Your opinions please

[dekel18042]

Every year I add a few birds to my flock, usually replacement birds by hatching my own. I like a colorful egg basket and have all colors of eggs, blue, green, olive, speckled terra cotta and olive, dark and white. Each year my project has been adding a new color or hybrid, something I love doing.
So of course I am planning this spring's hatchings when dear husband reminded me about the huge percentage of cockerels I get. (Unfortunately that is true.) So he suggested that for this year only we take a break from breeding (Hope some girls go broody....whoops did I say that out loud?) and purchase any new birds, sexed pullets only.
Reluctantly I agreed (Ummm not my fault if anyone, especially the little bantams manage to hide and hatch some eggs. Could I hide the bator in the closet? Just random thoughts of course.)
The problem is, he wants to get sex links or brown egg production layers. (Have I mentioned I love a colored egg basket?) because he claims they would lay better than the birds I have (Not their fault some are getting old)
My opinion is to get some more colored egg layers I can use the following year when I go back to breeding and also to continue with a colorful egg basket. I really don't need cookie cutter eggs. (He claims my eggs cost a hundred dollars a dozen to produce but that is exaggerating.)
So my question is (in order of my preference.)
1. Purchase some colorful egg layers so I can make even more colors the following year.(Or maybe one hatch this year????)
2. Split the difference. Let him get half sex link production birds while I get an equal number colorful egg layers.
3. Get all sex links (in which case I won't know how the extra birds showed up.)

Opinions? What would you do?

 

[PeepersMama]

1. Get legbars - autosexing and supposedly great layers (can't say they are for sure since I don't have any - yet).
2. Get EE's and BSLs. My two favorite production breeds - besides Austra whites; I love those rotten broody boogers

3. If you do end up getting all sex-links, get black sex-links and austra whites. Those are my two favorite hybrids. BSL's lay HUMUNGUS eggs, and so do the whites.... but the whites a broody boogers, and the BSLs aren't.
Tada!

 

[dekel18042]

1. Get legbars - autosexing and supposedly great layers (can't say they are for sure since I don't have any - yet).
2. Get EE's and BSLs. My two favorite production breeds - besides Austra whites; I love those rotten broody boogers

3. If you do end up getting all sex-links, get black sex-links and austra whites. Those are my two favorite hybrids. BSL's lay HUMUNGUS eggs, and so do the whites.... but the whites a broody boogers, and the BSLs aren't.
Tada!

Currently over half my flock are EE's, super blue egg layers or olive eggers (Can you guess my favorites?) and my olive eggers are all half cream legbars although I have no purebred CL's now.
This year I made more olive eggers using an Ameraucana as my blue egg layer and 100% were boys (See what I mean about the high percentage of boys? )

I would like more really dark egg layers, or speckled egg layers or even another pink egg layer (My two I have are 4 to 5 years old.)
I wouldn't mind a few BSL's, some friends have some, but the austra whites seem hard to get unless you order them waaaay in advance. I wanted a few and by the time I made up my order, in a day or two from when they were posted, they were sold out.

 

[feedman77]

I like the sounds of your colorful egg basket.

I have white leghorns. slw, black sex link, barred rocks rhode island reds. ee. in adult hens. so I get mainly white brown and green eggs.

but to add some color I just picked up 6 ccl hens and a cockerel. these hens lay the nicest blue eggs.

in my incubator I have a dozen welsummer and 1/2 french copper maran so maybe next year will have some dark egg layers.

get some production birds for your husband. white leghorns. they lay like crazy. then breed those back to your colored egg gene roos for who knows what shade or colors of eggs those babies will hat h

 

[dekel18042]

I like the sounds of your colorful egg basket.

I have white leghorns. slw, black sex link, barred rocks rhode island reds. ee. in adult hens. so I get mainly white brown and green eggs.

but to add some color I just picked up 6 ccl hens and a cockerel. these hens lay the nicest blue eggs.

in my incubator I have a dozen welsummer and 1/2 french copper maran so maybe next year will have some dark egg layers.
get some production birds for your husband. white leghorns. they lay like crazy. then breed those back to your colored egg gene roos for who knows what shade or colors of eggs those babies will hat h

So many projects you can do with interesting colors........(mumbling to myself...with red sex links I could make minty green colors) There's always a silver lining.