If having a blue egg does not remain a priority, then what separates the bird in question from an EE?
I believe it is, always has been and always will be a priority for breeders. [/quote]
While I select for blue eggs, it is not the number one priority that I am working on now. For me the first priority is what ever trait is the most difficult to fix. I have struggled for years with red shoulders on the silver males. So that has been number one for me. I used to get nice silver topped males with white legs. It really hurt to get rid of those males, but I did not want to go backwards on the leg color.
This year I have plenty of males with good top color, but they have white specks on their breasts. There is always give and take when fixing a particular trait. To fix the back color on the males I went backwards on the breast color.
This year my top priorities will be, keeping the silver top color in the males, fixing the male breast color, get rid of shafting in backs of females.
Although egg color isn\'t my top priority, it has definitely improved over the years. Pullets with egg colors that I was happy to have a couple of years ago, are now being culled because the egg shells are too green. Perhaps by the time that I get all of the plumage issues fixed, the egg color issue will have taken care of itself.
There is also a perception problem with egg color. I can look at an Ameraucana egg and say \'My what a pretty blue egg.\' My wife can look at the same egg and say \'My what a pretty green egg.\" So it depends who is looking at an egg on whether it is blue or green.
I have a few shells that I collected from some broken robin eggs that I found in the yard. That is the egg color that I am working toward. My wife says they are green, but they look blue to me.
Curtis