blue egg layers?

[janeyo]

Having lost 2 of our girls this winter I am looking to replace with another couple of Pols.

I thought there was a hybrid that lays blue eggs - but can only find mention of the Aracuna (a pure breed). Can anyone enlighten me if there are hybrids that lay blue eggs?

Thanks

also I am in cambs so if anyone knows whre I might get them locally I'd be much obliged

[Seahorse]

PW and I have a hybrid 'Crested' that lays beautiful blue eggs. Not sure if where we got her is a bit far for you (Warwickshire/Leicestershire) but it's this place.

[chris]

Don't legbars lay blue eggs? Or is that the type that lay olive green eggs..?

[Bramble-Poultry]

the original blue egg layer is indeed the araucana, both rumped or rumpless.

from this, various birds have been developed that also lay blue eggs. There is the Cream Leg Bar, or cotswold legbar (to give it its old name) which is a hybrid, but breeds true and sex linked chicks to boot.

from here we also get a variant of the Silver Dorking, called the silver black dorking. it looks to all intents and purposes as a normal dorking, but the hens lay the blue egg. However, it is not a true breed and therefore if you go down the lines of showing your birds and it is discovered that you have a blue egger entered, it will be disqualified.

Commercially there are several blue egg hybrid layers, each having its own commercial name depending on the poultry company they originate from.

Push comes to shove, the egg colour is inheritted from the male side, so you could always put an araucana cock to a white or light coloured egg laying breed such as a leghorn to generate your own blue egg hybrid. Only some of the hens will truly be blue egg layers so you would need to raise all the hens and record who lays what coloured egg. You could then back cross these blue egger hens to the father (or an unrelated araucana cockerel if you didnt want to reinforce the genes) to fix the blue egg laying trait. I suggested crossing to a Leghorn due to its reasonably high egg laying records for the utility strain

Do remember though that the blue colour is one of the last to be depositted on the egg shell, therefore if you put a blue egger to a brown egger you will end up with a good proportion of olive coloured egg layers

To make a purpose designed olive layer you would first create a sex linked light brown egg layer such as a co-bar (barred plymouth rock to cochin). these would then immediately identify hens from cocks at day one, allowing you to cull off the cockerels (or rear alone for meat) and raise only the hens. You would then take these co-bar hens and cross them to a Cream Legbar Cock and the result would be an olive egg laying strain of your own making.

[RichmondHens]

the original blue egg layer is indeed the araucana, both rumped or rumpless.

from this, various birds have been developed that also lay blue eggs. There is the Cream Leg Bar, or cotswold legbar (to give it its old name) which is a hybrid, but breeds true and sex linked chicks to boot.

from here we also get a variant of the Silver Dorking, called the silver black dorking. it looks to all intents and purposes as a normal dorking, but the hens lay the blue egg. However, it is not a true breed and therefore if you go down the lines of showing your birds and it is discovered that you have a blue egger entered, it will be disqualified.

Commercially there are several blue egg hybrid layers, each having its own commercial name depending on the poultry company they originate from.

Push comes to shove, the egg colour is inheritted from the male side, so you could always put an araucana cock to a white or light coloured egg laying breed such as a leghorn to generate your own blue egg hybrid. Only some of the hens will truly be blue egg layers so you would need to raise all the hens and record who lays what coloured egg. You could then back cross these blue egger hens to the father (or an unrelated araucana cockerel if you didnt want to reinforce the genes) to fix the blue egg laying trait. I suggested crossing to a Leghorn due to its reasonably high egg laying records for the utility strain

Do remember though that the blue colour is one of the last to be depositted on the egg shell, therefore if you put a blue egger to a brown egger you will end up with a good proportion of olive coloured egg layers

To make a purpose designed olive layer you would first create a sex linked light brown egg layer such as a co-bar (barred plymouth rock to cochin). these would then immediately identify hens from cocks at day one, allowing you to cull off the cockerels (or rear alone for meat) and raise only the hens. You would then take these co-bar hens and cross them to a Cream Legbar Cock and the result would be an olive egg laying strain of your own making.

Actually it is the cotswold legbar which is the more modern hybrid, the cream legbars are older .........

Also the blue shell colouration is all the way through, it is not deposited on top like brown eggers. Don't know how the olive layers work though, maybe it is blue shell with browny deposit, or the olive colouration is a derivative of blue and coloured all the way through. I've not had an olive egg layer - yet!

Just out of interest, if the male carries the blue gene, will my Araucana cross cocks produce blue or green layers if mated with my cream legbars (my guess is yes) but would it also work if they were crossed with my bantams who lay normal tinted eggs? Haven't experimented yet as don't really need any more bantams (blue eggers or not) but might do a few this spring just to see ........

