Egg colour

[duluthralphie]

Easter eggers do sound like nice birds. I've heard people with them changing lay colour though and I want the hens to lay different colours so I can monitor who's laying what easily (and get pretty eggs ). Also easter eggers don't breed true do they? I was thinking if I get a white egg breed roo and a lady for each colour I'll continue to get chicks of those colours. ie: if I hatch a pink and a blue egg I'll get a pink layer and a blue layer..

You have to remember you need a rooster of each color too, The rooster is 50% of the egg color.

EE is just a mutt, that lays colored eggs. Some people like to think they need a muff or Tuft or beard, however, when you start playing with egg color you might lose some of that. My EE/PC crosses look closer to a PC with weird legs and markings than a EE.

Rule of thumb, (meaning it is not always true)

White ear lobes are white or blue eggs.. Red ear lobes brownish eggs....

 

[jc_d1]

I wouldn't mind getting a flock with easter eggers one hen for each colour (blue, green, pink) than other breeds for the brown/grey/white my concern with them is the egg colours changing/ if I'll be able to maintain the colour strains?..

Also, who lays grey eggs? I've heard them mentioned but no idea who lays them I thought it was a blue/pink cross or something..

 

[duluthralphie]

Easter eggers do sound like nice birds. I've heard people with them changing lay colour though and I want the hens to lay different colours so I can monitor who's laying what easily (and get pretty eggs ). Also easter eggers don't breed true do they? I was thinking if I get a white egg breed roo and a lady for each colour I'll continue to get chicks of those colours. ie: if I hatch a pink and a blue egg I'll get a pink layer and a blue layer..

I have no idea about Isbars, but some of the brown egg crosses lay a near pink egg, but I have to admit it takes a little imagination to see the pink.

You will or can get green from EE but mine are a bluish green.

 

[daxigait]

My Blue layers are Legbars. I have only been hatching the bluest of the eggs for years and I seldom have one that has any green in it anymore.

BTW I love my Legbars, both colors!

I also have a duck green egg, like a duck egg, I get it from my Chanticler/EE crosses. My EE roosters have the blue egg genes.

I am ordering in the spring

 

[daxigait]

Blue over light brown for green add dark brown to green for olive. My olive looks yellowish only in the picture.

I am ordering both from Ralphie in the spring though because mine are just light blue which you can tell next to a white egg, but they're not blue enough for me.
You should see the dark olive that @Fire Ant Farm has.

 

[jc_d1]

"You have to remember you need a rooster of each color too, The rooster is 50% of the egg color."

Thanks duluthralphie Do you know if the roo was a white layer if the easter eggers would continue to lay the coloured eggs? I imagine they eggs would get lighter with each generation regardless of breed but I'm not sure if there's any difference where EEs aren't purebreds?

 

[jc_d1]

Also do hens always lay the same colour eggs as they were hatched from? T/y

 

[duluthralphie]

MY guess is the white would lighten the color, I have never done this so I do not know for sure. I would think it would depend on which generation and how true to color your breeding was before that.

When saving a rooster, mark his sisters and him, the chances are he will have the same color egg genes his sister has. Just because he was in a blue or green egg does not mean he has that color in him. It could be a variation of that...I am not a genetics expert, I just know what works for me.


PS Same applies to hens. Even and individual hens eggs can change slightly during her lifetime. I think they run out of paint...

 

[daxigait]

Also do hens always lay the same colour eggs as they were hatched from? T/y

Not if you cross them, but the roo carries his color normally

 

[daxigait]

I have heard of the grey egg too, but I don't know what it is. If it is an odd breed you might try checking some of the websites where they sell chickens or the big breeders of odd breeds.