2024 Update on Homozygous Flock  

It is 2024 and we are updating where we are on having a homozygous flock. We currently have 7 pens of birds. All have homozygous roosters in them. Currently, three of the pens are homozygous. The other pens contain tested as well as untested birds we are trying to get tested and placed for this season.

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Working to Homozygous Flock  

We get a lot of questions on our Silverudds Blue. This breed is the perfect backyard bird and lays a green egg, so there are a lot of people looking to add then to their flocks. But there are things to know about the breed, like there are first and second imports as well as the birds should be homozygous for the blue egg gene. I have found myself answering a lot of the same questions, so figured we could hopefully get them all answered in a blog post.

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Sticktight Fleas  

Fleas have been horrible here in Texas and more and more people are dealing with a poultry flea called Sitcktight Fleas. These horrible creatures are ectoparasites that, as adults, embed themselves into the skin of chickens, turkeys, and other animals. Sticktight fleas are most common in free-range and backyard poultry systems.

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Testing for Blue Egg Gene

The Silverudds Blue is a breed that lays green eggs, or is supposed to. To consistently lay green eggs the birds have to have two copies of the blue egg gene. The breed is not so fully established where that consistency is fully established. We test our roosters in with brown or white egg layers to see if they consistently give their offspring that blue egg gene. We hatch many eggs with the expectation that all hatched will have that blue egg shell in the offspring. While it is not exact, it gives an indication of what the rooster is carrying. Statistically, if he rooster only has one copy, some of the offspring will not get the blue egg. This process is tedious and takes time, space and money. Until now, it has been the only way.

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Buyer and Seller Etiquette

 There are now several places on Facebook to post "reviews" of both sellers and buyers. The idea behind them is to warn people of seller scams as well as problem buyers. But, many times the places become a place for petty things because one or the other party does not really understand the transaction. Some one recently said there was no SOP [standard operating procedure] for buying or selling so we were kinda stuck. I don't think so. There is buyer and seller etiquette and if more people would follow it there would be a lot more happy transactions.

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