[chris]

... You could then back cross these blue egger hens to the father (or an unrelated araucana cockerel if you didnt want to reinforce the genes) to fix the blue egg laying trait. ...

Can you further explain this please? I don't understand what you mean by reinforce the genes? as in size, etc - the thing I don't understand really is, won't this inter-breeding (father/daughter) cause genetic defects? Or is that really only brother/sister breeding?

[RichmondHens]

All interbreeding is detrimental to some extent - as well as enhancing desirable qualities such as egg and feather colour it also often produces a weaker bird, hence the reason why a lot of pure breeds are quite sensitive and less hardy than the good old fashioned farmyard cross.

I don't really understand avian genetics either but mating father to daughter is apparently less likely to throw up defects than with mother to son, or brother to sister.

Interestingly I have noticed that when running a "mixed bag" of bantams together as I do, the cocks naturally seek out hens of a different colour as their favourites, rather than choosing their own breed - nature's way of avoiding in-breeding perhaps?

[chris]

Interesting. thanks.. didn't realise that.

[Bramble-Poultry]

richmond - thanks for correcting me on the cotswolds, i knew it was one way or another!

yes, to get an olive the brown egg layer from the co-bar side overlays the blue egg with a brown pigment giving you the olive. its interesting that if you can get hold of a very freshly laid egg, one still wet you can scratch your name onto the egg surface before the pigment dries and it will be fixed there!

with genetics (something jennie studied at university as part of her degree) you perform a "mendelian backcross" by putting father back to daughter, or mother to son, but NEVER brother to sister.

the reasoning behind this is that if the Father is the bird carrying the desirable gene, if you cross him out to a new hen the offspring will be 50% like him. put a 50% "father like" hen back to the father then the resulting offspring will be 75% like father. you can then cross these again to get 87% like father and so on until the offspring ar nearly 100% like father.

This is how the world of preservation of breeds manages to get near extinction breeds back on their feet. Once there is a reasonable gene pool, you would perform the cross again with a separate breeding line from one of teh first or second crosses to create another "reasonably" unreleated gene pool to diversify the blood lines.

Crossing brother to sister does nothing more than create more 50% offspring and brings in the possibility of reinforcing unwanted genes. It goes without saying that the original brod stock must be of the highest quality you can get with no apparent heriditary illnesses etc that are likly to come out in the breeding.

Richmond, the reason the crossing of father to daughteris preferred over mother to son is that the hen in likly to remain fertile (in breeding terms at least) for 2 - 3 seasons, whereas the cock bird can remain fertile for 5-6 seasons, therefore you are working with the same genetic foundation for longer.

I have noticed too that cocks will prefer to cast their oats far and wide, i assume that this is natures way of ensuring a wide gene pool that has the ability to adapt to whatever may come. Pure breeds are very fickle at times and a lot is down to mismanagment of their bloodlines.

The Marsh daisy for instance was developed as a hardy farmyard fowl that would cope with most muddy farms and be hardy. Due to its very low bloodstock in the 1970's, the breed was rescued from extintion from a very limited foundation and as such it hasnt really got the hardiness of old. We have marsh daisy here and i try and select the best i can (from a utility point of view) for the breeding to try and recoup some of this heritage.

[chris]

Sounds really interesting.. wish we had more room !

[Glutton4...]

What an interesting thread - and I thought mixing paint was complicated!

... Interestingly I have noticed that when running a "mixed bag" of bantams together as I do, the cocks naturally seek out hens of a different colour as their favourites, rather than choosing their own breed - nature's way of avoiding in-breeding perhaps?

This is very interesting, and may be the explanation as to why Asbo hates all my Black hens - to the point that he actively chases them away! The poor little batties, however...

[Suechooks]

My Gold laced Wyandotte bantam boy is in love with one of the bantam Buff Orpingtons. He always snuggles up to her on the perch at night and lets her eat first. He ignores the female 'dotte and the Speckled Sussex and I think he does "country pursuits" with the white Leghorn judging by the mud on her back!

[walldanzig]

I have two of the Silver Dorkings which will lay blue eggs I havent had one off them yet but wont be long now. Six incubated two hatched both hens Bonus

[Scarlet]

I'dd love ablue egg layer but I've never had much luck with the few eggs i've incubated and the ones that have hatched were boys!

[Bramble-Poultry]

dan - if they are anything like my silver black dorkings (the blue egg layers) they take an absolute age to come into lay, and then woof, they are off an running for what seems to be a blinking age laying a good sized pale blue egg, practically daily.

Just remeber, these hens arent "true" dorkinjgs. they look like them but a true dorking (to the purist) lays a white/cream egg

Personally, you have the best of both worlds as being a good proportion made up from dorking, the cocks have excellant conformation as a meat bird, and the hens lay well.