February 27, 2025 • 27 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennifer (00:00):
Welcome poultry enthusiasts to another exciting
(00:03):
episode of the Poultry NerdsPodcast.
Carey (00:06):
Whether you're raising backyard chickens, diving deep
into the science of avianhealth, Are just obsessed with
all things, feather and eggs.
You're in the right place.
I'm Carey.
Jennifer (00:20):
And I'm Jennifer, your host.
And today we've got an episodepacked with everything you need
to know about celadons.
Carey (00:28):
From expert tips, fascinating facts.
We're here to help you becomethe ultimate poultry pro.
It's time to get nerdy.
This episode is brought to youby.
eggfoam.
com.
Coincidentally, we're talkingabout celadons and their
beautiful blue eggs.
(00:49):
Hatchery owners, farmers, eggenthusiasts, if you're looking
for the best and safest way toship your eggs, go to eggfoam.
com.
They're your go to source forpremium solutions designed
specifically for you.
For egg shipping.
EggFoam.
(01:09):
com, they specialize in highquality, durable foam shippers
that cradle each egg perfectly,providing the support you need
during shipping.
There's even a YouTube videowhere she put eggs in the box
and kicked them around the barnand then they hatched.
(01:33):
So that's pretty awesome.
Whether it's chicken eggs, duckeggs, quail eggs, eggfoam.
com has the perfect solution foryou.
They also have chick shippingboxes.
All the supplies you need, thegrow gel that you need, the
packs to keep them warm so theydon't freeze this time of year,
(01:54):
everything you need to ship 12,13 chicks, or even up to 20
quail will go in there.
Eggfoam.
com.
Jennifer (02:03):
Go there.
Carey (02:04):
Yeah.
Celadons.
Jennifer (02:06):
Yes.
Carey (02:07):
They're beautiful, little, shiny, blue eggs.
How does that happen?
Jennifer (02:15):
We'll see the quail.
The hen, she lays an egg and youget these blue eggs, if y'all
could see his face, you getthese blue eggs,
Carey (02:28):
hen quail lay eggs, you
Jennifer (02:32):
asked, I'm going to give it to you,
Carey (02:35):
but like, okay, so I have seen their celadons is like
right now, chicks, chickens.
Eggs, hatching eggs, they're ahuge hot topic.
Everybody wants that shiny blueegg layer.
(02:59):
Not really the dingy blue, notreally the blue speckled y like
a faro, you know, regular quailegg with some blue on it.
No, they want that shiny blueegg.
Mm
Jennifer (03:14):
hmm.
Carey (03:15):
And you have those.
I do.
How hard is it to make thathappen?
Jennifer (03:21):
It's a royal pain.
It's a pain.
So first you have to buy or get,obtain the gene somehow.
It doesn't just appear out ofthin air.
And any bird, any, we're talkingquail, any quail can carry the
(03:45):
gene.
You cannot tell if it has itfrom just looking at it, unless
it's a hen and she happens to belaying a blue egg at that
moment.
That's the only way you cantell.
But a male, you have to breedand test breed and back cross
(04:05):
and all of those things toconfirm that he is homozygous
for the celadon gene.
Carey (04:12):
So homozygous is what you want.
That means he's got
Jennifer (04:17):
he's got
Carey (04:17):
it two times.
Jennifer (04:19):
Yes
Carey (04:20):
Okay,
Jennifer (04:21):
and you have to have a homozygous male in order to
obtain a true blue line
Carey (04:29):
You know guys have been in charge of either making it
right or Screwing it up forever.
Jennifer (04:38):
So let's, we're going to start at the beginning.
Now I breed Celadons, but Kerrydoes not.
So he's going to play the novicein this conversation for asking
me all of the questions.
Yeah,
Carey (04:53):
because like.
You know, celadons is a hugething right now.
And Misunder, I asked, I askedyou the question because I, I
know you, you breed them and youwas like, let's make a show out
of it.
And I was like, but I want theanswer now, Um, because it is,
it is a very interestingphenomenon to me.
(05:14):
I understand it's a gene and youknow.
You can't tell by looking whichkind of gives a mystery to it,
but you have to obtain it and Iguess Like how do you keep it?
How do you get it bluer?
How do you can you make itjumbo?
Like how does that work?
Jennifer (05:36):
Well, that's a whole lot of questions wrapped up into
one.
Carey (05:39):
Well
Jennifer (05:41):
so first of all a celadon egg is a shiny blue egg.
And if you're lucky, it'srobin's egg blue.
Um, but most of the time it'smore like a sky blue or a pale
blue.
I mean there's variations.
And it could have speckles.
(06:03):
Um, these are not splotches likea regular quail egg.
These are actually raisedspeckles that you can kind of
pop off with your fingernail.
Now, on occasion, a regularquail may lay an egg with a
bluish tint to it.
This does not make her a celadoncarrier.
A hen is either a celadon orshe's not.
(06:26):
There's no heterozygous.
So, you, you can't have a henthat just every once in a while
lay celadon.
That is not a thing.
