Osama bin Rooster ... He is an F1 male in our blue
egg project. His sire is Ameraucana and his dam
is Leghorn. He has the characteristic bubble gum
comb that all males in this line have. Osama bin
Rooster is a nice guy ... I can't say he is very
affectionate, but he isn't mean. Right now he is
relaxing in his cave-like habitat somewhere in
South Dakota ... people are searching for him ...
but only a small number of people know where he
really is! Rumors are that he was once butchered
... but, that is obviously not the case.
An interesting thing about him genetically is that
his beadmuff is black and barred while his head
and hackles are white.
By HannahH on Thursday, December 27, 2001 - 09:42 pm:
Neat pics, Info. Why's his comb falling over like that?
Hannah, That is his comb design--weird for us who have upright-single combed birds. I may only do my Dutch Bantam breeding projects for another year or two (except for one variety) and would have room for a small flock of blue egg layers. I think it would be great fun, so I hope Info. will be ready to sell a few point of lay pullets by then?? I have a print of the rainbow of egg colors from another board, some time ago, Info. and secretly think how nice it would be to produce eggs like yours! CJR
Thank you for your posts, Hannah and CJR.
Hi Info, I don't think your remark was sexist at all. If you've observed that women like the colored eggs better than the men, reporting on that observation is in no way sexist. Don't be scared to write what you think, even if nobody else agrees with you. I know I find myself in the minority on occasion, but that's ok too.
I see why you named him that.
By Cjeanr on Friday, December 28, 2001 - 12:36 am:
By Infomaniac on Friday, December 28, 2001 - 09:18 am:
The "bubble gum" comb was a surprise to us.
This is evidently the result of the pea comb -
Leghorn comb cross. Other crosses we have
made (or gotten accidently ;-) with single-comb
birds and pea comb ones give a different comb
from this "bubble gum" comb. It seems to me,with
only the limited information we have at present,
that this comb may be a result of the pea comb -
Leghorn comb cross.
I don't mean to go on and on about the bubble gum
comb, but it is strange. It looks like a wad of
chewed bubble gum. The attachment to the head
is very thin and flacid and that is why it lays over.
We have "righties" and "lefties" among our
breeding males. Osama is a rightie. In addition to
the flacid attachment of the comb to the head, it
seems that the attachment isn't straight either ... it
angles off to one side and that may be the result of
or the cause of the direction in which the comb lays
on the birds head.
CJR, thank you for remembering the rainbow! The
range of egg colors are very popular with our
customers. I pack the egg cartons in a way that
shows off the mixture of colors as best I can. I
certainly don't want to say anything of a sexist
nature and I hope this isn't sexist ... the men who
have bought eggs from us don't seen to care about
the colors as much as our women customers do.
Women have told us how their kids "choose" which
egg they want for breakfast based on the color!
They have their favorite colors and sometimes
even have to negotiate with siblings over the eggs!
The women seem to enjoy the colors.
We certainly hope to have made progress in the
blue egg project in a couple of years. In our F1
generation, we have two pullets (only two) that lay
very nicely blue eggs. The others lay nice eggs
too, but they aren't an improvement on the P
generation and some are even less blue than
those of the P generation. But two pullets are
consistently laying a superior blue egg and these
two pullets contributed significantly to the F2
generation. Our first F2s won't start laying until
March 2002. I have one more incubator of F2s that
will begin hatching Dec. 31. Then, we need to stop
hatching F2s and evaluate the F2 pullets and so
on.
Thank you again for your posts!
By HannahH on Friday, December 28, 2001 - 10:45 pm:
CJR, the blue egg laying birds are a blast. My pullet that hatched this spring from the wonderful blue egg started out laying green eggs. Now her eggs seem to be slowly changing over to a bluer color. My other Ameracauna lays a definite green egg, and when the pullet started laying the only difference was size. Now the size is about the same between the two birds, but this years pullet eggs do seem to be changing shades to more blue.
Info, is this normal for the eggs to change color slightly as the bird matures? I also have a nice Aracauna pullet (rumpless and one large tuft) who started laying a greenish egg too, and now they are also really getting a nicer blue color. They're just small because she's a bantam.