Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[BY Bob]

That’s what I thought but was talking to a chicken enthusiast today and he told me the colors can vary. Maybe he meant one EE might lay blue eggs and another pink eggs but that’s not what he said. Thanks for the response.

No chickens can change egg color. But you are right EEs can lay all kinds of color . @WhoDatChick has quite an assortment.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

Not a good day yesterday. Has two Huskies attack the sheep and chickens. They pulled down one ewe and her leg broke and killed my lovely Ruffles.
This is my lovely Ruffles on the left with her best mate Fat Bird.
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This is what she was like after one of the Huskies got her.
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How awful Shad, such wasteful deaths. I'm so sorry. She was certainly a lovely bird.

Have the dogs been caught? (And the owners held accountable?)

 

[Shadrach]

I don't think you want her there for that long.

That's a very good point.

 

[Shadrach]

How awful Shad, such wasteful deaths. I'm so sorry. She was certainly a lovely bird.

Have the dogs been caught? (And the owners held accountable?)

Not yet.
If they are local nobody seems to know them that I've spoken to.

 

[LozzyR]

This is most of Tribe 1. Treacle and the two pullets Moon and Tap are on the left out of the picture.
Guess where they are going.

Your house is our house. View attachment 1984039
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I love the names you give them. Do you have a naming method?

 

[Shadrach]

I love the names you give them. Do you have a naming method?

I don't. For some a name falls into place from the name of one of their parents.
For example, Dink (it's slang for an indentation) was pretty easy. Her first two got named Donk (another bit of slang for an indentation) and Dent.
The next lot were a bit more difficult, Rip, Crease, Notch, Tear, etc.
For others, their behaviour, or looks determines their name. Tap got named Tap because she has inherited her mother's (Mel) habit of tapping me with her beak when she wants my attention.
Hinge and Bracket got named from a comedy duo. Their offspring got called, Rivet and Lock.
I'm barking mad really but don't tell the others.

 

[Shadrach]

 

[Kris5902]

Do EE hens always lay the same color egg each time or do they sometimes lay blue then green , etc?

No chickens can change egg color. But you are right EEs can lay all kinds of color . @WhoDatChick has quite an assortment.

You will never see that much color difference in one hen, the base color will always be the same, Bob is quite correct in that. One thing to clarify though, you can sometimes see slightly different shades of color from the same hen. I’ve noticed it especially in the green range, and with my blue layers and slightly less in my Marans and “regular brown” layers.

Because green is a brownish layering over a blue based egg and the depth of the brown color can sometimes vary throughout the laying cycle, getting paler towards the end and having the deepest color at the beginning of a laying cycle. My blue layers also faded from a fairly bright blue when they first started laying, to a super pale, almost white blue right before they molted. I’m looking forward to seeing if some of that color returns when they start laying again.

You can also get some color changes with health and shell issues. I was getting pink eggs from one of my Isbars. She is supposed to lay a green egg, but was having laying issues and heath concerns/not thriving right from her hatch. She was producing only occasionally, and shell-less or very thin-shelled pinkish eggs for most of her first laying year, despite eating layer feed, with supplemental calcium free choice, and human calcium tablets ground and cooked into eggs as a special treat. Since her molt she has been doing much better and is now producing a light green egg, but still quite infrequently.

Essentially there are two colors of egg shells Blue and White, and everything else is a coating of brown over top. If you pick up a warm, sticky, freshly-laid brown or green egg you can sometimes leave finger smudges in that coating... or see where your chicken tried to play football with it or eat it, and find a bunch of dried on scratch marks in the color...

 

[Shadrach]

You will never see that much color difference in one hen, the base color will always be the same, Bob is quite correct in that. One thing to clarify though, you can sometimes see slightly different shades of color from the same hen. I’ve noticed it especially in the green range, and with my blue layers and slightly less in my Marans and “regular brown” layers.

Because green is a brownish layering over a blue based egg and the depth of the brown color can sometimes vary throughout the laying cycle, getting paler towards the end and having the deepest color at the beginning of a laying cycle. My blue layers also faded from a fairly bright blue when they first started laying, to a super pale, almost white blue right before they molted. I’m looking forward to seeing if some of that color returns when they start laying again.

You can also get some color changes with health and shell issues. I was getting pink eggs from one of my Isbars. She is supposed to lay a green egg, but was having laying issues and heath concerns/not thriving right from her hatch. She was producing only occasionally, and shell-less or very thin-shelled pinkish eggs for most of her first laying year, despite eating layer feed, with supplemental calcium free choice, and human calcium tablets ground and cooked into eggs as a special treat. Since her molt she has been doing much better and is now producing a light green egg, but still quite infrequently.

Essentially there are two colors of egg shells Blue and White, and everything else is a coating of brown over top. If you pick up a warm, sticky, freshly-laid brown or green egg you can sometimes leave finger smudges in that coating... or see where your chicken tried to play football with it or eat it, and find a bunch of dried on scratch marks in the color...

The Marans here were notorious for having dodgy spray booths.
Normally it doesn't matter in the slightest but if you are trying to keep track of who laid which egg it can be very frustrating.

 

[Kris5902]

The Marans here were notorious for having dodgy spray booths.
Normally it doesn't matter in the slightest but if you are trying to keep track of who laid which egg it can be very frustrating.

“Dodgy spray booths”
I love it!

I can be fairly certain of the variations on the green, because I have just one Olive egger in a tractor with my Marans and her fairly dark brown laying sister (both are 1/4 Marans). I’ll get a golden green with spots, slightly lighter golden green, then a medium olive color, then almost mossy. A day or two off and back to a golden green. Unless my BCM’s girls are complete imposters! But I’m also getting the occasional super small (smaller than average pullet egg) and not quite as dark as I had hoped for, eggs from the two pure Marans daughters in there. Mama Marans are still in molting pause. That is one thing that’s a positive in mixed flocks... it’s a lot easier to figure out who laid what! At least in that one breeding group