2018's Eggs

[Hen-Gen]

Bought 36 eggs this week for hatching.
Copper Black Marans - huge, dark brown eggs. Very impressed.
Cream Legbars - good sized eggs. An advance on the size they were 15 years ago. Well done CLB breeders.
Lavender Araucana - No advance with these. Still quite small eggs. But a small breed so maybe predictable.
Barnvelder - The poorest. Small size and mediocre colour. This breed clearly needs some good breeders.

 

[Marigold]

They sound a lovely selection, HenGen. Do let us know how you get on with the hatch.

 

[valeriebutterley]

Well done Hen-gen you obviously have a touch of "morehens"

Even with my leg, I've got quails and LF Plymouth Rock to help me recover.

 

[Marigold]

So you started your quail incubation, Val, well done. It'll be an interesting time in a couple of weeks when they hatch.

 

[valeriebutterley]

No Marigold, I sent for more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - as soon as I felt a little brighter at home. Cannot keep good hatchers down. I think they are Pharoh and Egyptian, and are at this moment in the incubator. A little experiment I am looking forward to have space for them and want to see how tame I can get them. My son and D-I-L looked after the hens and still are as I dare not go out in the garden, In case of a fall, and I do not want to risk it.
My son gained a couple of fans whilst he was caring for them, Curly and Indi.
When these are hatched I am going to do more hatching for a friend. How is the price of quails eggs going, up I hope.

 

[Marigold]

They're a ridiculous price in the shops, considering you need 5 to equal one hen's egg, and of course not as fresh as your own, although I found lots of people just didn't know what to do with them. They are fiddly to peel, but make pretty salads etc, but mainly they're wonderful in cakes, omelettes etc and scrambled egg because, like bantam eggs, they have a very large golden yolk in proportion to white. You get so many once they start, you have to find something to do with them all.

 

[Hen-Gen]

Well, vb, not so much a desire for more hens as a crazy plan. I'm hoping that a Copper Black Maran Cock put with some Cream Legbar Hens will give me chicks that are sexable at hatching and pullets that grow up to lay olive green eggs. I don't like eggs of that colour but I'm sure I would be able to sell the pullets.
I already know that a Lavender Araucana Cock put to my Dominique Hens does give sexable chicks and pullets that grow up to lay pretty apple green eggs and that are black feathered and crested and look remarkably like a rare breed here called the Shetland and so are easy to sell.
Finally the Barnevelders are very beautiful hens but pretty useless so maybe a bit of interbreeding with Marans will give Barnies with bigger and darker coloured eggs. But that would take a few years.
Best laid plans! I had an idea of getting the blue gene into the Speckled Sussex but when I looked deeper into this it became obvious that it would be a mammoth task involving producing a huge number of chicks in order to get a few of the right colour.

 

[MrsBiscuit]

I wonder if barnevelders have been going downhill for years? My 83 year old mother grew up on a farm with them having to provide for a family of 8. They are a pretty bird, I don't know what their temperament is like, and I presume they are of Dutch descent, its always struck me as exotic that they were being kept in Wales!

 

[Minorcafan]

My barnevelders had a great disposition but as for egg size -------