Brown Egg layers laying green/olive eggs?

[NatJ]

@NatJ I understand the issues with shipping. My comment was that for my purposes, I want to get 16 or so chickens started in early spring of 2024, and maybe another 16 in late spring if finances allow for the buildout of a 3rd coop system this year. If not, then spring 2025. Then, the 1st experimental batch I'm discussing here gets culled as they age out and replaced with pure production breeds like the Australorps I've ordered in this year.

I'm never quite sure who knows how much

That sounds like a good plan, expanding the space as you are able to and then getting the chicks to live in the space.

As a long-term plan, after all the coops are built, you may be able to get new chicks just once a year and still maintain a fairly constant egg supply. That can let you order more chicks at a time, if you want to deal with a hatchery that has higher minimums.

It seems like a very large portion of this platforms members are more hobby/pet oriented. So, I'm not going to spend 15 or 16 dollars per chick for my end goals.

That makes perfect sense.

There are people on the forum who have more practical goals (the "meat" section tends to have a nice clump of them), but I agree about making sure you keep your own goals in mind when deciding what price is reasonable to pay for chicks. A "good deal" for one person may not be a good deal for someone else with different goals!

 

[fuzzi]

People tend to post when they have a question or a problem. It is less common for people to post a thread that says "I ordered chicks from a hatchery and nothing went wrong!" (Although there are some threads that pretty much say, "look at my cute chicks!")

If you look at threads about brooder setup, and sexing chicks, there are usually quite a few people who ordered from hatcheries and did get the correct chicks.

My "almost nothing went wrong" tale:

I bought 10 SR (straight run) locally, wound up with 3 pullets and 7 cockerels. I needed more pullets, but didn't want to risk SR again. Since I chose to have bantams my options were limited for ordering sexed chicks, most hatcheries either don't sell sexed bantam chicks or only in assorted breeds. I ordered 5 sexed Dominique bantams from Cackle. They sent 6 healthy chicks, but 2 turned out to be males. Cackle gave me a refund, I sold the cockerels at an auction, and broke even. And I love my Dominique gals!

 

[saysfaa]

... just ordered a batch of 16 Australorps from Hoover's for early March delivery. Can I really expect not to get 16 female Australorps from them?...

Australorps are not an autosexed breed. That means you can't sex them as soon as they hatch by differences in their feathers (males white; females red for example. or white dot on the top of the heads of the males and no dot on the females).

So, they need to be vent sexed (vents look very slightly different in males vs females). That is usually about 90% accurate when done by a pro as it will be done by the hatcheries. Odds are you will get one or two males in your order. Odds being what they are, you also might get 16 pullets. Some of this is strictly the odds; some might be a little bit how skilled the pro is.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Australorps are not an autosexed breed. That means you can't sex them as soon as they hatch by differences in their feathers (males white; females red for example. or white dot on the top of the heads of the males and no dot on the females).

So, they need to be vent sexed (vents look very slightly different in males vs females). That is usually about 90% accurate when done by a pro as it will be done by the hatcheries. Odds are you will get one or two males in your order. Odds being what they are, you also might get 16 pullets. Some of this is strictly the odds; some might be a little bit how skilled the pro is.

The good news is the cockerels make pretty good eating.

 

[MMelton67]

Australorps are not an autosexed breed. That means you can't sex them as soon as they hatch by differences in their feathers (males white; females red for example. or white dot on the top of the heads of the males and no dot on the females).

So, they need to be vent sexed (vents look very slightly different in males vs females). That is usually about 90% accurate when done by a pro as it will be done by the hatcheries. Odds are you will get one or two males in your order. Odds being what they are, you also might get 16 pullets. Some of this is strictly the odds; some might be a little bit how skilled the pro is.

I ran into that with the 8 Rocks I ordered from Hoovers...the same batch you see here that now has the Olive Egger from the same batch. I learned the stats about sexing them at that time and understand that. But, stats wise, that means 20% of the order was incorrect. If I get males in the Australorp batch then I'll just keep them if the ratio is appropriate and see if I can just generate my own chicks down the road.

 

[MMelton67]

I thought I'd post a pic of one of the opened olive eggs before they go to compost. Someone said something about blue shell on the inside. These look pretty white with just color on the outer part of the shell? Or, what am I missing. We are still getting 1 olive egg a day, which seems to indicate more than one laying? Like, there's no way the one with the crest is giving an egg every single day is there? It doesn't really matter, just curious.

 

[NatJ]

I thought I'd post a pic of one of the opened olive eggs before they go to compost. Someone said something about blue shell on the inside. These look pretty white with just color on the outer part of the shell? Or, what am I missing.

