I love those eggs, I've been hoping that other people would have them and start sharing anecdotes about how true they breed. Do you happen to know the line of your quail? I ordered Alchemist line celadon quail eggs from Rising Phoenix Farm in South Carolina because I wanted celadons that breed true. It seems to be a tricky gene for breeders to get locked down where hens hatched from blue eggs will lay blue eggs themselves. Her quail are from the most true breeding celadon line that I could find, most breeders say that they have flocks that breed 25-30% true. Alot of celadon eggs do have very tiny speckles on the surface that can be scratched off with a fingernail, but those speckles are nothing like the large splotches like on your eggs. If I remember right James Marie Farms encouraged breeders who got their stock from them to select for solid blue eggs as a standard, so most breeders only hatch those.
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Pure blue celadon, speckled, Unique
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All 36 celadon eggs that I received
When I placed my order, she sent me three eggs that are just like the ones you have there, out of an order of 36 eggs. Two of those three hatched and I have kept track of which two those are so I can see if they or their descendants will also lay those eggs. I actually emailed her to inquire about them as I had never seen celadon eggs with the normal sized brown splotches and couldn't find any information about them. I know that the main goal of celadon breeders, after getting them to breed true of course, is to select for blue eggs with no speckles at all, and that was my goal as well, but I think that those three eggs were more unique than the standard.
Here is a clip from my email:
"Three of the eggs you sent me had the large brown splotches like a normal coturnix egg, but on a celedon background rather than the normal white. I've never seen pictures of or heard of celedon eggs like those, just the pure blue celedon and tiny brown speckled blue celedon eggs. Are these three eggs common in your flock and do you know if the hen(s) that laid those three eggs breeds true? I chose to start with celedon because they are unique but those three eggs are unique among the unique. Two of those unique eggs hatched and I've kept track of which chicks came from those eggs just incase it is something different."
And here was her reply:
"Hi! So the hens that laid eggs like that were odd. I didn’t realize it until I started checking/separating each hen, but the same hen will lay a beautiful blue egg one day and speckled the next! Weirdest thing I ever saw. I never hatched the speckled eggs, so I don’t know. I imagine they will remain blue eggs but may produce speckles as well. Some people love the speckled ones, so I toss a couple in if needed to fill in a couple spots of your free eggs. I removed those 2 hens now. Another appears to have popped up from my last hatch. The blue eggs with quail isn’t so cut and dry like it is with chickens. My first 2 generations gave me all blue layers. My 3rd I got 1 speckled layer. my 4-5th generation I got 1-3. I’m trying to reduce/eliminate it so we will see."
