's how my Betty was before she started laying, then chilled way out, she's my husbands favorite (and mine too, just don't tell the other OG's) And it sounds like they are very similar in coloring. I'd love to see pics!

 

[FunClucks]

As an update, my WTB from Murray McMurray have been laying since about August/September. Still giving me medium size eggs. I have two white leghorns the same age, and their eggs are the same size, so I'm hoping it's just that they're still young, and it's the middle of winter. They are all still laying, and the blue color of all but one egg from my 5 WTB layers is excellent (the one is a much lighter blue, much closer to white than blue). At least one WTB blue egg has a slight greenish tinge to it I think. Since I was setting eggs for meat birds anyway, I set 12 WTB eggs from the best colored blue layers, and 8/12 hatched. One of the 8 took an entire day longer to hatch and has ended up being a cross beak (only evident at 3 weeks post-hatch). All of the eggs developed to some extent. So I'm questioning the genetics of my WTB breeding population. One WTB chick is black with white/yellow accents, and the rest are chipmunk colored. Two of the chipmunk colored ones are blurred on their head coloration, including the scissor beak chick. I have at least two chicks with chipmunk cheeks, the rest are smooth cheeked - my parent hen population was about half beards and muffs and half without, and not super large on those. We'll see how these guys grow over the winter and how they look and are doing come spring.