So, once you've confirmed thatyou have the blue gene in your
hens, then you can do some testbreeding and find it in a male.
(06:54):
And then start working towardscreating a true blue line.
Carey (07:00):
It's oh, let me ask this if I get, so let's, let's say
I'm searching on eBay becauseeverybody seems to go to eBay
for quality hatching eggs.
Um, and I, and I, yeah, I mean,a few people.
There's a few people there thathave quality, but that's just
(07:22):
because they sell everywhere.
Jennifer (07:23):
Mm hmm.
Carey (07:24):
Um, and I buy some blue eggs.
Am I going to get a heterozygousmale if I have a male?
Jennifer (07:36):
Let's see.
Or do
Carey (07:38):
I still need to, like, test it out and find out?
Jennifer (07:44):
So you will get, if you're lucky, a homozygous male,
but you'll still have to do alot of testing to check for
that.
At minimum, you'll get someheterozygous, and that just
means that he's a carrier.
He has one copy of the celadongene.
Uh, homozygous means he has twocopies.
(08:05):
So, if you get a blue egg from abreeder that you don't know
anything about, then you willhave to do a lot of test, a lot
of test hatching to find out ifyour line is true or not.
If you even get one egg that isoff, your line is not true blue.
Carey (08:27):
So, like, if you have one that was going through the
printer and the ink cartridgewas just messed up that day.
You need to call it because it'snot a true blue.
Jennifer (08:38):
Well, how do I explain this?
So, so sometimes a regular quailcan lay like a white egg that
has the swatches on it.
Um, I mean a celadon can dothat.
I have found that more oftenthey're kind of They're very
dull.
They don't have a shiny finishon them.
(09:01):
They might have a big splotch ofspeckles right at the pointy
end.
Um, or they could have so muchpigment on them that they look
almost, um, like a, like aturquoise gem almost, but
they're so soft you really can'thandle them.
They just fall apart in yourhand.
(09:22):
So those are the quote unquoteoff eggs of a celadon.
Carey (09:27):
I gotcha.
So So if I was, let's say Iordered three dozen hatched eggs
and they were all blue, youknow, the way they were supposed
to be, and I hatched them out, Iwould want to get those birds to
(09:48):
maturity level and probably likepair them up maybe, or just let
them run wild until I find outwho lay in the right colors and
separate them.
And like the ones that are layin the real shiny, perfect blue,
I want to keep those hens andthe ones that are lay in the
(10:12):
white or like the really dullcolor blue ones that the color's
not consistent.
I might would want to cullthose.
And then,
Jennifer (10:27):
Selection point.
Carey (10:28):
And take, if I, I'll probably wind up with just a
couple of the pretty blue egglayers.
And then once I have those, I'mguessing I want to just look at
my bachelor pad and be like,who's getting lucky today, pull
(10:49):
him out, stick him in with oneof the hands and let them get to
know each other for a week orso, and then throw some eggs in
the incubator and see whathappens.
And then wait till those matureand see if the hens lay blue
eggs and hope that I didn't getthem mixed up.
Jennifer (11:15):
Yeah, the hoping part.
So, Celadons are a recordkeeping, for me, nightmare for
somebody with OCD.
Maybe it would be their dreamjob.
I don't know.
Um, so if you are wanting tobreed a true blue line, you have
(11:40):
to keep immaculate records.
Carey (11:44):
I'm out.
I'm screwed.
Jennifer (11:47):
So you have to, um, know where each Each of, let's
just, well, let's just start atthe beginning here.
So each of my roosters have aleg band on them, and they are
numbered, and then those eggs goin the incubator, and they are
tagged with his number.
(12:09):
And then those chicks that hatchgo into a brooder, and their,
um, lineage Is on blue tape.
You know, I love my painter'stape.
Carey (12:23):
Painter's tape.
Yeah.
Jennifer (12:23):
Um, the painter's tape stays with them the whole time.
So in my case, um, my shorthandwill say R47 and that tells, I
mean, I can tell by looking atthem that they're, they're
celadons because I mean, I knowwhat my birds look like.
I was going to
Carey (12:38):
say, you don't care about the hen because you can see the
egg and tell that it's a celadonhen.
You're, you're tracking therooster.
To see if he makes Celadonproducing kids,
Jennifer (12:51):
right?
So the reason why I'm keeping upwith it is because if any of
those hens lay off, you know, 8weeks later, um, then I know
that Rue 47 was bad and that heneeds to go in the coal pile.
So I can go ahead and go all theway back to him, yank him out,
(13:12):
make sure all of his sons areout.
Now his daughters, if they layblue, are okay.
They're still Oh,
Carey (13:20):
so if this happens, our 47 and his sons
Jennifer (13:27):
Gone.
Carey (13:28):
They're all Tank food.
They are.
That's why your dog eats sogood.
Jennifer (13:37):
But now his daughters, if they lay blue, they're still
true.
So I can keep them.
So
Carey (13:45):
they'll survive.
Jennifer (13:47):
Yes, and I can put them with another rooster from a
different line, but stilltagged.
