pinewoodacres

Backcross babies from three mothers (2 Welsummers, 1 Cream Legbar).

T minus 9 days to my next hatch! I lost three from my Anakin but there are still 27 left of his, plus all 8 from my Legbar roo.

I have a handful of backcross chicks I really like the look of. This was a backcross to Welsummer so I’m hoping she will lay a nice olive and not brown. Cr/cr, B/-, possibly carrying ig and autosomal red, definitely carrying Mh, and def carrying whatever causes the hypermelanation in Legbars of which none in her lineage have.

My beautiful F1 boy Anakin passed during the night. Was all I could have asked for in a roo. He had some neuro signs a few days ago & did better after vitamins but yesterday he was staggering & not eating/drinking. Put him on the coop floor last night in case he lost his balance and found him this AM. Everyone else seems fine. Pic from yesterday when I knew he was going downhill.

This girl has been yowling in the nest boxes for several days. Yesterday she didn’t lay and wasn’t doing it but she’s back at it today so I put her with a few eggs by herself. I’m going to build an extra section when I build my grow out coop next week. I’m surprised bc she’s a Cream Legbar and they mostly don’t want to sit from what I understand. She also lays green eggs so

My F1 olive egger girl laid this today. For some reason, the color was more clear to me, perhaps bc she was last to lay today and I had already collected the others so I wasn’t comparing it to brown nor Legbar green/blue. I’m crossing her with her brother to give the genetics wheel a spin. Lol

I’ll be hatching from my pullets soon. Three out of four are in with my F1 boy who is turning out to be such a great roo. So this will actually be F2s, another BC1 with my two Legbars that lay green, and then some pure Legbars from my Legbar that lays the bluer shade.

We all have a few pictures like this, amiright?!

One of the two olive egger BC1 males from my February hatch. F1 x Welsummer

They may/not be carrying a blue shell gene - they are beautiful, but they are meant for freezer camp. Still can’t believe I only got two boys out of 11 that hatched (set 14). It works out well since I can only use green egg girls from this cross.

Thanks for the follow!!

I’ve been lamenting egg color and trying to put together my next pairings but today I got stuck in the coop when it started pouring, and on this non-sunny Florida day, the Legbar eggs are looking mighty blue and the olive egger egg is looking mighty olive. And this OE egg is pretty big already. She’s only been laying for a week and a half but her egg is almost as big as my hens’.

My 24wk olive egger girl finally laid today. Confusingly, she has a super heavy bloom and underneath is a light olive-ish color but it honestly appears LESS green than my Legbar pullets!

Her egg is at bottom left, large egg is my adult Legbar (very light blue), and the other three are new Legbar layers.

My OE project is off to a weird start but I’ll take it!