blue eggs...??

[Elly]

I got five pullets in the summer and they are starting to lay. I know I have one red sex link, two white sussex and then I have two that the farmer said they were mixed breeds?? One of the "mixed breeds" started laying this week and the eggs are a blue green colour...but when I looked on the computer for pictures of chickens that lay these coloured eggs the pictures look nothing like my girls. She looks something like a red sex link but has black tipped feathers around the neck and tail feathers and is a little bigger then my sex link. I don't have a digital camera to take a picture of her. Any one have any idea of what she may be. The farmer had about 50 different breeds of hens all running together with several different roos...so I have no idea who slept with who !!

back at the hen house.

 

[KellyHM]

She's probably an Easter Egger...a mix of either Ameraucana or Araucana somewhere back in the bloodlines. There aren't any standard colors, etc, since they aren't purepred. They're great though! Here are a couple of my Easter Egger girls:

 

[orcasislandchickens]

Disclaimer: Just my opinion below.

Yes she is an easter egger. Blue egglayer breeds like true auracanas, are kind of hard to come by and they carry a lethal gene, so getting good reproductive rates is harder. Add in the standards for tufts, no tufts, tails no tails and you eliminate a lot more. Often those hens or roosters are bred with whatever else is around though and the blue egg gene will dominate, so the mixed breed layes blue eggs (or brown/pink). An Easter Egger.

INMHO there is nothing at all wrong with Easter Eggers, anymore than there is anything wrong with say a good shepherd/lab cross like my dog. They lay pretty eggs, and many have dispositions superior to the purebred birds. Many of them also look like "regular chickens" rather than the wild game look of say the auracana. Someone posted a picture of a very appealing frizzle hen that lays blue-green eggs.

I do see a problem with someone trying to pass of a mixed breed bird as a purebred one however, in the same way I resent having paid for a Geman Shepherd Dog that once grown, clearly isn't.

Edited to add: I know you are not trying to pass your bird off as anything and just were curious how you got an ordinary hen laying colored eggs. I'll get off my soapbox now. Since she doesn't look auracana ish, I think she is a stealth egger. Is she freindly.

 

[onthespot]

post a pic of her!

 

[speckledhen]

she is a stealth egger

Love that!

 

[KellyHM]

Quote:
Are you talking to me or the OP?

I don't see anyone on this post passing anything off as purebred.

 

[Kev]

Think of the egg color as a "genetic specific thing" instead of a "breed thing" might help.

Araucanas, amers and easter eggers are regarded as 'breeds' (EE are not though) that lay these eggs however in reality it is just one genetic trait.. which has been adopted as a required trait in these.

This gene is very easily introduced into mixes or even into breeds(especially if breed is a pea combed one). I have birds that look like regular Naked Necks(aka Turkens by some) but they lay blue or green eggs.

 

[orcasislandchickens]

Kelly I didn't either, that's why I said so. I felt my above paragraph might have sounded snippish. I meant no offense.

Yeah Kev, I agree that's a good way to look at it, gene specific. Naked eggers, wow.

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

I noticed you spelled it colour so I assume you are in the UK. Being in the UK there is always a chance she could be a legbar or other auto-sexing breed in her. If you go to feathersite and look at them then tell us if she looks similar or not.

 

[SussexInSeattle]

Elly, I don't think it was the 'sleeping' that created this mix...

Kelly, Beautiful picture, it almost looks as though the one hen is telling the other some juicy secret! LOL

Flying Monkey........, Interesting name........ Also I have a friend in deer park, it is amazing where all the people come from on here!