And the brooder is still marked,and this goes on and on every
single hatch.
Carey (14:02):
So, like your best case, absolutely most lucky situation.
You're 16 weeks minimum, not belonger than that because you
still got to incubate the lastset.
(14:23):
So you're, you're six months.
Jennifer (14:26):
Yeah, it takes a long time.
And so each let's just, um, how
Carey (14:33):
long have you been working on yourself?
Like the, because I know youstarted with them a good hot
minute back.
Jennifer (14:41):
I want to say 22 22 maybe 2022.
I'm not good with time.
You know that 2022 now I had tobring the gene in Michael at
Southwest gave me birds And theygot mixed up with some non
celadon birds.
So I had to breed them back trueagain, which in my, he offered
(15:03):
to send me more birds.
I declined the offer because I'mlike,
Carey (15:07):
no, I want a challenge.
Jennifer (15:08):
Well, I felt like moving them back forward again,
then I would fully graspeverything that needs to be done
to make a true blue line.
And it's true.
Um, yep.
Carey (15:20):
I
Jennifer (15:21):
have.
You know, they are laying blue.
I mean, pretty regular.
I mean, all the time.
I'm confident when I send themout that people are getting what
they're, they're asking for, youknow,
Carey (15:36):
so, I mean, that's huge.
That's huge because there's alot of people out there.
It seems like everybody'sselling celadons and it seems
like everybody just got themfive minutes ago.
There's some people that havehad them for years and they can,
like what you, you know, theycan tell the whole process, but
(15:57):
other people, I mean, they'venever talked about a blue egg
and now they're selling them.
And, you know, I think forCeladons do bring, I don't know
a whole lot about it.
But I do know the pricedifference.
Jennifer (16:16):
They take up a lot of space.
There's a price difference in
Carey (16:19):
the old Celadons.
Yeah.
But apparently that's because tohave good quality Celadons, that
is not a fast process.
Jennifer (16:30):
No.
And there's a
Carey (16:31):
lot of work.
So you can't, you can't just bea replicator.
You've got to be an actualbreeder.
Jennifer (16:37):
Yes.
So if you want to be a true bluebreeder.
Then in my case, I'm just goingto speak to how I do it because
I don't know, there's only ahandful of true blue breeders
out there.
Um, I'm only going to speak tohow I do it.
And I use the hatching timecages and I have the dividers in
(17:02):
it.
And, um, when the birds becomeold enough to start laying.
So I have, um, home built growout cages.
When I see that first egg inthat grow out cage, then every
bird in there gets put in theirown section of a hatching time
cage.
Carey (17:20):
I was going to say, they get, they get an instant condo
upgrade.
Correct.
Cause I've been in your barn andI've been like, why do you have
one bird in here?
Jennifer (17:30):
Yep, I have two whole stacks just, well, kind of two
and a half stacks just for that.
And so, the, that stack will bemarked with the rooster number,
the lineage number.
And then make sure all thosehens lay blue.
So I don't have any problem.
You still have to check everytime, because if you're going to
(17:51):
have a problem, you want to snipit in the butt and go back to
the source.
And so, then, once all thosegirls have laid, I usually eat
three to five eggs, depends onhow busy I am.
I look at the three to five eggsthat are in the tray, and then I
look at the bird, make sure thatshe's good, that she's a, a
(18:14):
jumbo size that she don't haveany health issues that you know
her conformation is correct, herface is correct, there's no
missing toes or cross beak oranything is going on with that
bird.
Then I look at her eggs.
And I want to see shiny blueeggs.
I prefer no speckles, but Iunderstand that people like
(18:37):
speckles.
So I do keep some, um, that havespeckles.
But I don't do heavy speckle.
I just don't like them, and it'smy barn.
So I don't do it.
Carey (18:48):
Well, I mean, and I've seen, like I've seen some of
yours that they look like theymight have got a little bit of
pepper dropped on.
Jennifer (18:56):
Mm hmm.
Carey (18:57):
And I've seen, like, I've seen others where You literally
would roll the door up andyou're just throwing them.
Jennifer (19:06):
I do.
Carey (19:07):
Like, and your pigs are at the other end of the barn
like, heck yeah, send it to me,keep them coming.
And I'm just, I'm like, what?
And you're like, it's not blueenough.
And so what you're saying is ifI want to get in the Celadon
game, I'm going to have to startwith some.
(19:31):
I probably should start withlike a breeder group, just drop
the cash, get, get a breedergroup that's confirmed and then
pray that I don't accidentallyhave an OG Pharaoh that slides
his way into the cage becausethen I'm screwed.
(19:56):
So that, keeping them together,like what you do with keeping
them your own in their Like,everybody in this cage, your
celadon, R47 or whoever thelucky cat is, this is his cage
until you hatch the eggs and heeither turns into tank food or
(20:19):
he becomes a confirmed breeder.
Jennifer (20:22):
Right,
Carey (20:24):
and then you That's a lot.
Jennifer (20:28):
Yep.
So then once the roostersconfirmed Then he gets a little
check mark beside his name thathe's been confirmed And so
currently everybody in my barnis confirmed.
