EE Egg Colors

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Thanks for all the info, it's certainly a lot to digest. My first mistake was being impatient and picking the chicks up at a commercial joint, rather than looking around for a breeder. With a little more information, I'm sure it would be easy enough (given the patience) to find a breeder that might be able to provide me with a chick that could likely lay a blue egg, or even come across a laying hen that is already producing blue eggs.

As for pink, it sounds like that is even more rare. If I can get a blue laying hen, then brown and white would be easy enough to add color to the collection!

My Buff Orpingtons lay a pink tinted brown egg. Very light pale looking. I can always tell which eggs are theirs.

 

[MButerbaugh]

question for you all, I have 11 pullets that are 23 weeks old, none have started squatting or laying as of yet. Will they lay soon with the colder weather and shorter days? or will they wait until spring to start? 9 of them are aracaunas and I'm dying to see those colored eggs!!! Thanks!
Michele

 

[manaze88]

it really could be any day....

 

[Spangled]

question for you all, I have 11 pullets that are 23 weeks old, none have started squatting or laying as of yet. Will they lay soon with the colder weather and shorter days? or will they wait until spring to start? 9 of them are aracaunas and I'm dying to see those colored eggs!!!

Chickens are slaves to day length. But they could lay any day.

If a few of yours don't start before the solstice (shortest day of the year, which is a couple of days before Christmas for those reading along), then as the days get longer in Jan and Feb, the chances of their laying greatly increases. Some years I am amazed at how quickly my eggs numbers go up as soon as we get past the solstice.

It could be a maturity thing. It could be a day length thing. It could be a little of both. Oh, and it could be a warmth issue, too, depending on how cold it is at your place. I'm not saying they need extra heat; I'm just saying that they can only take in so much energy by eating on these shorter days and with that energy they have to keep themselves warm and grow eggs. Of course, growing eggs comes in second on their priorities list.

If you do a site search on the word "cayenne," you'll see that some folks give a pinch of cayenne to boost their pullets into laying. It might be something to research a bit if that sounds like something you'd feel comfortable doing, though it doesn't always work and some say it's just a coincidence.

For those reading along, this is an advantage to getting March or April hatched chicks. They get a lot of their growth out of the way before June 21-23 (summer solstice) when the days start getting shorter in the northern hemisphere. The average chicks hatched in March or April have a much better chance of beginning to lay before October 1, when dark hours pretty much equal light hours.

 

[Spangled]

Shortly after posting this, #4 of 5 (Dotty) started laying. It was a pink egg. Needless to say, my wife was excited.

Yay for Dotty! That's good news.

I forget if you mentioned which hatchery you got them from. Did you say? Or are they from a feed store?

 

[manaze88]

Yay for Dotty! That's good news.

I forget if you mentioned which hatchery you got them from. Did you say? Or are they from a feed store?

Feed store (Southern States) so I have no idea what they are mixed with, and don't know if I asked if they would know what to tell me. All my future chickens will come from a more reputable source, though.

 

[Spangled]

Quote:
Hm. I kinda thought that our feed store was a reputable source for laying chickens from hatcheries. I can't think of any other sources that actually claim to be currently working on getting egg numbers of their flock up higher by use of trapnesting, which is the most reliable method. Most breeders are working on "show" qualities or preservation qualities which doesn't always translate into getting a chicken that lays enough eggs to make it economical for people who want to keep laying chickens. Some breeders can get a little bothered if other breeders get a hankering to try to get egg numbers up in that specific breed because it can change the shape of that breeder's line, which eventually could affect the whole breed if that new-shaped chicken is bred into the rest of the breed.

Anyway, our local feed stores always tell me which hatcheries they get their chickens from. They are always forthcoming and seem quite happy to tell me. I've even had them email me their spreadsheet of which breeds were coming in which week, without me ever even asking for it.

Granted ... it's true ... most of my chickens are from breeders or are from heritage/preservation lines/strains, but I've bought a banty or two or a couple of Silkies, which I guess are banties, too ... you know, for fun and variety.

I asked which hatchery because I wondered which one was sending out pink egg layers. That's all.

 

[manaze88]

They were sold as Americaunas, even though I was looking for Easter Eggers. They were actually labeled as "Americauna (Easter Eggers)" and I had read enough to know that they were commonly called that, so I got what I wanted at least.

I'm not making any stabs at the store I picked them up from. It would make sense that they know who delivers the chicks to them, I just didn't think they would be able to tell me what the background of the chicks was. If they were able to tell me the hatchery, I could probably get a little information on the breeding.

I can tell you that I picked up 6 chicks, all born on 4/22 and delivered from the same hatchery. 1 was a rooster, and was rehomed (sadly). The other 5 are quite distinct, and look very different from each other. One of them, for a time, I wasn't even sure was an EE (no beard, much smaller than the rest). That one, in particular, was the first to lay, and the most consistent layer to date. She laid a full week before my second one started laying, and she even had the smallest comb at the time.

What I meant when saying I would go to a more reputable breeder is that my chances of getting a specific color egg from a breeder will be higher than if I go to the local store to pick up whatever they were stocked with.

 

[Spangled]

 

[Coop de Grille]

Forgive me for jumping in here. I also have chickens solely for obtaining a pretty basket of eggs. (Who knew I would love incubating and raising chickens) I bought eggs from several different sources, a few being brown but was told that they still could produce a blue egg bearing hen. I'm not all that smart where genetics are concerned but that didn't seem just right. I incubated them anyway. Now that I have been pouring through all the info on this forum, I was right. Of course, I didn't keep track of which chicks came from the brown eggs. Now they are all 5 - 6 mo old and just starting to lay. And I have the very upsetting task of separating out the brown from the green. Thanks for making this clearer for me. Sue

My goal was a pretty egg basket too lol...I'm still on the hunt for pure Ameraucana eggs (to incubate) that are a true blue. I am getting pretty shades of greens, browns and pinks, but no blue yet.