Cream Legbars

[ChicKat]

i only have one CL girl, but her eggs do the same thing -- sometimes more blue, sometimes more green. her first egg (back in january) was a nice clear sky blue:

Because the blue pigment comes from -- biliverdin - I think that is the substance, excreted by the bile glad - If memory serves, I think that what the CL hen ATE may have more to do with the egg shell color than where she is in her clutch. Because the "blue" is throughout the shell...it isn't a coating like a brown layer -- It would be a possibility to have the blue-egg laying bird have a darker blue later in her laying cycle.

Beta carotene is a building block of the pigment. If the diet, grass, weeds, grasshoppers that the CL consumed was richer in beta carotene, it could possibly have an effect on the color of the shell. (Strangely, I think feed companies were putting marigold petals in feed to get oranger-yolks, but I think that carotinoids can influence shell color.

for CL Club members there is an article about this in the club house...or if you need a link PM me and I will go in there and get the link and send it to you.

 

[cleansquared]

Beta caratine is one aspect or vitamin of the larger antioxident caritoid i use the marigold petals because they are one food high in the caratoids ive found that they would eat plus they are very good with other vitamans ect i was thinking kale was a veg that had the caritoids in it as well but mine dont seem to want any greens ive set down except for sprouted oats.. Ill keep trying ill find another they like lol

 

[cleansquared]

For ref. Here is the article i read im sure it says it more clearly than i could lol... http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00265-010-1025-x

 

[KilnChick]

Mine LOVE the plant on the table!! They keep it trimmed up for me

they also love my potato vines! Had it planted around there pen but they ate it! Now that they are punished for 2 weeks, no free ranging, it should have a chance to grow back.

 

[KilnChick]

This is the biggest comb on a chicken I've ever seen! And the picture does it no justice! Anyone know what breed? It's my neighbors, she is curious.

 

[dretd]

This is the biggest comb on a chicken I've ever seen! And the picture does it no justice! Anyone know what breed? It's my neighbors, she is curious.

That boy looks like a White Leghorn (pronounced legg--ern) Very large erect comb that sweeps back, white ears, lightweight frame are all giveaways.

 

[dretd]

Quote: There was an interesting Chinese study (A Study on Eggshell Pigmentation: Biliverdin in Blue-Shelled Chickens) that demonstrated that the biliverdin pigment primarily responsible for the blue color in the eggs was manufactured by the shell gland itself and the origin was not the erythrocytes which was the postulated source since that is where it is in mammals:

http://ps.fass.org/content/85/3/546.long for the whole read or http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16553287 for the abstract.

Because it is manufactured on a continual basis, it is logical that if you provide the building-blocks to make biliverdin, the pump will continue to flow, so to speak. The pigment in the shell could lighten temporarily if the egg/shell production was high enough to exhaust the production in the shell gland or if insufficient building blocks were present.

On a side note, I was unaware there was a chicken native to China that laid blue eggs (the pigment genetic locus demonstrated to be similar to the Araucana blue egg gene). They called it the Dongxiang blue-shelled chicken.

 

[ChicKat]

Quote:
WOW== fascinating. Also - the larger the egg -- the more the pigment must be dispersed in the calcium carbonate. This is totally fascinating. Thanks for posting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ChicKat]

Quote:
X2

 

[ChicKat]

Quote:
Mine don't want strong greens either -- Do you see any egg color differences related to their diet?