So I have no issues so now Thateverybody is confirmed in my
barn and has been for a longtime.
(20:49):
I'm actually working on Um, birdsize and egg size.
You know, I love my larger eggs.
So I actually just go throughthere when I'm pulling for, for
me for the week to hatch out of,I pull all the largest eggs.
I mean, that I know aren'tdouble yokers and I pull all of
(21:11):
them.
And then that's what I'm workingon at this point.
And of course, the larger birdsand I really don't like white
birds.
So, White birds don't stay verylong.
They don't ever make it to mybreeder sets.
It's just a preference.
It's just what I like.
(21:32):
So we didn't talk about plumagecolors.
You didn't ask me about plumagecolors.
Carey (21:36):
Well, you know, to be honest, when everything I see
people talking about, I mean, Iknow that because I've seen
looking at yours.
I know that you can havedifferent, you can have tuxedo,
you can have Egyptian, you canhave pharaoh, they can all have
(21:58):
the celadon gene.
But I don't see anybody askingabout that.
Jennifer (22:04):
You
Carey (22:05):
know, Every once in a while you'll see somebody
mention a color, but most of thetime it's.
I want the blue eggs.
Jennifer (22:12):
Yeah, um, supposedly there's somebody out there with
a feather sexable line ofceladons and every once in a
while I'll see it pop up on aFacebook group or something and
I have dogged them for eggs andI can't get any eggs.
So, I don't know that theyactually have them or they just
(22:34):
don't want to share.
I don't know what the deal is.
Mine are Rosetta.
Tibetan and the tuxedocombination.
Um, I have found in my, my line,now everybody's line is
different.
My line, the tuxedo birds arelarger.
But I prefer the look of theRosetta.
(22:58):
I don't particularly care forthe range, so I have sort of
selected all of those out.
It's the majority of my line.
I'm not going to say 100%, isRosetta Tibetan or Tux thereof?
It's
Carey (23:11):
kind of sad too, because, you know, I'm a red fan.
I like the range.
Jennifer (23:20):
Yeah, I'm not a fan.
I
Carey (23:22):
like I had some one time and, you know, for me, my big
thing is I want a huge bird.
I want Bantam size eggs thataren't double yokers and I want
a pound and I, I tried so hardand it was like the, the range
(23:53):
they're, they're just designedto be.
I mean, I could get them intowhat people consider jumbo,
which I think that's like 12ounces,
Jennifer (24:05):
10,
Carey (24:06):
10, but to me, a 10 ounce bird is not jumbo.
I mean, hey, your, your buttonsare almost to the point of not
needing special quail rails.
Like, you know, so.
Jennifer (24:24):
I can't grow anything small here.
Carey (24:26):
I don't know.
I mean, it's they they just Icouldn't do it, but.
I do like a huge bird that'salso celadon.
Jennifer (24:42):
Working on it.
Carey (24:43):
That would be like, I want to say the cat's meow, but
that has nothing to do withpoultry.
Jennifer (24:52):
You know, I have to just put this out there though.
I mean, it's an egg.
It tastes like an egg.
It cooks like an egg.
It's an egg.
The pigs don't care what colorit is.
I mean, I have them.
They're, they're cool.
They're nifty, but I don't know.
I just,
Carey (25:11):
I mean, most people that you see going nuts over them
online, they're, they're, theyjust, they want them to look at.
Jennifer (25:19):
Yeah.
Um, me personally, if I wasgoing to say my, my favorite
kind of quail egg.
Occasionally, I mean, notoccasionally, but I get them
every day, but I don't knowwho's laying them.
Um, it's a regular quail egg,but it looks more like a marble.
(25:40):
It kind of has a caramel swirlto it.
Yeah, that's my favorite.
Not the splotchy ones, just,they look like marbles.
If I could, maybe one day I'llsort the Pharaoh's.
Find who lays those marbles andmaybe breed, breed those.
I don't know.
That's a whole other day ofstuff to do.
Carey (26:04):
Well, I appreciate you telling me about Celadons.
Um, we will have to continuethis conversation'cause I do
want to know more, but I'm gonnahave to figure, I'm gonna have
to figure out the record keepingway first.
'cause I might have to, I'mgonna have to figure out a cheat
sheet for that or somethingbecause
Jennifer (26:23):
mm-hmm
Carey (26:24):
Yeah,
Jennifer (26:26):
now if you just want to throw celadons in and get a
mixed basket now, that's easy
Carey (26:32):
Yeah, I don't do that.
Jennifer (26:33):
So I sell a lot of the hens choice eggs, and I always
throw celadons in there Soyou'll always get something here
and there in your basket thatway.
Carey (26:43):
There you go Alright, cool deal.
Jennifer (26:48):
Well, hopefully that was an intro to celadons.
Carey (26:50):
Yeah, we'll have to continue later and dive deeper
is I figured out some of therecord keeping and it's time for
lesson number two.
Jennifer (27:01):
Sounds good.
Carey (27:02):
Yeah.
I have a good one.
Jennifer (27:03):
Bye.
