Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => Chicken Chat => Topic started by: massa on January 06, 2011, 22:21
-
im wanting to add to my flock of 14 ex bats! (not counting the dozen quails or 3 turkeys ive kept to try breeding) ive been bitten by the bug :D (Didn't take long!)
i want to add some hens to my layers that will give me blue eggs, i feel if i have my own hens it would be nice to get something that looks different to what i can buy in the shops. I know that both these breeds lay blue eggs but dont really know anything else about them so was just after any comments or advise from the knowledgeable people on this site that may know about these breeds or any others that lay interesting/different eggs.
-
the cream legbars lay blue/green eggs because they get the blue egg gene from the araucana. however, if you get araucanas then you can have a choice of coloured birds - lavender, lavender barred, black, white, red/black, red/blue, cuckoo and crele and get blue eggs :D
-
does that mean that cream legbars are not a pure breed? i thought they were. what are they like size wise? are they simular?
-
Both these are pure breeds whereas your ex bats are hybrids. You can also get blue egg laying hybrids which will be more prolific. There are many breeders out there offering poor quality CLs which lay an almost white egg or a very pale blue one. Indeed as CLs are a relatively recent breed to be recognised there are several strains which aren't officially recognised as CLs. In fact there's a Cotswold strain which I don't think is recognised by the Poultry Club though well standardised. The official breed is one I think which was developed in Cambridge but as I said as blue eggs were such a novelty several breeders developed strains and getting a good blue egg layer maybe difficult and expensive.
With your ex batts I be inclined to look for a hybrid blue egg layer rather than either of the mentioned pure breeds.
I only have CLs which I don't claim are of any great pedigree though I do have one good original hen.
(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m491/hillfooter/Chicken%20Chat%20posts/CreamLegbarRoosterWEB.jpg)
(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m491/hillfooter/Chicken%20Chat%20posts/CreamLegbarWEB.jpg)
HF
-
here are some details about C/L:-
http://www.creamlegbar.co.uk/
and about araucanas:-
http://www.araucana.org.uk/
then as hybrids you can get the columbine.
All blue egg layers have araucana somewhere in their genes.
-
Lovely hen HF :D
-
must admit C/L's are the eggs I was thinking about getting this year to pop under my broodies. This way I can dispose of the unwanted cockerels not long after hatching.
-
Lovely hen HF :D
Yes the hens are quite pretty. They are round deep chested muscular birds. Fairly shy. Mine used to roost in a tree. Here's 4 of them roosting.
(http://i1128.photobucket.com/albums/m491/hillfooter/Chicken%20Chat%20posts/LegbarsroostedintreeWEB.jpg)
Poor old Stanley was moulting I think when his photo was taken but he wasn't well and he died at the beginning of 2010.
HF
-
What a lovely sight HF. :)
-
i was in two minds wether to go for eggs in the incy (not got a broody) or day olds!!
-
A skyline is also another name for a blue egg laying hybrid
-
I have a "Jasmine" another name for a legbar hybrid - she lays pale blue eggs. I also have two pure cream legbars from my last hatch, one started laying and the eggs were alot more blue than the hybrid ones. They are all quite shy birds, although they don't struggle once you have hold of them but it's quite a game trying to get hold of them! :happy: