My EEs egg color changed from blue to brown!

[Hardboiled]

pips&peeps :

My two cents, NOT POSSIBLE to go from blue to brown.

While you are free to express your opinion, I watched her lay both of these eggs from start to finish. Maybe she's been laying this whole week as well, I just assumed not since there were no more blues but when I saw her in the nest box I sat and watched... she's a standing layer so I literally saw both the blue and the brown eggs appear. I repositioned the first colored egg for the photo op immediately after watching her lay it. I was about 5' away both times - watched her walk into the empty box and saw the eggs emerge both times so... frankly, you are wrong.​

 

[Krys109uk]

While you are free to express your opinion, I watched her lay both of these eggs from start to finish.

I doubt anyone is calling you a liar. I think the opinion being expressed is probably that they think you are mistaken.

I know, from experience, that thing that are not supposed to happen, sometimes do happen; I also know, from experience, that sometimes mistakes can be made (or, in my case, several.

).

Has the bird in question laid any other eggs? If so what colour were they?

I'll explain why it seems so strange:
The blue egg colour is most often due to a blue egg gene (O). The outer colour of the egg can be changed to a green colour by genes for brown pigment being laid down on top of the shell. The blue colour goes right through the egg shell. The entire egg shell is blue; the borwn pigment is on the surface, so the inside colur of the egg is often different to the outside colour. I had it suggested to me by a very well known poultry geneticist, Dr Clive Carefoot, that the pigment causing the blue was the same as the pigment which caused feathers to be black. I don't know, I'm not knowledgeable about the subject to that degree. While, perhaps, it might be possible for the blue pigment to "turn off" it seems highly unlikely that the brown pigment, the layer over the top of egg colour which makes blue eggs green, would symultaneously just "turn on" at exactly the same time as the blue pigment "turned off". So I expect you can see why people might think you may have made a genuine mistake.

That said, I expect she will settle down & lay a certain colour of egg which will change only in shade not in colour.
If you genuinely have a very strange bird it would be good to get someone to help you to document this.​

 

[Akane]

Only thing I could think of to make it hold true is that the hen has both the blue gene and one or 2 of the lighter brown genes. There are lots of brown genes and dark brown eggs are a result of a mix of them. If the hen had only a few and of the ones that produce very light brown eggs then it might not be enough to turn the eggs from blue to green like you usually get. The change could then be accounted for by molting. Hens will lay darker eggs after molt and they will steadily get lighter. The amount of shell layers or color laid down changes a little. Hens also tend to stop laying for awhile during molt. So after molt they can lay a different shade than before molt. If we throw in the blue and brown genes it's hypothetically possible you are just seeing one color expressed more before molt and another expressed more after molt without there being enough brown there to turn the eggs green when the blue is being laid down more and hiding the brown.

It is a slight stretch though and I'd only follow that theory after thoroughly proving it was the same hen. If you have the hen with other chickens then unless you see the egg actually coming out or your others are months too young there is always a possibility someone is slipping an egg in the nest and the other hen just happens to be the one there when you see.

 

[M To The Maxx]

Just to let everybody know that EEs can lay any color egg. Only true Ameraucanas and Araucanas lay just blue eggs.

 

[Krys109uk]

Only true Ameraucanas and Araucanas lay just blue eggs

.

There are other breeds which lay blue eggs (or green), such as Cream Legbars, Shetland chickens & others.​

 

[damarisgw]

Quote:
.

There are other breeds which lay blue eggs (or green), such as Cream Legbars, Shetland chickens & others.

I have an oegb that lays blue/ green eggs and all of a sudden their cream colored

 

[Hardboiled]

Quote:
That's interesting. I do wonder if she's a chimera -with two complete sets of DNA. It happens in humans occasionally. There was the woman who's DNA didn't match her own children but a sample from another area of her body did.

I absolutely saw her lay them though. The first one I watched because I was excited to see a colored egg so when she hopped into her temporary nestbox I pulled up a chair and watched! She's a standing layer and as soon as it popped out I moved it in front of her for the photo op. You may have noticed in the pic that she didn't look too pleased.

She laid a blue one the next day as well.

The brown one I watched too because I went out to check for eggs and there were none. She was singing her eggsong and hopped in, stood and popped it out. I was so excited that she was laying again but my mouth dropped open when a brown egg emerged! It was still wet when I picked it up. She laid a lighter brown egg today.

She's not with my other hens just yet but is with an 18 week old pullet who may or may not be laying... haven't seen her do it yet but the nest box was definitely devoid of eggs both times Pikachu went in. Apparently she's an exhibitionist!

The next time she starts singing I'm going to grab the camcorder and catch her in the act! If she starts laying blue again I'll get a vid of that too. Good thing I work nights... sitting around with a camcorder to catch a hen laying... does that count as chicken obsessed?

 

[lavacaw]

Definitely makes you a candidate for a "crazy chicken lady"!

 

[ERnoleGuy]

Let me clear up some of the previously stated information. In response to Krys109uk's post about the blue going all the way through the shell on blue shelled eggs. I know the color of an egg is laid down (like a coat of paint) near the end of the egg's production. White is the absence of any additional coloring.

Sorry Krys109uk but I think you are wrong. I read a research paper on blue eggs titled "A study on eggshell pigmentation: biliverdin in blue-shelled chickens". So all eggs start out white, and depending on the birds genetics, they would get a final "coat of paint" that was either/any shade of brown, blue, greenish... or just stay white. Brown color comes from protoporphyrin/hemeglobin and blue color comes from oocyanin/biliverdin. The greenish hues come from a mixing of the two. Both of which come are deposited 3-4 hours before egg laying in the egg gland.

In conclusion, biologically if this is an Easter Egger chicken it can have both genes for the expression of protoporphyrin & biliverdin in its genotype. Normally the are expressed in lets say 'different amounts' to give either a blue egg, a brown egg, or a mix... which usually equals green. We know that a single chickens egg can change "shades" from egg to egg, so biophysically, I don't see why this wouldn't be possible. While peoples' eyes DO NOT CHANGE COLOR (at least not on a day to day basis, over years of life yes, but not daily unless you put contacts in), if an egg shell's outer pigment is derived from an ever changing biochemical makeup of the chicken as an organism, and then "painted on" at the last minute in the egg gland... why not be blue one day and brown the next. Think of it as this: today the blue paint gun was on low, and the brown on high. So we got a brown egg. Other days the blue is on high, and the brown is off alltogether so we get a blue egg. And on other days the paint guns are both on medium so we get greenish eggs. And of course all sorts of inbetweens. It would be different if only one gene could be expressed at a time. But we know they can both be expressed simultaneously. That's how we already get the green eggs. So to get a green egg an EE chicken must be producing both biliverdin AND protoporphyrin. It just makes sense that the ratios of the two molecules fluctuate. Granted, this is not how it usually happens. Genes are expressed in a certain ratio that stays fairly steady state, giving just one color egg. I think exogenous factors are a key. This is one special chicken if this is indeed what is going on.

This is my 2 cents from about an hour of research (at 3am nonetheless) and a degree in Biology. Let the arguments begin. I probably just opened up a huge can of worms. My head hurts from all this. I feel like I am in college genetics all over again.

PS: Look around on her backside for a color chooser switch. Kinda like a vending machine. HAHAHAHAHAHA. That would be awesome.

 

[ging3rhoffman]

The man that sold me these eggs have Amber Star chickens. Which is a cross of RIR X White Rock chickens and he said all these colors come from Amber Stars. He said the older the hens get the lighter the egg gets.