Black Austtalorp - blue eggs??

[lowflyer]

Has anyone ever heard of a Black Australiorp laying greenish-blue eggs?

We lost one to a fox several days ago...and have not gotten another greenish-blue egg since! I assumed she was laying medium-brown eggs like the other three Black Australorps.

We had 14 hens and six roosters until earlier this week, when a fox managed to get one of the Black Australorps, and the two Buff Orpington roosters that went after him, trying to protect the hen. All that was left were scattered piles of feathers, and oddly, Letitia's tail and the broken egg she was close to laying when she was taken. (It was still white, it hasn't made it that far down her oviduct).

Here's the breeds I have/had:

4 Black Australorps (from TSC) (now 3 left)
4 Golden Comets (from TSC)
2 Barred Rocks (from TSC)
2 Easter Eggers (from Murray McMurry hatchery)
1 Golden Wyandotte/Easter Egger (McMurry also)
1 Bantam Cochin

We had been getting 10 - 12 eggs a day on average, as many as 13 in a day. They were various shades of brown, plus we got a white one about 4 or 5 times a week, and a greenish blue one about 3 to 5 times a week. With three EE's I thought Rachel, who has white ears was producing the white one, one of the EE's was laying the greenish blue one and the third, just a regular brown one.

I was very surprised the greenish blue eggs stopped after losing Letitia. So it must have been her, after all, instead of one of the EE's!

Just figures, a fox would manage to grab my only hen laying greenish blue eggs.

But bow can this be? She looked just like the other Black Ausralodps.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If the egg inside her was white, she was not the one laying blue/green eggs. A white or brown egg is white throughout but a blue/green egg is blue throughout. If you still have one of your greenish eggs look at the inside of the shell when you use it. You’ll see that it is blue throughout, not just on the surface. The green comes from brown laid on top of the blue.

I have some sympathy. I not only lost my only green egg layer in a dog attack but the only cockerel I had suitable for the next year’s breeding project. I had to start over. My dominant rooster managed to get himself to safety but I lost a total of eight chickens that day to two dogs abandoned in the country.

 

[lowflyer]

Hhmm, that does make sense. Odd though, that the one laying the "Easter eggs" decided to quit laying that night. The one I had originally believed to be laying them, has the classic fluffy head and "furry ears" as well as kind of a furry beard.

I had 4 Buff Orpington roos to begin with. All four out of four chicks from TSC, sold as pullets...surprise! They all started crowing. Didn't have the heart to terminate the little guys though, and let them free range, with a special "rooster roost" indoors for them to sleep safe at night. They could run around and around the regular outdoor pen, just not get in there and annoy the hens, or the Black Australorp rooster with them. (Another TSC oops!)

We lost the first boy a couple months ago, when he decided to go after the pesky groundhog in the tall brush and brambles by the drainage ditch near the coop and pen. He ran off the groundhog, but apparently a fox was living in there as well. Nothing left but feathers the next day.

We put up a special "rooster roost" next to the coop, so they could see and "talk" to the hens without annoying them. Thomas, the dominant one, and Andrew, his second in command, wouldn't let poor James up there. He had to hide behind the trash can containers that we keep the feed in. Every night I'd crush up a little bag of stale Doritos and pour it out for his special treat.

When the hen escaped, she must have thrown up a ruckus, and both Thomas and Andrew made a beeline out there to rescue her. From the feather piles and trail, they put up one hell of a fight, but it was too late for Letitia. They gave their lives for her, saving the life of Rachel, the other "escapee". I found her the next morning, a little scared but unharmed. The fox must have forgotten about her, because he took both roosters and my poor Letitia.

But James, the timid, subordinate roo stayed hidden in his little corner behind the metal containers, and lived to crow another day.

 

[donrae]

Something as disruptive as a predator attack can effect laying. It may simply be the blue egg layer got stressed by the disappearance of the other birds and decided to go on hiatus.