Homozygous Opry Hill Moss Egger (Straight Run)

As Talking Points Of The Breed:

• Origin: Opry Hill Farms, LLC
• Broodiness: Moderate
• Meat production: Moderate
• Cold tolerance: Excellent. About 75% will have pea combs.
• Heat tolerance: Excellent
• Predator evasion: Exceptional ~ Roosters will gallantly protect their flock but are docile with their human counterparts
• Foraging ability: Exceptional ~ If given the opportunity to forge in the spring though fall, they will seek out most of their food sources
• Noise level: Low-Moderate
• Hen Size: 4-6 Pounds
• Rooster Size: 7-9 Pounds
• Egg color: Rustic moss colored eggs.  We have been breeding for speckles and camouflage variations. About 1/3 of eggs laid have this propensity.
• Egg size: Medium
• Age of lay: 5-6 months
• Egg laying ability: Excellent
• Eggs/year: 200+
• Temperment: These birds will naturally be friendly and docile with the roosters being alert and protective but respecting their humans. Additionally we breed only birds that are the friendliest of the flock, hen and rooster combined. They do well in confinement or in a free range situation.

This is the pen I have dreamed of for a few years now. I wanted a Homozygous moss Egger since I first discovered I could blood or feather test them to find this information out. As I am writing this, our results are in and we have 9 ladies who have two copies of the blue egg gene! The rooster I will use to pair them with has hatched from our darkest Moss Egger hen. To say I am excited is an understatement. I cannot believe I get to write that as of today, I have a fully homozygous moss Egger pen that is 6 generations deep at this point. I am floored and I hope you are too. It too a lot of time, money and dedication to get to this point. This pen will still provide you with all the speckles and camouflage variations you have come to love. I am so thrilled for all the projects you can accomplish with these birds in your own breeding flocks.

*A note from the breeder. These birds are made up of sisters and a rooster that is a distant cousin. Please know there is a strong possibility you will end up with siblings. For this reason I do not recommend breeding them together. While I don’t think it is terrible to breed siblings to lock in traits you want to keep, using only the offspring from this pen could result is some unwanted results. Also, if you want to offer these as a homozygous pen using only our homozygous birds, you risk the negative results of too many inbreeding crossings to your customers. My vision for this pen has been for you to be able to make back crosses or pairings with your own olive egger projects that you are currently working on to guarantee olive in those resulting offspring. Up to this point, many breeders have had lighter colored genetics to work with in the Homozygous colored egg department. Think legbars, Ameraucans or Silverudds. With this pen, there this is the opportunity for you to start with a deep, rich shade of Moss as base to begin or continue your colored egg projects.