Any egg but brown/beige or shades thereof

[henaynei]

I’m just starting out with an endangered heritage breed that lays brown/beige eggs. I’ll be working on building their numbers this spring. Thus I’ll be incubating as many of their eggs as I can to grow and cull to improve the health, type, productivity etc. So I won’t be eating a lot of their eggs come spring.
I DO want eating eggs though.
I’d like to add several hens that lay any other color egg.
I’ll be doing a modified pasture raised model so those hens would have to be good at foraging.
I’m also fairly cold here in winters (can easily be less than -15F and has been quite a bit this year) and hot in the summers (again can be in 90’s for extended periods, even over 100 occ).
It’s just me and I work so I can’t be chasing escape prone chickens over my hilly and forested property.
Ok
Any suggestions for good layers that fit the bill?

 

[lazy gardener]

I suggest that you look at Henderson's chicken breeds chart. There's a chicken breed to fit every owner's desire. The bird that I find to be the absolute best bird for me, you might find lacking. Cold winters: I suggest pea or rose comb. Along those lines, I'm fond of Buck Eye, and Dominique. For different colored eggs, I'd add EE or Ameraucana. Or even some Rose Comb Brown Leghorns.

 

[henaynei]

Yes, I’ve become familiar with many of the “help you choose” tools/sites and do/did/have investigated them
Additionally, I’m looking for and appreciate knowledgeable experienced feed back and suggestions, including yours!

 

[lazy gardener]

OOPS! I thought you WANTED brown/beige eggs! Scratch the Dominique or Buck Eye! Your choices are going to be limited severely, given cold climate! How bout Hamburg? RCBL, Ameraucana. IME, white egg layers tend to be a bit flighty. Ameraucana are not as dependable layers as the brown egg layers. While it's admirable to want to improve a heritage breed, that is not something that I have the time, space or money to be involved in. So, I can't offer much assistance there!

 

[henaynei]

LOL
Yeah — many DO want browns...but I need to know easily which eggs are from my Java girls ’
thanks

 

[henaynei]

What is a RCBL?
I might go with Ameraucana, their colors would make it easy to distinguish my Java eggs

 

[Percheron chick]

Rose comb brown leghorn.

 

[ve]

Get Ameraucanas and Marans. You will have very colorful egg basket and will know whose the eggs are.

 

[henaynei]

Rose comb brown leghorn.

Thanks

 

[henaynei]

Get Ameraucanas and Marans. You will have very colorful egg basket and will know whose the eggs are.