Figure this out..... Blue/green eggs from Polish or Wellsummers?

[eggchel]

We have a pen which contains 3 Tolbunt Polish, 1 Buff polish, and 4 or 5 Welsummer hens. The Polish lay white eggs and the Welsummers lay terra cotta colored brown eggs. Recently, my DD has been finding blue/green eggs in the nest box. The eggs are the same size as the chicken eggs. The chain link pen is always closed and there is a roof on the pen. What is going on?

We do have Ameraucanas and Araucanas..... but they are locked in other pens and dont free range. We also have Aussie Spotted bantam ducks that lay blue/green eggs, but they, too, are locked in another pen. There are Runner ducks and Sebastopol geese in the paddock surrounding the Polish and Welsummer's pen and the only free ranger chickens are giant cochins which lay white eggs.

So where are these eggs coming from?

This is so weird that I suggested to my DD that she put the blue/green eggs in the incubator and see what develops.

By the way, my DD is an adult and would not have mixed up the eggs. So it wouldnt be from "operator error". LOL

Chel

 

[newnanchic]

Sounds like you may have a EE hen in there!!! Mine lay green ones too!!!

 

[RubberChickenLubber]

Could also be a cross that had one EE parent, and one of the breeds you have in the pen.

 

[jkcove08]

Sounds like a couple may not be a pure as you thought they were. I think I would take one out at a time and separate them to see what color egg that one lays and keep doing that until you find the culprates. Good luck, Jenn

 

[eggchel]

Quote:
Now there's an eggcellent idea! Where is my mind these days, LOL.
You guys are absolutely right, there could be some EE genes hiding in one of the hens.
I have no idea whether the Welsummers are pure or not. They only produced brown eggs last year but one of them might have been younger and maybe just started laying.

Tolbunts are often crossed out to strengthen the breed since they are so rare and tend to be inbred, but even with the usual orloff or gold laced polish crossings, Ive heard it takes years to get back to the proper tolbunt color and the tolbunt eggs last year were white so they are less suspect.

Im guessing the buff polish since she is the youngest and probably just started laying. I also dont know anything about her background. She was a bonus bird that I got to keep another juvenile company.
I'll have DD put her in a cage inside the pen (dont want to disrupt the pecking order) for a few days and see what happens.

It sure was a funny surprise for DD to find blue/green eggs in the nest. I wondered if there were any wild birds... like Jays or something, that could get in, but I think the eggs would have been quite a bit smaller, LOL.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

I love mystery eggs. I used to always put one in the incubator just for fun.

Chel

 

[Kev]

Just about 90-99% of blue/green eggers also have pea combs(in america*). The standard advise for cross breeding with blue/green is to select and keep the birds with pea combs. The reason for this is because the gene for blue egg and pea comb are located very close together on the same chromosome so they have a strong tendency to go together. So look for somebody that might have a peacomb instead of a single comb..

Might be hard to tell on the polish as the crest tends to change the comb appearence quite a bit but if you are very familiar with the usual polish comb you might be able to notice a polish hen with a comb that looks kinda different- if it was a polish laying those eggs.

If everybody seems to have a single comb then you have something rare- a blue/green egg layer with a single comb. Some of my own turkens are examples of this.. single combed yet lay blue or green eggs.

*had to check your location as in england and new zealand there is a breed called legbars, which are single combed and lay blue or green eggs.

 

[eggchel]

LEGBARS!!!!!!!!!! Those are at the very top of my list. I'd love to have some but have never found anyone in the States who has them. They are very cool. Not only do they lay blue eggs, they are auto-sexing.

Sorry.... got really excited cuz Kev mentioned legbars, LOL.

I'll have my DD check out the buff polish for a pea comb (Im out of state now), but she isnt that familiar with their comb types. If she pulls back the crest, she should be able to tell the difference, I think.

Thanks Kev.

Chel

 

[Kev]

Haha,

I do wonder why the american big guys haven't got around to something like legbars or even just blue/green egger leghorns. Why are they "insistent" on having leghorns lay only whites? It shouldn't be that hard to create brown egger leghorns.. There have been individuals who tried to create a line of blue egger leghorns however AFAIK they all have to deal with pea combed birds.

Anyways, the legbar type isn't all that hard to create I believe.. they are sex linked barring and mottle on a BBR for autosexing. Unless there's an extra gene or 2 or some kind of difference I'm not aware of. California Gray(or at least some lines) is an autosexing breed which does use mottle and barring on a black. Practically just one gene away from a legbar look. They are not too popular as many consider them ugly, especially the roosters.

Hardest part certainly is finding a single combed blue/green egger. Well except for me..

 

[Kev]

By the way do let me know if it turns out to be a single combed bird laying those eggs.. they ARE uncommon.