Mhm.
Welcome poultry enthusiasts to another exciting
(00:03):
episode of the Poultry NerdsPodcast.
Carey (00:06):
Whether you're raising backyard chickens, diving deep
into the science of avianhealth, Are just obsessed with
all things, feather and eggs.
You're in the right place.
I'm Carey.
Jennifer (00:20):
And I'm Jennifer, your host.
And today we've got an episodepacked with everything you need
to know about celadons.
Carey (00:28):
From expert tips, fascinating facts.
We're here to help you becomethe ultimate poultry pro.
It's time to get nerdy.
This episode is brought to youby.
eggfoam.
com.
Coincidentally, we're talkingabout celadons and their
beautiful blue eggs.
(00:49):
Hatchery owners, farmers, eggenthusiasts, if you're looking
for the best and safest way toship your eggs, go to eggfoam.
com.
They're your go to source forpremium solutions designed
specifically for you.
For egg shipping.
EggFoam.
(01:09):
com, they specialize in highquality, durable foam shippers
that cradle each egg perfectly,providing the support you need
during shipping.
There's even a YouTube videowhere she put eggs in the box
and kicked them around the barnand then they hatched.
(01:33):
So that's pretty awesome.
Whether it's chicken eggs, duckeggs, quail eggs, eggfoam.
com has the perfect solution foryou.
They also have chick shippingboxes.
All the supplies you need, thegrow gel that you need, the
packs to keep them warm so theydon't freeze this time of year,
(01:54):
everything you need to ship 12,13 chicks, or even up to 20
quail will go in there.
Eggfoam.
com.
Jennifer (02:03):
Go there.
Carey (02:04):
Yeah.
Celadons.
Jennifer (02:06):
Yes.
Carey (02:07):
They're beautiful, little, shiny, blue eggs.
How does that happen?
Jennifer (02:15):
We'll see the quail.
The hen, she lays an egg and youget these blue eggs, if y'all
could see his face, you getthese blue eggs,
Carey (02:28):
hen quail lay eggs, you
Jennifer (02:32):
asked, I'm going to give it to you,
Carey (02:35):
but like, okay, so I have seen their celadons is like
right now, chicks, chickens.
Eggs, hatching eggs, they're ahuge hot topic.
Everybody wants that shiny blueegg layer.
(02:59):
Not really the dingy blue, notreally the blue speckled y like
a faro, you know, regular quailegg with some blue on it.
No, they want that shiny blueegg.
Mm
Jennifer (03:14):
hmm.
Carey (03:15):
And you have those.
I do.
How hard is it to make thathappen?
Jennifer (03:21):
It's a royal pain.
It's a pain.
So first you have to buy or get,obtain the gene somehow.
It doesn't just appear out ofthin air.
And any bird, any, we're talkingquail, any quail can carry the
(03:45):
gene.
You cannot tell if it has itfrom just looking at it, unless
it's a hen and she happens to belaying a blue egg at that
moment.
That's the only way you cantell.
But a male, you have to breedand test breed and back cross
(04:05):
and all of those things toconfirm that he is homozygous
for the celadon gene.
Carey (04:12):
So homozygous is what you want.
That means he's got
Jennifer (04:17):
he's got
Carey (04:17):
it two times.
Jennifer (04:19):
Yes
Carey (04:20):
Okay,
Jennifer (04:21):
and you have to have a homozygous male in order to
obtain a true blue line
Carey (04:29):
You know guys have been in charge of either making it
right or Screwing it up forever.
Jennifer (04:38):
So let's, we're going to start at the beginning.
Now I breed Celadons, but Kerrydoes not.
So he's going to play the novicein this conversation for asking
me all of the questions.
Yeah,
Carey (04:53):
because like.
You know, celadons is a hugething right now.
And Misunder, I asked, I askedyou the question because I, I
know you, you breed them and youwas like, let's make a show out
of it.
And I was like, but I want theanswer now, Um, because it is,
it is a very interestingphenomenon to me.
(05:14):
I understand it's a gene and youknow.
You can't tell by looking whichkind of gives a mystery to it,
but you have to obtain it and Iguess Like how do you keep it?
How do you get it bluer?
How do you can you make itjumbo?
Like how does that work?
Jennifer (05:36):
Well, that's a whole lot of questions wrapped up into
one.
Carey (05:39):
Well
Jennifer (05:41):
so first of all a celadon egg is a shiny blue egg.
And if you're lucky, it'srobin's egg blue.
Um, but most of the time it'smore like a sky blue or a pale
blue.
I mean there's variations.
And it could have speckles.
(06:03):
Um, these are not splotches likea regular quail egg.
These are actually raisedspeckles that you can kind of
pop off with your fingernail.
Now, on occasion, a regularquail may lay an egg with a
bluish tint to it.
This does not make her a celadoncarrier.
A hen is either a celadon orshe's not.
(06:26):
There's no heterozygous.
So, you, you can't have a henthat just every once in a while
lay celadon.
That is not a thing.
So, once you've confirmed thatyou have the blue gene in your
hens, then you can do some testbreeding and find it in a male.
