Whose eggs are these?

LilyBird

In the Brooder
May 20, 2015
80
20
36
Ontario Canada
I have 9 hens/pullets that have only just started giving me eggs. Yay! ;) I know for sure that my only bantam (Silkie) is laying. And I know one of the two Easter eggers I have is laying because I'm getting blue eggs and none of my others could be laying blue. But I'm puzzled at some of these other eggs. They are bantam size, and have more of a pink tinge to them, and one is almost brown. Lol I know the Silkie lays cream. She was the first to lay. And I've collected three eggs in one day, so it wasn't only the Silkie.
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So who could be laying the pinkish ones?
Here's what I have:
3 lavender orpingtons (heritage - they are huge!)
2 black australorps (also huge)
2 Easter eggers
1 Araucana cross with barnevelder (olive egger)
1 Silkie

As seen here behind my toddler :)

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Mystery solved. I snuck out and caught one of my orpingtons in the nest box, along with the EE and the Silkie waiting in line to use the same box. Lol

I'm surprised the orpingtons egg is so small though! She's 7-8 months old right now. Is that normal?
 
That will not be the final size of the eggs. When a pullet first starts to lay her eggs are usually quite small, especially if she is a bit young to start. It’s nature’s way of protecting them. Their bodies aren’t quite mature so they could have trouble handling really large eggs. The eggs will get bigger as they lay. After their first molt they will be larger.

I know you read that a certain breed is supposed to lay a certain shade of brown egg. Well, they don’t always. Egg color is one of the many things that if the person choosing which chickens gets to breed uses it as a criteria, then you can get consistency. But if it is not used as a criteria, then you can get egg shell shades all over the place. Each hatchery has their own individuals choosing which chickens go into the breeding pens. They each have their own criteria. Egg shell color is not going to be used at many, if any, hatcheries except maybe on the breeds where color is part of the breed like Welsummers that should lay dark brown eggs. Even with these breeds I doubt many hatcheries use it as a criteria.

Breeders can be just as bad though your odds improve. Some breeders just breed for the traits the judge will see, trying to win a championship. A judge does not see or judge the egg. Or maybe they are breeding for productivity or something else instead of egg color. Some breeders do use egg shell color when selecting the breeding pairs or trios. If egg shell color is important to you, try talking to the breeder or, better yet, if they are local ask to see the eggs he flock lays. I like breeders that pay attention to this type of detail even for breeds not known for strong egg shell color but this makes it harder to breed a championship bird.

As long as that Araucana in that olive egger cross was a true Araucana and pure for the blue egg gene, any of your others could lay those pink eggs.

I see you posted while I was typing. I see you saw an Orp waiting to lay. Possibly you have solved the mystery. Possibly you have another starting to lay. Either way, good luck.

What I said about egg shell color is also true about egg size. If the person selecting the chickens that get to breed pays attention to egg size, then you can get consistency. If they don’t, you don’t. The few Orps I’ve had did not lay a really large egg, closer to medium. But that was only two hens from a specific hatchery. Two is not enough for averages to mean anything plus you almost certainly did not get them from that hatchery. It sounds like you probably got them from a breeder. Again, if you can see the eggs the breeding flock lays you can get an idea of the size of the eggs to expect when the pullets grow up, but starting small is perfectly normal.
 
I got all my birds from just local farmers and backyard breeders. I don't show, I just have them for the enjoyment and the yummy eggs. Colour doesn't matter to me at all. Although I am really enjoying the pretty blue of the Easter egger eggs. :)

It's funny, because my Easter eggers first egg was HUGE and then they got smaller. The big blue egg in this picture is her first - I blew it out to keep it :)
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It's funny she laid an XL egg first and the Orpington is laying XS lol I'm glad for the bird that she's starting small though.

As for the Araucana X, she came from a green / olive egg. So I'm guessing she will lay something like that. I did get to see the eggs that she came from. :)
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If the Araucana parent came from a green egg, not baby blue, it is not a true Araucana. It may or may not be true for the blue egg gene. True means that both the genes at that gene pair are the same.

Since the blue egg gene is dominant and she hatched from a dark green egg, she (your pullet, not the mother) has at least a 50% chance of laying a green egg, probably dark green. The father also contributes to those genetics. Without knowing the details, she has at least a 50% chance and it could be a slam dunk that you get the egg you are looking for. I sure wish you luck.

Even knowing the details doesn’t always help. One hatch I should have had four green egg laying pullets, I got one, the rest laid brown eggs. The next hatch I got eight out of nine green egg layers when it should have been only four or five. Sometimes the odds gods are kind, sometimes no so much. That’s part of the fun, you never know what you will get until you get it.
 
Hmmm. I'm probably not remembering correctly, but I think the mother was an Araucana. But she also could have been a cross. And she was bred with the barnevelder to get my little Bea here. :) Bea came from an olive egg. So who knows what she will lay herself. I'm not worried about it at all. As long as she lays edible eggs I'm good with it. She's quite the character. I wish I had a better picture of her. She is mostly grey with some brown feathers near her neck and a little bit of the puffed collar. :)
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I'm not positive, but it wouldn't surprise me if a better bred, heritage bird's egg might take longer to reach a large size. Especially in a slow to mature breed like an Orpington. I'll bet by spring you're getting nice huge eggs from her.

I love your purple coop
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