# Why no swap threads in here???



## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

I noticed the other day there is no swap threads in here, I am wondering why. Most of the chicken forums I have been in before normally have swap threads. It might be a great idea in here. that way we can trade what we have for what others have for eggs.

Like I actually need more


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## Jim (Sep 26, 2012)

I have tried to start a few, but only one taker. But, it was winter when I started it. 


Jim


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## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

here are a couple in NC

http://www.poultryshowcentral.com/North_Carolina_Swap.html


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## Jeremysbrinkman (Jul 12, 2012)

I think that would be cool. Even if no one would want to swap with me. All I have are pure bred females, barred rock, silver wyandotte, light brahma, austolorp, buff Orpington, and copper Marans with an EE rooster. I guess they will all be olive egg layers. 


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## Jim (Sep 26, 2012)

Hey Jeremy, I would be willing to swap some eggs with ya, I can toss in some of my "cheaper" eggs in for some of your , what I would call all EE o see what we get! I would have my Paul smith roo over my brown layers, I really want to see how they grow out. I just am finishing up a setting, and have a few friends taking the chicks to tell me how they do. I will of course keep a few for myself! My brown layers in that coop are GLW, SLW, RIR, NN, BLK AUSTRO,ORP, and, I think that is it. But, swap a dozen for a dozen? My last setting, seems to be only about 75-80% developed, not as good as my English Orps! PM me if ya want to. I am not setting again for several weeks, so, we can maybe work something out. Plus, I need more shipping practice, and this is a great way to do it!


Jim


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

I just got my first EE eggs through e-bay about 10 days ago. I sure am hoping above all else that even 2 of them hatch out they are very rare to find around here.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Our area is absolutely polluted with EE, if I could ship across border I'd send you ten dozen lol. The two roosters covering my flock are EE, so every egg I have coming now is technically an EE. Not all will have the muffs and beards like their daddies but they'll lay the green eggs.


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## piglett (Jun 21, 2012)

Jim said:


> Hey Jeremy, I would be willing to swap some eggs with ya
> 
> Jim


you must be wanting us to all get more chickens

if we all start swapping we better

get some more coops ready


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

It might be a good thing I've got a border separating me! Poor hubby still thinks I've only ordered 60 chicks for the year...


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Fiere said:


> Our area is absolutely polluted with EE, if I could ship across border I'd send you ten dozen lol. The two roosters covering my flock are EE, so every egg I have coming now is technically an EE. Not all will have the muffs and beards like their daddies but they'll lay the green eggs.


Wow they must be common up there then. Around here they are not. The last time I saw one of the roosters on Craigslist it was going for over $200. I actually put an ad on craigslist looking for the eggs, and not even a single call from anyone having any to sell.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

piglett said:


> you must be wanting us to all get more chickens
> 
> if we all start swapping we better
> 
> get some more coops ready


We just added in 3 new pens and hubby is already starting on building the coops to add to the pens. So we are getting there. I told him now he needs to add me a small coop just for the 2 GLW hens, they drive me nuts being noisy all day long. Never quiet like my other breeds.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

EE are mutt chickens. I don't know why they'd ever go for that much. Sure, you can get nice looking ones that are very typey or ones that are just mutty looking, but they all lay green eggs. Some people try to breed types with colour, I had a barred rock bantam crossed with an EE before, she had the body still and muffs of the EE but was wholly barred and tiny, she cost me 15$. A friend of mine breeds lavender ones with tiny black flecks through them (she also breed naked necks, not turkens, for egg colour and plumage) and a started hen of either breed from her is 20$-30$ depending on if it's an olive, green, or blue Egger and what colour pattern she achieved with them. You're paying 3-5$ for a straight run chick from anybody.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Here's a rooster who went into the dog dish and the little barred hen:








And my two roosters I have currently in the centre and to the right:








And my little hen, the picture is quite dark but she was a sooty blue-grey not black on the soft brown:








I'm getting a half a dozen more hens next month, hopefully getting away from the black base that my roosters are as I don't prefer it. I wish I could source true Amers a bit easier, there's only a few breeders within a ten hour drive and most are breeding bantams. I rather run true pure breeds and not a mutt, but at least EE do have a type.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Then that may explain what the tiny blue egg is that I have that came in my e-bay eggs. It could be a bantam sized EE???? However it beats the huge green ones that I got, I swear those must weigh about 1 pound each.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Might be? Might just be a tiny egg. I get medium sized ones. I do want to outcross some of my Barnevelder hens to get olive Eggers. I've been debating on which EE roo to get rid of so I can outsource a blue egg line roo to cross over my leghorns for a powder blue egg. They both have equal pros and cons so I really can't decide.


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## Jeremysbrinkman (Jul 12, 2012)

Hey Jim let me see if my girls will get up to speed on laying. Then we can see what we can do. My brother is also looking at a new incubator as I don't like mine I killed 4 batches of eggs last year. Maybe his will be better


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## Jim (Sep 26, 2012)

4 batches, wow, sad. Just let me know. 


Jim


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

If you breed an EE rooster with a RIR what color would the eggs be from the chicks that you get????? Since they are not white egg layers.


