Blue Egg Thread

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I’ve seen a couple posts about folks complaining that their blue egg layers don’t lay blue enough eggs. Some say the eggs from Legbars are too pale blue while others complain that the Ameraucanas lay eggs that are more green than blue.
My Ameraucana hens lay lovely blue eggs. On occasion they are green hued or even grayish but they consistently lay beautiful blue eggs. Thoughts? Pictures?
F1 Easter Egger egg on the right, Ameraucana eggs on the left

Green egg is from F1 Easter Egger

F1 Easter Egger egg on the left, Ameraucana egg on the right (grey)

Ameraucana eggs top and center, F1 Easter Egger egg on the left

 

[Skipper81]

My Aracuana lays green eggs for some reason lol
My Ameraucanas lay blue
My legbar lays the bluest eggs I’ve ever seen
I’ll try to find photos they aren’t laying right now

 

[azygous]

At risk of starting the old debate about Ameraucana vs Easter Egger, which can be the same thing - cross breeding of blue-egg breeds to arrive at a blue-egg laying breed that will often lay a broad range of blue, turquoise, olive green, and even tan colored eggs.

Another disclaimer: shades of color in the green to blue range are very often misidentified by people due to slight variations and degrees of human color blindness. It's very common to come upon two people strenuously arguing whether a certain color is green or blue. So it's a common thing to mistake the quality of color of EE eggs, as well as blue eggs from a pure blue egg layer.

I'm not an expert or even minimally knowledgeable of poultry genetics, but I do understand egg color. I have both Cream Legbars and EEs (hatchery called them Ameraucanas.) These breeds both start out by building a pure blue egg shell around the egg in the shell gland. This means that this color is part of the shell and will not rub off as is the case of all other colored eggs which all begin as pure white eggs in the shell gland.

In all colored egg layers except for true Ameraucanas, Araucanas and Legbars, the white egg shell has a tint laid down after the shell is formed. The tint is made from discarded red blood cells, and according to breed, the tint may be a light cream or a darker tan as Speckled Sussex lay, or a reddish brown as Welsummers lay or a dark chocolate brown as some Marans lay. The heavier the tint of red blood cells, the easier it is to rub off, by the way.

In the case of EEs, they are genetically blue egg breeds, but they have mixed genes for other colors on top of the blue. So if you have an EE with blue egg predominant genes, you will get blue eggs nearly identical to Legbars. This is how I ended up with several mixed EE and Legbar chickens since I couldn't distinguish a pure blue EE egg from my Legbar eggs.

So, if you have an EE that lays greenish eggs, she has a gene for brown eggs along with her blue egg gene. My EE Ethel starts out with a blue egg in her shell gland, but she lays down a layer of brown tint over the blue which make a greenish/olive color. Another EE Louise lays a turquoise egg. Her blue egg gets a very thin squirt of blood cell color just enough to deepen the blue with a hint of green which can be mistaken for a purer blue than a Legbar. But a slightly color blind person will believe they are seeing a purer blue. (About the only time our eyes can lie to us.)

Hope this doesn't confuse you all, but I really get excited about what makes eggs colored.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

My F1 Easter Egger is a Buff Laced Wyandotte x Lavender Ameraucana and that’s why she lays green eggs, because her dad carries genes for brown egg shell coating.
I also have a Silkie x Easter Egger pullet who hatched from a nice blue egg but she lays a tinted egg. Apparently her mom only carried one blue egg gene and didn’t pass it on to her daughter, her son probably got it though

 

[Skipper81]

I have a rumpless Aracuana that lays green eggs
Does that mean she’s not a pure breed?

 

[azygous]

I have a rumpless Aracuana that lays green eggs
Does that mean she’s not a pure breed?

That or you are slightly color blind!

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I have a rumpless Aracuana that lays green eggs
Does that mean she’s not a pure breed?

Not necessarily. There is a score card out there for the acceptable and ideal color eggs that Araucanas should be laying.
I believe @Trish1974 has one. Maybe she will post a picture. Where did you get your Araucana?

 

[Skipper81]

I got her and a rumpless rooster from a breeder here in Tennessee

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

I got her from and a rumpless rooster from a breeder here in Tennessee

She could be a cull that the breeder decided laid the wrong egg color. She’s still pure if she’s a cull.

 

[Skipper81]

To me her eggs look olive