(06:54):
And then start working towardscreating a true blue line.
Carey (07:00):
It's oh, let me ask this if I get, so let's, let's say
I'm searching on eBay becauseeverybody seems to go to eBay
for quality hatching eggs.
Um, and I, and I, yeah, I mean,a few people.
There's a few people there thathave quality, but that's just
(07:22):
because they sell everywhere.
Jennifer (07:23):
Mm hmm.
Carey (07:24):
Um, and I buy some blue eggs.
Am I going to get a heterozygousmale if I have a male?
Jennifer (07:36):
Let's see.
Or do
Carey (07:38):
I still need to, like, test it out and find out?
Jennifer (07:44):
So you will get, if you're lucky, a homozygous male,
but you'll still have to do alot of testing to check for
that.
At minimum, you'll get someheterozygous, and that just
means that he's a carrier.
He has one copy of the celadongene.
Uh, homozygous means he has twocopies.
(08:05):
So, if you get a blue egg from abreeder that you don't know
anything about, then you willhave to do a lot of test, a lot
of test hatching to find out ifyour line is true or not.
If you even get one egg that isoff, your line is not true blue.
Carey (08:27):
So, like, if you have one that was going through the
printer and the ink cartridgewas just messed up that day.
You need to call it because it'snot a true blue.
Jennifer (08:38):
Well, how do I explain this?
So, so sometimes a regular quailcan lay like a white egg that
has the swatches on it.
Um, I mean a celadon can dothat.
I have found that more oftenthey're kind of They're very
dull.
They don't have a shiny finishon them.
(09:01):
They might have a big splotch ofspeckles right at the pointy
end.
Um, or they could have so muchpigment on them that they look
almost, um, like a, like aturquoise gem almost, but
they're so soft you really can'thandle them.
They just fall apart in yourhand.
(09:22):
So those are the quote unquoteoff eggs of a celadon.
Carey (09:27):
I gotcha.
So So if I was, let's say Iordered three dozen hatched eggs
and they were all blue, youknow, the way they were supposed
to be, and I hatched them out, Iwould want to get those birds to
(09:48):
maturity level and probably likepair them up maybe, or just let
them run wild until I find outwho lay in the right colors and
separate them.
And like the ones that are layin the real shiny, perfect blue,
I want to keep those hens andthe ones that are lay in the
(10:12):
white or like the really dullcolor blue ones that the color's
not consistent.
I might would want to cullthose.
And then,
Jennifer (10:27):
Selection point.
Carey (10:28):
And take, if I, I'll probably wind up with just a
couple of the pretty blue egglayers.
And then once I have those, I'mguessing I want to just look at
my bachelor pad and be like,who's getting lucky today, pull
(10:49):
him out, stick him in with oneof the hands and let them get to
know each other for a week orso, and then throw some eggs in
the incubator and see whathappens.
And then wait till those matureand see if the hens lay blue
eggs and hope that I didn't getthem mixed up.
Jennifer (11:15):
Yeah, the hoping part.
So, Celadons are a recordkeeping, for me, nightmare for
somebody with OCD.
Maybe it would be their dreamjob.
I don't know.
Um, so if you are wanting tobreed a true blue line, you have
(11:40):
to keep immaculate records.
Carey (11:44):
I'm out.
I'm screwed.
Jennifer (11:47):
So you have to, um, know where each Each of, let's
just, well, let's just start atthe beginning here.
So each of my roosters have aleg band on them, and they are
numbered, and then those eggs goin the incubator, and they are
tagged with his number.
(12:09):
And then those chicks that hatchgo into a brooder, and their,
um, lineage Is on blue tape.
You know, I love my painter'stape.
Carey (12:23):
Painter's tape.
Yeah.
Jennifer (12:23):
Um, the painter's tape stays with them the whole time.
So in my case, um, my shorthandwill say R47 and that tells, I
mean, I can tell by looking atthem that they're, they're
celadons because I mean, I knowwhat my birds look like.
I was going to
Carey (12:38):
say, you don't care about the hen because you can see the
egg and tell that it's a celadonhen.
You're, you're tracking therooster.
To see if he makes Celadonproducing kids,
Jennifer (12:51):
right?
So the reason why I'm keeping upwith it is because if any of
those hens lay off, you know, 8weeks later, um, then I know
that Rue 47 was bad and that heneeds to go in the coal pile.
So I can go ahead and go all theway back to him, yank him out,
(13:12):
make sure all of his sons areout.
Now his daughters, if they layblue, are okay.
They're still Oh,
Carey (13:20):
so if this happens, our 47 and his sons
Jennifer (13:27):
Gone.
Carey (13:28):
They're all Tank food.
They are.
That's why your dog eats sogood.
Jennifer (13:37):
But now his daughters, if they lay blue, they're still
true.
So I can keep them.
So
Carey (13:45):
they'll survive.
Jennifer (13:47):
Yes, and I can put them with another rooster from a
different line, but stilltagged.
And the brooder is still marked,and this goes on and on every
single hatch.
