Can purebred silkies lay green eggs?

[house_hippo]

Hi all, I have a bit of an odd question.

I own two "purebred" silkie hens, both from the same breeder, but different clutches and ages. Both hens lay pale green eggs.

Now if my birds had any of the faults associated with being mixed breeds, the green eggs wouldn't stump me. But these hens are textbook silkies. Black skin, five toes, blue earlobes, etc. And they are about 600g each, so quite small. They are not show grade, but are far above most hatchery quality silkies.

So what do you think? Is it possible that my hens just carry some strange gene? I have eggs hatching soon and when selling chicks I want to have an honest description. I don't want to mislead anyone into thinking that they are purebred if they aren't.

Thanks in advance!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Pictures of the birds and eggs?

 

[sourland]

They carry DNA from some bird/birds carrying blue egg layer genes. No, they are not 'purebred' silkies.

 

[house_hippo]

Pictures of the birds and eggs?

Sorry about that, here is a photo

Edit: still figuring put how to comment. The bottom egg is the silkie egg, next to a light brown and a white. Rooster is bottom left.

 

[ForTheLoveOfSilkies]

Wish you were in Australia! I'd love Silkies laying different colour eggs!
I'd say in your advert about the egg colour and provide pics like you have now of your flock and eggs. Not purbred Silkies but they look gorgeous and a bit special laying green eggs
I wonder if the chicks (that are hens) will be green egg layers too
@LynnaePB @LadiesAndJane ?

 

[house_hippo]

Wish you were in Australia! I'd love Silkies laying different colour eggs!
I'd say in your advert about the egg colour and provide pics like you have now of your flock and eggs. Not purbred Silkies but they look gorgeous and a bit special laying green eggs
I wonder if the chicks (that are hens) will be green egg layers too
@LynnaePB @LadiesAndJane ?

I personally like their green eggs! I wondered that about their chicks as well. I plan to keep a few, so hopefully I'll get a couple of pullets out of the mix and find out!

 

[NatJ]

I wonder if the chicks (that are hens) will be green egg layers too

Depending on what genes the rooster has, either half or all of the daughters should lay green eggs. (If half lay green eggs, the other half will lay cream or light brown eggs.)

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The mama will send either a blue or brown gene each chick

 

[house_hippo]

Depending on what genes the rooster has, either half or all of the daughters should lay green eggs. (If half lay green eggs, the other half will lay cream or light brown eggs.)

I would assume that my roo comes from line with cream coloured eggs, but of course he doesn't lay eggs to confirm that! I am not planning on breeding anything beyond healthy, pet-quality silkies so the green eggs are probably a non-issue anyways. I just don't want anyone feeling duped.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I would assume that my roo comes from line with cream coloured eggs, but of course he doesn't lay eggs to confirm that! I am not planning on breeding anything beyond healthy, pet-quality silkies so the green eggs are probably a non-issue anyways. I just don't want anyone feeling duped.

I would just say they're pet quality and leave it at that. People looking for specific sop fitting birds won't buy pet quality and people buying pet quality know that they aren't sop fitting