Will the offspring be prolific layers?

[farrellyred]

If I have a white leghorn hen, and a brown leghorn rooster, will the offspring of these two be prolific and are brown leghorn roosters good for fertilizing hens

 

[ClareScifi]

I have two half white leghorn pullets, and they are wonderful layers! One lays big white eggs, usually double-yolkers. The other lays smaller pinkish tan eggs, but she laid an egg the size of a goose egg not long ago.

I think they were mated with a Buff Orpington hen (white eggs) and a Rhode Island Red hen (pinkish tan eggs), best as I can guess. The father was a white leghorn rooster. They lay almost every day.

 

[Den in Penn]

Both good layers.The white leghorn lays better than the brown. The father has more influence on how the daughter lays. So I would guess she will lay well, maybe not quite as well as the mother, but still good.

 

[ClareScifi]

How are Buff Orpington and RIRs as layers? And what color eggs do they lay?

 

[ClareScifi]

Would an Easter Egger rooster tend to produce chicks who lay colored eggs, more than an EE mother would? (If it is true, as you say, that the father has more influence than the mother)?

 

[Den in Penn]

The RIR is one of the better layers in the chicken world. If you look at the family tree of the commercial hybrid brown egg layers you'll find RIRs in the mix. Buff Orphingtons lay well. They just don't lay as much a RIR. They both lay a brown egg. No the rooster has no more influence on the egg color then the hen. The rooster's influence in is on the amount of eggs laid. ie ClaireSfi your hens father was Leghorn. Leghorns lay white eggs. If the father's had an unequal influence to the hen in egg color the offspring lays, your hens eggs would both be white.

 

[ClareScifi]

Hmmm. That must be why both girls lay the same amount of eggs.

I wonder why my Sebright Bantam is such a prolific layer? She lays every single day. I read that Sebrights are usually very poor layers, and you are lucky if you get one egg per week.

 

[Den in Penn]

When your talking about an individual, well any one can surpass the expected norm.

 

[galanie]

Polish are supposed to be bad layers too yet I've known of some pretty good layers. But I attributed that to the fact that they were from a hatchery, where all birds are bred to be good layers regardless of breed.

 

[ClareScifi]

Interesting, Galanie. My Sebright, Merry Etta, I hatched myself, with the help of Esther Mary, her stepmother hen. But I suspect Merry Etta's parents came from a hatchery. If most Sebrights lay just one egg per week, jumping to 7 per week is quite a leap.