Author Topic: Best pure breed for 'commercial' blue egg production (Read 3800 times)

Stereo · « **on:** December 12, 2014, 05:31:56 pm »

I realise this is a contradiction in terms but we are going all pure breed from now on so any hybrid ideas are out for not. I have small flocks of Lavender Araucanas (nice, true to type birds) and also Cream Legbars (not great quality to be honest other than 3 of the hens who are really good).

I'm planning on concentrating on 5 breeds in the future for hatching eggs and eggs for the honesty box. So I'll have 5 flocks of about 30 birds of each breed with 3-4 cockerels in each. I have chosen Black Copper Marans and Welsummer for brown eggs, RIR and LS for lighter eggs but hopefully more per annum and also winter eggs if I get the hatching done early in the year. I also want a blue egg layer.

So, which would you choose? I like both breeds. I suspect that CLB will be more productive but I have not had good luck with them so far in terms of illness and breeding. If you wanted a flock of say 26 hens and 4 cockerels to lay plenty of blue / fertile eggs, which would you pick?

HesterF · « **Reply #1 on:** December 12, 2014, 09:23:32 pm »

Not in a position to compare quite yet - I've 2 CLBs which are due to come into lay very soon (I hope) but my araucana started laying before Xmas last year and laid virtually daily until about three weeks ago - outlaying any of my other hens by quite a long way (Marans came second, Buff Orps a waste of time!) so based on that, I'd go for Araucana. But Waitrose stock CLBs so they're clearly commercial. Oh, and a sample size of one is probably not enough for a flock decision - you already have more comparison than I do!

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nutterly_uts · « **Reply #2 on:** December 12, 2014, 10:07:17 pm »

I would say Araucana for the more unusual factor too - I don't think I can be the only one who would buy the unusual just because its different

darkbrowneggs · « **Reply #3 on:** December 12, 2014, 10:40:45 pm »

A good strain of CLB will lay very well. I can put you in touch with someone who had a nice little flock from my birds. Black Coppers can be tricky to get to lay well, but I kept my best layers and I had started crossing my high laying dark egg cuckoo strain back in to give a very smart looking black bird. Someone contacted me the other day to say how well all the birds she had from me had layed, and what lovely eggs they were. Also you can cross the leg bars and marines to get green egg layers.

I can't remember who had my lovely Black Copper Flock, but it was someone in north wales, and I know another guy who had the last of my Cuckoo Maran breeding flock which he is very pleased with

In my experience the araucana eggs were small, but I did a quite successful cross which again laid better eggs and more of them - though not more than one a day

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You can also cross a double gene blue egg cockerel (not many around) onto a sussex or commercial white egg layer to get larger blue eggs and more of them, though not as good colour as pure CLB

The supermarket ones are generally from Cotswold legbar hybrid birds readily available but quite expensive, but the colour is often pretty poor more of a murky greenish hue

chrismahon · « **Reply #4 on:** December 13, 2014, 06:53:20 am »

Could try 'Legbars of Broadway' which are a hybrid I found on the internet when looking for Pedigree Cream Legbars. We once had a prolific layer of huge (126g was the biggest) green-blue eggs from Merrydale & Regency poultry. They are subject to a full immunisation programme though, so you may get some 'sickies' that won't thrive. The ILT virus flares up for up to two years, the IB virus can cause poor shell quality and the Mycoplasma virus can cause peritonitis.

Stereo · « **Reply #5 on:** December 13, 2014, 10:29:48 am »

I don't want to cross anything up to be honest. We've done a lot of crosses and hybrids and I'm a bit fed up with them to be honest. They may lay better but seem more fragile over time and get more problems in our experience. The actual amount of eggs is not critical, would rather have good shell quality and more naturally behaving birds. We've always found hybrids are much more likely to sleep in nest boxes or eat eggs etc. Maybe we have been unlucky.

Have bought some really nice CLB from a proper dealer but they were immunised and are showing signs of IB in the eggs. None of our other birds have ever shown that so I suspect it was the immunisation which has caused it. Very disappointing.

I'm leaning towards the Araucana. It's hard to find a hen who will lay a proper blue egg rather than a green one which implies some crossing in the past. So it might be worth working on that breed, hatch a large amount for egg production and pick out the best to breed from.

Eve · « **Reply #6 on:** December 13, 2014, 10:34:08 am »

I had two CLB come into lay last spring and they laid nearly daily until October, nice true blue eggs though much paler towards the end of the season when they were nearly white. Can't have both, I suppose. Good shells, no illnesses. I'm planning on crossing them with a Welsummer for good coloured green eggs.

I'm waiting for a younger CLB to start laying any time soon, one of her sisters has already started but lays green eggs and I really want blue

How do you create a double blue gene cockerel? I'd love to create hens that lay really blue eggs, with egg numbers less important than colour.

My Araucana hasn't started laying yet but I have yet to see proper solid blue eggs from Araucanas, on the National Show they were also all a watered down green, and I bought my Araucana as a chick that was part of a group of other breeds so didn't see the egg it hatched from.

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #7 on:** December 13, 2014, 10:39:23 am »

You could try going to one of the rare breed sales in the Spring and buying hatching eggs, or seeing if the seller of good coloured hatching eggs has any stock in the sale.

lord flynn · « **Reply #8 on:** December 13, 2014, 01:34:08 pm »

I used to keep rumpless araucana-a couple lay blue eggs and the other couple blue/green. They were reliable layers for pure breeds (5 eggs per week almost without fail) and would come back into lay after their moult, quite hardy birds as well. Can't compare to CLBs but its allegedly hard to find good ones that are true to type.