egg shell colors

[mkr]

At least two of my five hens have started laying this week. Yay!

Anyway I'm trying to figure out a.) which two are laying, and b.) if it's more than two.

I have three austrolorps, a buff orpington, and a barred rock. They are all 19 weeks old. I've been getting two small eggs a day. One is very light brown and one is kind of pink. I've looked up pictures of the eggs all three breeds lay, plus I remember what color eggs they hatched out of. I think it is just the barred rock and the buff that are laying. However...how likely is it that I'm getting almost an egg a day from these two right at the start of them laying? Are the first eggs lighter or different in color in anyway? As in, could it be that one of the austrolorps is laying some of these eggs and they are just light because they are the first eggs? For the record, I haven't caught them laying yet but my husband has heard them and he thinks it 'sounds like the same two chickens.'

Not a super important question, I suppose, but I am curious. Also, according to the website of the hatchery (Meyer) that we got the eggs from, the Austrolorps should have been the 'very early' maturing ones, while the other two were only 'moderately early' to mature. Weird.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's not at all unusual for pullets to lay about every day once they start so it is likely that it is the same two laying.

Sometimes when they start, it takes a few days for pullets to get all the kinks out of their internal egg laying factory. What's surprising is how many actually get it all right from the start. You can get strange eggs for a while. That could be true with egg color too.

Usually the eggs are as dark as they are ever going to be when they start and get that system working right. Of course they get pigment from what they eat, but they also use pigment stored in their body to color the egg shells. It's normal for the egg shell to get lighter after they have laid a very long time. Just before they molt, I often get eggs that are tremendously lighter than the eggs they will lay after that molt and they have rebuilt that store of pigment.

Chicken breeds have tendencies, but every chicken in that breed does not follow them. A lot depends on what the breeders are selecting for. If the breeders are selecting their breeding chickens based on the color of egg they are supposed to lay, then the hen will follow the breed tendencies. But most don't select for egg color. If they are breeding to show chickens, the judges don't see the eggs so the egg color is not important. If they are breeding for them to lay a lot of eggs, egg color is probably not important. If they are breeding for hatchability, egg color is not important. There are a few heritage breeders that will consider egg color, but many, many people that select the breeding population don't even think about it.

There are a lot of different genes involved in determining the actual shade of a brown egg. Egg color is not a priority for the majority of people that breed these chickens. It is not at all unusual for the same breed of hens from the same flock to lay widely differing shades of eggs.

When they start to lay can vary widely with the individual chicken too. How early they start to lay can be a tendency and maybe Meyer knows some of this about their specific chickens. But even then, it is a general tendency for that flock. The more chickens you have, the more likely they will average following those tendencies. But you have to have enough chickens for those averages to mean anything. With specific individual chickens, those tendencies are something that might happen, not absolutely will happen.

It is really common on this forum for people to think that any Orpington in the world is exactly like every other Orpington, or all Australorps are the same and all that. That is not the case. Different hatcheries have different people selecting their breeding population and they select for different things. Different breeders select for different traits too and not all have the same skill level when selecting their breeders. Every Barred Rock in the world is not exactly the same. There are breed tendencies that will tell you what is more likely to happen, but there can be a wide range of what will actually happen.

I don’t know if Meyer selects for egg shell color or not. I doubt it. I got some Black Australorps from Meyer and I get different shades of egg shells from those hens. In general, they are not as dark as the eggs from the Australorp I got from Cackle though some are fairly dark. From what you’ve said, it could be any of your pullets laying those eggs.

 

[Wisher1000]

Do your hens free range? You could leave one of them in the coop for a day while the others are out, then you can know for certain what her egg looks like. Otherwise, you will have to wait until you happen to see them or circumstances allow you to differentiate. I have 30+ hens and I know which hen laid which egg for about five of them.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Trap nesting will work. But you don't want to train the others to not lay in the coop by locking them out and forcing them to find a place to lay outside of the coop.

One option I've heard of but never tried. Put food coloring in the vent early in the morning. You should see colors on the egg.

I've also heard of using lipstick but I'm not going to try to explain to my wife why I'm putting lipstick on a hen's vent. Nope, not me. Ain't going to do it.

 

[mkr]

Thanks for all the information! I appreciate it so much. Raising and keeping these chickens has been so interesting. I really learn something new everyday. I suppose it doesn't matter what color the shells are, except that I like the detective work of figuring up what they are up to.

 

[Wisher1000]

I have a small coop (3x6) that I have outfitted with a variety of nest options. It sits a few yards from the main coop and when they free range they can lay in either. Just this morning, two hens RAN straight to that coop to lay as soon as I let them out.