Carey (14:02):
So, like your best case, absolutely most lucky situation.
You're 16 weeks minimum, not belonger than that because you
still got to incubate the lastset.
(14:23):
So you're, you're six months.
Jennifer (14:26):
Yeah, it takes a long time.
And so each let's just, um, how
Carey (14:33):
long have you been working on yourself?
Like the, because I know youstarted with them a good hot
minute back.
Jennifer (14:41):
I want to say 22 22 maybe 2022.
I'm not good with time.
You know that 2022 now I had tobring the gene in Michael at
Southwest gave me birds And theygot mixed up with some non
celadon birds.
So I had to breed them back trueagain, which in my, he offered
(15:03):
to send me more birds.
I declined the offer because I'mlike,
Carey (15:07):
no, I want a challenge.
Jennifer (15:08):
Well, I felt like moving them back forward again,
then I would fully graspeverything that needs to be done
to make a true blue line.
And it's true.
Um, yep.
Carey (15:20):
I
Jennifer (15:21):
have.
You know, they are laying blue.
I mean, pretty regular.
I mean, all the time.
I'm confident when I send themout that people are getting what
they're, they're asking for, youknow,
Carey (15:36):
so, I mean, that's huge.
That's huge because there's alot of people out there.
It seems like everybody'sselling celadons and it seems
like everybody just got themfive minutes ago.
There's some people that havehad them for years and they can,
like what you, you know, theycan tell the whole process, but
(15:57):
other people, I mean, they'venever talked about a blue egg
and now they're selling them.
And, you know, I think forCeladons do bring, I don't know
a whole lot about it.
But I do know the pricedifference.
Jennifer (16:16):
They take up a lot of space.
There's a price difference in
Carey (16:19):
the old Celadons.
Yeah.
But apparently that's because tohave good quality Celadons, that
is not a fast process.
Jennifer (16:30):
No.
And there's a
Carey (16:31):
lot of work.
So you can't, you can't just bea replicator.
You've got to be an actualbreeder.
Jennifer (16:37):
Yes.
So if you want to be a true bluebreeder.
Then in my case, I'm just goingto speak to how I do it because
I don't know, there's only ahandful of true blue breeders
out there.
Um, I'm only going to speak tohow I do it.
And I use the hatching timecages and I have the dividers in
(17:02):
it.
And, um, when the birds becomeold enough to start laying.
So I have, um, home built growout cages.
When I see that first egg inthat grow out cage, then every
bird in there gets put in theirown section of a hatching time
cage.
Carey (17:20):
I was going to say, they get, they get an instant condo
upgrade.
Correct.
Cause I've been in your barn andI've been like, why do you have
one bird in here?
Jennifer (17:30):
Yep, I have two whole stacks just, well, kind of two
and a half stacks just for that.
And so, the, that stack will bemarked with the rooster number,
the lineage number.
And then make sure all thosehens lay blue.
So I don't have any problem.
You still have to check everytime, because if you're going to
(17:51):
have a problem, you want to snipit in the butt and go back to
the source.
And so, then, once all thosegirls have laid, I usually eat
three to five eggs, depends onhow busy I am.
I look at the three to five eggsthat are in the tray, and then I
look at the bird, make sure thatshe's good, that she's a, a
(18:14):
jumbo size that she don't haveany health issues that you know
her conformation is correct, herface is correct, there's no
missing toes or cross beak oranything is going on with that
bird.
Then I look at her eggs.
And I want to see shiny blueeggs.
I prefer no speckles, but Iunderstand that people like
(18:37):
speckles.
So I do keep some, um, that havespeckles.
But I don't do heavy speckle.
I just don't like them, and it'smy barn.
So I don't do it.
Carey (18:48):
Well, I mean, and I've seen, like I've seen some of
yours that they look like theymight have got a little bit of
pepper dropped on.
Jennifer (18:56):
Mm hmm.
Carey (18:57):
And I've seen, like, I've seen others where You literally
would roll the door up andyou're just throwing them.
Jennifer (19:06):
I do.
Carey (19:07):
Like, and your pigs are at the other end of the barn
like, heck yeah, send it to me,keep them coming.
And I'm just, I'm like, what?
And you're like, it's not blueenough.
And so what you're saying is ifI want to get in the Celadon
game, I'm going to have to startwith some.
(19:31):
I probably should start withlike a breeder group, just drop
the cash, get, get a breedergroup that's confirmed and then
pray that I don't accidentallyhave an OG Pharaoh that slides
his way into the cage becausethen I'm screwed.
(19:56):
So that, keeping them together,like what you do with keeping
them your own in their Like,everybody in this cage, your
celadon, R47 or whoever thelucky cat is, this is his cage
until you hatch the eggs and heeither turns into tank food or
(20:19):
he becomes a confirmed breeder.
Jennifer (20:22):
Right,
Carey (20:24):
and then you That's a lot.
Jennifer (20:28):
Yep.
So then once the roostersconfirmed Then he gets a little
check mark beside his name thathe's been confirmed And so
currently everybody in my barnis confirmed.