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## LittleWings (Jul 15, 2013)

You should get a nice shade of green.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Shades of green heh. A more browny green depending on the darkness of the brown.

All eggs are essentially white, and then pigment gets laid overtop. With the blue eggs, the pigment chemical is put on much earlier in shell development and permeates the shell. With brown eggs, the pigment chemical is put on later. So when you have a bird with both chemicals (this is a very unscientific explanation LOL) the blue colour will be put on first, followed by the brown, almost like double dipping an Easter egg. Thus, the colour of the egg is wholly dependant on genetics, and how strongly the eggs of those lines are coloured. Breeding a strong coloured egg layer to a dark brown egg layer will result in an army green egg, for example. Breeding a white egg layer to a very light brown egg layer results in an almost pink hued egg. EE eggs are an array of colours depending on what % of what is in their lines. But basically, the green eggs are made by having a blue egg get covered with a light brown (amer to a light brown layer for example), if you wanted more green-hued egg, you'd add more blue or a more vibrant green, if you wanted a more browny egg like the olive, you'd take a very vibrant green and cross it with a dark brown like a maran. 

I like the wait and see approach, myself. My 6 y/o kid just likes the different coloured eggs so that's why I keep the EE, purely for amusement.


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## LittleWings (Jul 15, 2013)

Actually the blue egg is a blue shell, not a white egg that has been coated blue. There are two colors of egg shell, white and blue. Blue being dominant. A hen can have one or two copies of the blue egg gene. One copy will make light blue shells and two copies make a darker or deeper blue. 
There is only one color coated over the white or blue shells and thats brown. Depending on how much brown, if any, gets applied to the light blue, deep blue or white egg shell determines the shade. 

EEs most of the time have only one copy of the blue egg gene.


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## Fiere (Feb 26, 2014)

Respectfully, the blue is caused by oocyanin (or biliverdin, the debate shall rage. Works the exact same just is derived from a different part of the body). All egg shells are made up of calcium carbonate. This is white, it can be no other colour. Oocyanin works as a dye, it is added to the egg so early on in the shell making process it permeates the entire shell and "turns" the calcium carbonate blue (this is why the inside of blue eggs is also coloured). The brown pigment chemical (protoporphyrin) is applied later in the oviduct and works as a paint - solely the exterior of the shell is touched, so technically yes, only the brown colour will "coat" the shell. But no, eggs don't come in either white or blue. Colour of any sort other than white is an additive.

You are correct, the amount of colour gene the hen has will dictate the intensity of the colour, toward a more blue or more green egg, and that intensity can be bred up or down, as all colours are not equal regardless of which genes a bird has, and a hen with two blue genes might not produce the same amount of chemical pigment as a hen with one gene or whatever. People dictate their lives to finding the perfect shades of colour for their eggs, it's unfortunately not as simple as getting a bird with two copies of a dominant gene, though that's a good place to start.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

I will have to start testing the different ones, if I end up with a rooster, I just have to wonder, what each mix would create. It might be fun.


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## LittleWings (Jul 15, 2013)

I guess it doesn't really matter exactly when the shell becomes blue, the shell is either blue or white when it is laid. 
Those three colors, white, blue and brown are responsible for all of the egg colors there are. 

I love playing around with them. A colorful egg basket was one of my main goals in my laying flock. I get way more green, blue and olive now than I do brown.


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

I may have to work on getting me some trades later on next month, looks like I got scammed with most of what I bought from eggs through e-bay the man from here in NC has been banned from Craigslist as well as the local papers, has been all over the channel 5 news out of Raleigh as well, he sells infertile eggs that he gets from his neighbors coops and then sells them as hatching eggs. He has been arrested again this past week for stealing eggs. Luckily Brenda saw it and now she is on it with E-bay to get them to ban him from there as well. So there went $40 worth of eggs. gesh again this year. However I will just leave them for now, and see what happens and pray for the best.


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## Jim (Sep 26, 2012)

hildar said:


> If you breed an EE rooster with a RIR what color would the eggs be from the chicks that you get????? Since they are not white egg layers.


The one I did a year back that was a hen, ended up with a brown egg. The buff Orp covered by the same roo, has a nice green egg.

Jim


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## Jim (Sep 26, 2012)

hildar said:


> I may have to work on getting me some trades later on next month, looks like I got scammed with most of what I bought from eggs through e-bay the man from here in NC has been banned from Craigslist as well as the local papers, has been all over the channel 5 news out of Raleigh as well, he sells infertile eggs that he gets from his neighbors coops and then sells them as hatching eggs. He has been arrested again this past week for stealing eggs. Luckily Brenda saw it and now she is on it with E-bay to get them to ban him from there as well. So there went $40 worth of eggs. gesh again this year. However I will just leave them for now, and see what happens and pray for the best.


That is just sad and wrong!

Jim


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## hildar (Oct 3, 2013)

Jim said:


> That is just sad and wrong!
> 
> Jim


At least the guy got arrested last week for stealing eggs. Just wish though that Brenda had of known the man before I had bid on his stuff but as soon as I told her where he was from she told me who he was.


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