Typically the brown on an egg is just on the outside of the shell, with the inside looking white. A blue or green egg will typically have the blue color all the way through the shell, although it might be somewhat faint. The membrane is white, so you can see the shell color better if you peel off the membrane.

To me, I think that looks faintly blue inside (with the white membrane over it.) You could compare it with the inside of some brown eggs, or white ones if you have them, to see if they look different to you.

We are still getting 1 olive egg a day, which seems to indicate more than one laying? Like, there's no way the one with the crest is giving an egg every single day is there? It doesn't really matter, just curious.

Some hens really do lay every day.

One egg each day is either one very good layer, or else you two taking turns. If there are two taking turns, you should have occasional days when they get mis-aligned and you get two eggs. So you can wait and see how often you get two eggs (never, sometimes, or frequently.)

 

[FunClucks]

View attachment 3709112

I thought I'd post a pic of one of the opened olive eggs before they go to compost. Someone said something about blue shell on the inside. These look pretty white with just color on the outer part of the shell? Or, what am I missing. We are still getting 1 olive egg a day, which seems to indicate more than one laying? Like, there's no way the one with the crest is giving an egg every single day is there? It doesn't really matter, just curious.

Blue eggs can be practically white, but when combined with brown egg genes give olive/green. Looks like you have light olive color - the blue egg gene from the parent can be nearly white to get that color olive - I've bred eggers with that color eggs, and the blue egg parent wasn't terribly blue. Put the egg inside shell next to a very white sheet of printer paper to tell the difference, in good lighting. May have to peel off the inner membrane also. But you will see some blueness in the shell, the brown-ness is a coating.
Also, why are you composting the eggs? Unless you need more calcium in the compost, I always smash them up and feed them back to my flock for a calcium boost - they love them. You can feed them raw freshly smashed, or you can dry them/cook them in an oven if you're worried about any contamination but since these are their own eggs, it's not like they'd be exposed to anything they're not already exposed to. In this case, I'd just smash the wet shells up and give them back to the chickens. Also if you have any extra eggs, those are a super treat. I just mash the shell and egg up together and sprinkle some crumble in. I make sure they don't see me smash them up to avoid egg eating.

 

[MMelton67]

Blue eggs can be practically white, but when combined with brown egg genes give olive/green. Looks like you have light olive color - the blue egg gene from the parent can be nearly white to get that color olive - I've bred eggers with that color eggs, and the blue egg parent wasn't terribly blue. Put the egg inside shell next to a very white sheet of printer paper to tell the difference, in good lighting. May have to peel off the inner membrane also. But you will see some blueness in the shell, the brown-ness is a coating.
Also, why are you composting the eggs? Unless you need more calcium in the compost, I always smash them up and feed them back to my flock for a calcium boost - they love them. You can feed them raw freshly smashed, or you can dry them/cook them in an oven if you're worried about any contamination but since these are their own eggs, it's not like they'd be exposed to anything they're not already exposed to. In this case, I'd just smash the wet shells up and give them back to the chickens. Also if you have any extra eggs, those are a super treat. I just mash the shell and egg up together and sprinkle some crumble in. I make sure they don't see me smash them up to avoid egg eating.

Yea, it did look bluer as compared to white paper. gotcha. re: composting: we're in southern Indiana...the soil on this property is complete garbage clay...in some places it is 'clay' and not 'clay like'. So, everything goes into the compost to be tilled in where we want to garden this spring. I had avoided giving them shell/egg because I thought I'd read somewhere it could habituate them to eating their own eggs. I guess not? They have access to oyster shell as they want.

 

[FunClucks]

Yea, it did look bluer as compared to white paper. gotcha. re: composting: we're in southern Indiana...the soil on this property is complete garbage clay...in some places it is 'clay' and not 'clay like'. So, everything goes into the compost to be tilled in where we want to garden this spring. I had avoided giving them shell/egg because I thought I'd read somewhere it could habituate them to eating their own eggs. I guess not? They have access to oyster shell as they want.

Most folks who re-feed the egg shells don't have a problem with it - I've done it for 2 years now and not had an issue with egg eating. As long as the chickens aren't bored, are well fed, and not taught / shown how to eat an egg, the only egg eating that's happened in my flock is when someone breaks an egg by accident (toe nails, stepping, cracking cause they fell, etc.). I do have some hens that will peck the eggs, but I keep fake ceramic eggs in the nest boxes, and that deters them from thinking that pecking eggs will get them anywhere. I keep oyster shell out there too, but egg shells are preferred by far, if they get the choice. Silly chickens. I love to watch them chase each other and try to steal the shells.