So I have no issues so now Thateverybody is confirmed in my
barn and has been for a longtime.
(20:49):
I'm actually working on Um, birdsize and egg size.
You know, I love my larger eggs.
So I actually just go throughthere when I'm pulling for, for
me for the week to hatch out of,I pull all the largest eggs.
I mean, that I know aren'tdouble yokers and I pull all of
(21:11):
them.
And then that's what I'm workingon at this point.
And of course, the larger birdsand I really don't like white
birds.
So, White birds don't stay verylong.
They don't ever make it to mybreeder sets.
It's just a preference.
It's just what I like.
(21:32):
So we didn't talk about plumagecolors.
You didn't ask me about plumagecolors.
Carey (21:36):
Well, you know, to be honest, when everything I see
people talking about, I mean, Iknow that because I've seen
looking at yours.
I know that you can havedifferent, you can have tuxedo,
you can have Egyptian, you canhave pharaoh, they can all have
(21:58):
the celadon gene.
But I don't see anybody askingabout that.
Jennifer (22:04):
You
Carey (22:05):
know, Every once in a while you'll see somebody
mention a color, but most of thetime it's.
I want the blue eggs.
Jennifer (22:12):
Yeah, um, supposedly there's somebody out there with
a feather sexable line ofceladons and every once in a
while I'll see it pop up on aFacebook group or something and
I have dogged them for eggs andI can't get any eggs.
So, I don't know that theyactually have them or they just
(22:34):
don't want to share.
I don't know what the deal is.
Mine are Rosetta.
Tibetan and the tuxedocombination.
Um, I have found in my, my line,now everybody's line is
different.
My line, the tuxedo birds arelarger.
But I prefer the look of theRosetta.
(22:58):
I don't particularly care forthe range, so I have sort of
selected all of those out.
It's the majority of my line.
I'm not going to say 100%, isRosetta Tibetan or Tux thereof?
It's
Carey (23:11):
kind of sad too, because, you know, I'm a red fan.
I like the range.
Jennifer (23:20):
Yeah, I'm not a fan.
I
Carey (23:22):
like I had some one time and, you know, for me, my big
thing is I want a huge bird.
I want Bantam size eggs thataren't double yokers and I want
a pound and I, I tried so hardand it was like the, the range
(23:53):
they're, they're just designedto be.
I mean, I could get them intowhat people consider jumbo,
which I think that's like 12ounces,
Jennifer (24:05):
10,
Carey (24:06):
10, but to me, a 10 ounce bird is not jumbo.
I mean, hey, your, your buttonsare almost to the point of not
needing special quail rails.
Like, you know, so.
Jennifer (24:24):
I can't grow anything small here.
Carey (24:26):
I don't know.
I mean, it's they they just Icouldn't do it, but.
I do like a huge bird that'salso celadon.
Jennifer (24:42):
Working on it.
Carey (24:43):
That would be like, I want to say the cat's meow, but
that has nothing to do withpoultry.
Jennifer (24:52):
You know, I have to just put this out there though.
I mean, it's an egg.
It tastes like an egg.
It cooks like an egg.
It's an egg.
The pigs don't care what colorit is.
I mean, I have them.
They're, they're cool.
They're nifty, but I don't know.
I just,
Carey (25:11):
I mean, most people that you see going nuts over them
online, they're, they're, theyjust, they want them to look at.
Jennifer (25:19):
Yeah.
Um, me personally, if I wasgoing to say my, my favorite
kind of quail egg.
Occasionally, I mean, notoccasionally, but I get them
every day, but I don't knowwho's laying them.
Um, it's a regular quail egg,but it looks more like a marble.
(25:40):
It kind of has a caramel swirlto it.
Yeah, that's my favorite.
Not the splotchy ones, just,they look like marbles.
If I could, maybe one day I'llsort the Pharaoh's.
Find who lays those marbles andmaybe breed, breed those.
I don't know.
That's a whole other day ofstuff to do.
Carey (26:04):
Well, I appreciate you telling me about Celadons.
Um, we will have to continuethis conversation'cause I do
want to know more, but I'm gonnahave to figure, I'm gonna have
to figure out the record keepingway first.
'cause I might have to, I'mgonna have to figure out a cheat
sheet for that or somethingbecause
Jennifer (26:23):
mm-hmm
Carey (26:24):
Yeah,
Jennifer (26:26):
now if you just want to throw celadons in and get a
mixed basket now, that's easy
Carey (26:32):
Yeah, I don't do that.
Jennifer (26:33):
So I sell a lot of the hens choice eggs, and I always
throw celadons in there Soyou'll always get something here
and there in your basket thatway.
Carey (26:43):
There you go Alright, cool deal.
Jennifer (26:48):
Well, hopefully that was an intro to celadons.
Carey (26:50):
Yeah, we'll have to continue later and dive deeper
is I figured out some of therecord keeping and it's time for
lesson number two.
Jennifer (27:01):
Sounds good.
Carey (27:02):
Yeah.
I have a good one.
Jennifer (27:03):
Bye.
Mhm.
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