Blue/green eggs from Polish???

[TurtleFeathers]

Hi all -

I hate to be a pest today, but something strange is happening here.

Day before yesterday, I found a small greenish blue egg in my Polish house. I didn't think much of it - just thought maybe my black EE hen, Raven, had hopped the fence and gone inside and laid it. She's been known to hop the fence now and again, but I've never seen her inside the house before - its more of a thing where once she GETS to the Polish side, she freaks out and wants to get back home. Plus, Raven is a little large to squeeze thru the pop door of that house, but if she really wanted to, she probably could. And this egg appeared to be quite small for her size, but she is a bantam that hatched in May, so I just figured it was her first egg...

Well, I've been out with the chickens for the last half hour - everyone was on "their" side of the fences the entire time. Before I left, I checked for eggs, and found another small greenish blue egg in the Polish house - and it was STILL WARM!!! I looked around for Raven, and she was still busy scratching around in the leaves on HER side of the fence, just like she had been doing for the last half hour - and all of my Polish hens were doing the same thing around my feet...

I only have 4 bantam Polish hens, 3 of which are a WC black, a WC chocolate, and a WC khaki cuckoo, all of whom are a year old and have laid nice white eggs for me in the past. The last hen is a WC black that is about 5 months old and to my knowledge has not started laying yet. Is it possible SHE could be laying these greenish blue eggs????

Pics are forthcoming - my camera battery is on the charger... In the meantime, I was just wondering if anyone heard of Polish laying strangely colored eggs before?

 

[The Wolf Queen]

Do any type of ducks go in there?

 

[Sunny the Hippie Chick]

Maybe your polish is crossed with a green or blue egg layer breed.

 

[TurtleFeathers]

Nope, no ducks here (well, I have mandarins, but they don't have access to any of my chicken pens). And this little Polish girl was bred for show, so I wouldn't think there could be any crossing in her background.

I'm going to try isolating her to see if she's my culprit. AND, I'm going to incubate these eggs and see if they hatch. I'll let you know what happens.

Anyone else ever get weird colored eggs from their Polish before?

 

[Crunchie]

Oh my gosh, Kathy. That is so weird! Some of my bantam Polish lay a slightly off-white, cream-ish colored egg, but no--I've never seen anything like that!

Ok, so, here's what I can tell you...I don't remember what pen that wc black girl came out of, but it was one of two pens--I think probably my chocolate cuckoo over black hens. My blacks I can trace back several generations, and am 110% sure that there are no weird breed crossings going on there. My chocolate cuckoo roo came from the same place your khaki cuckoo came from, so I don't know his background beyond that--but I feel just as certain there isn't anything in his background that would lay a greenish egg. If there were anything in their ancestry that could make a green egg gene express, surely they wouldn't be as true to type as they are? That chocolate cuckoo roo is quite possibly the nicest bird I have type-wise. If he were the culprit, I would think something "off" would be noticeable about him otherwise, kwim? I know that you can get weird things pop up genetically generations later, but I don't see how it's possible? However, I'm no genetics expert, so hopefully someone with more knowledge of genetics than me will come along and let us know if this is possible!! The choc cuckoo roo did come from someone who also bred Ameraucanas, but I don't know if they actually bred that roo themselves or bought him from someone else--and if they did breed him and he has Am or EE in his background, it would have taken years to get those birds back to the nice type that that roo has.

Anyway, in the meantime, I wanna see pictures--and I definitely want an update when you figure out exactly who is laying that egg!

You have quite an interesting mystery on your hands.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

It's got to be Raven, or crossbred polish, no polish chicken lays colored eggs at all if they are pure to the breed

 

[TurtleFeathers]

Hey Maria -

Ya know, I keep thinking "there HAS TO BE another explanation" - but I SWEAR, that egg was SO warm, it couldn't have been more than a few minutes between the time it was laid til the time I found it. It was pretty well buried in the shavings, too, so its not like anyone was sitting on it and had just gotten up.

I *know* y'all must think I'm a kook, but, Raven is clipped and the fence is 3' - so she has a little trouble getting up that high - so unless she hopped that fence, ran across the Polish pen and straight into the house, immediately popped that egg out, and then raced right out back across the pen and hopped the fence back into her own pen, in a matter of a few seconds, all while doing it SILENTLY, as I was standing no more than 10 or 15 feet away and would have seen/heard all the commotion that would have caused, there was NO WAY anything but a Polish laid it!!!

And I know this Polish girl (Zsa Zsa) can't possibly have a mixed background - I know you're breeding for show, and she's as perfectly Polish as they get!!! But these are the last four eggs I collected from my 4 Polish girls, one on the 18th, two on the 20th, and one today:

This pic was taken on my kitchen counter a few minutes ago under fluorescent lighting with a flash, but I was hoping the white on the dinner plate would help - the eggs are actually sort of a turquoise color - not quite blue, not quite green. I'll try and get some more pics outside if its sunny tomorrow.

Man, I REALLY hope these eggs are fertile... AND that a little Polish chick pops outa each one!!! But there HAS TO BE another explanation!!!!

Gonna isolate Zsa Zsa tomorrow, so I'll let ya know what happens!

Edited to add: I'll get pics of Zsa Zsa tomorrow, too!

 

[Crunchie]

Quote:
This is just so crazy!!

No, I don't think you're a kook! Stranger things have happened...I have no idea how this would happen, but anything's possible I guess?


Sure there's no possibility of Raven having laid the egg, and one of your other girls sitting on it long enough for them to feel warm to the touch? If it was buried in the shavings, maybe she laid it at another time (since you've already said that she couldn't have gotten in/out of the house unnoticed) and someone else came along and warmed it up?

If little Polish chicks hatch out of those eggs, can I have Zsa Zsa back?

(just kidding

)

 

[TurtleFeathers]

I tell ya, I've been wracking my brain and staring at those eggs all day. I'm at a loss!

Those Polish girls are terrible scratchers - they dig around and push those shavings all over the place, and a lot gets thrown right out the door

I have to dig for eggs in that house all the time. Sure, its possible Raven could have laid the egg - in fact, I'm inclined to did she DID and *I* am the one that's confused - but it was so clean, and slightly damp, I just don't see how its possible with the time frame involved. Not to mention, I have YET to see Raven go near that house - she manages to hoist herself up on top of the fence, sits there for a quick second, and then hops down into the Polish pen. But no sooner than her feet hit the ground its like "OMG - what did I do??? I gotta get back where I belong!!!" and she races back and forth along the fence that divides the two pens until I pick her up and put her back into her pen. The house is clear on the other side of the pen from the fence. Hard to describe the layout... I have no idea why she does it - she has more room, all her friends and the exact same food on her side. I'd say maybe the grass was greener on the other side, but THERE IS NO GRASS!!! LOL!!!!

And no, you can't have Zsa Zsa back

But if I get little Polish chicks from these eggs, I'll make sure you get one, howssat?

BTW, the other chick (the black cuckoo) I got from you DID turn out to be a roo - he's absolutely stunning!!! But his crest no longer looks like a ping pong ball - he's got that classic "wild" look of a Polish cockerel now...

Will keep you posted!

 

[flyingmonkeypoop]

In addition to seperating Zsa Zsa, why not Raven also, that way atleast one will hopefully lay an egg that will look like the green eggs. I know there are some great looking phoenix and sumatras out there that lay blue/green eggs so anything is possible. Look at the silkies in AUS, some of the best of breed silkies are blue/green layers.