[baffyboo]

 Hi, Can anyone help? Is it true that you can't really buy guaranteed hybrid hatching eggs?  (50% will be hybrids only)? I am looking to find a chicken that is a productive layer as well as having interesting (blue, speckled or brown) eggs. From what I am reading on various sites hybrids such as blue belles may be the answer? Suggestions for breeds very welcome.

[Casey76]

Bluebelles are a hybrid and therefore you can't buy eggs which will hatch all bluebelles (and if you see any for sale it will be false advertising) and upon hatching you will get a mix of chicks, of which only some will grow up to be Bluebelles.

A lot of the commercial laying hybrods are sex-linked so the cockerals are discarded upon hatching (e.g. warrens/ISA browns, black rocks).

However, you can buy crested cream legbar eggs (which are a wonderful creamy blue).  the chicks are auto sexing (males are usually discarded upon hatching).  You should ask to see the parent stock though.  Cream legbars (CLBs) pullets are a pale grey with a salmon coloured breast.  if the body colour is red then they may be mixed with something else and your blue eggs won't be guaranteed, though they may lay a khaki or putty coloured egg.

It easier to buy POL pullets if you want hybrids - then the chance of ending up with a cockerel is much reduced (though not eliminated entirely), though buying day old chicks is also a possibility.  Chicks bought now (which is very late in the season) should come into lay over the winter (from mid December onwards) - though there would be the chance they wouldn't lay until the spring.