Green eggs and Ham

[grampsjim]

My chickens are finally starting to lay. We have a bunch of Heinz 57 as far as variety. I have one Australorp with a few red feathers on her breast, one blk one that I thought was an Australorp, but she laid us a green egg this morning. ( Her first) So, I'm wondering if there are any other breeds beside the EE's who lay blue or green eggs. The rest are WL/ NHR mix, Partridges and SLW. My chicks are pure blood as I just got them from a local Atwoods Farm supply. The mixes I got from a local farmer who just sells what ever he has, but does know the laying hens. The Austrlorp with red breast feathers lays lt brown eggs.
Any ideas?

 

[Chicks Galore3]

My guess is black sex link for the red-breasted one. Does it look like this?


I too was expecting Australorps but got sex-links instead...oh well!

 

[Basil G]

Americanas lay blue eggs. That is a dominate gene. Cross an Americana with a brown egg layer and you get green shells. Easter eggers are mutts (an Americana crossed with any brown egg layer) so they can look like anything, except a give a way trait for Americana is the beard-muff (another dominate trait). If any of your other chickens have a beard-muff then they too should lay green eggs.

 

[grampsjim]

Chicks Galore-The feathers on the one Australorp are not as dominant, but kind of dispersed but similar. She is more black all over. The other blk one has a few white feathers on her wings. I know the others with the exception of the partridges are mixes.
Basil-G Thx for the marker tips! I'll look to see if they have the beard muffs.

 

[grampsjim]

Uh the red feathers---

 

[Chicks Galore3]

If you posted some pictures, that would be helpful.

 

[grampsjim]

I'll get pix tomorrow and if I can figure out how to get them here then I'll post them.

 

[grampsjim]

I have an android phone and can't get the BYC on it. So, I can't transfer my chicken pixs to y'all. It turns out though that the blk chicken with a few red feathers is a Black Star. The other black one I'm still not sure, she's the one laying a green egg, I have gotten 2 from her to date. I'm not sure what the "sex link" thing is all about. I'd be happy for some info....

I let the feathered girls out for a little free ranging and they loved it but they are wondering further and further. I almost didn't get them all back in before I had to leave. I'm glad for the woods and they love the rotten tree trunks to scratch around in. I used the meal worms but they kept run back out before I could get the rest in. My little 3 week old chicks stayed out for about 3 hours before I put them back in the brooder box. They loved it. Our Okla. weather was high 50's today. They don't seem to be cold, but its going to get cold at night again so they'll stay in for another week before I let them out more than a few hours.

 

[Basil G]

A black sex link (or any sex link) means you can tell the birds' gender as soon as they hatch by their down colour. A black sex link is any red-brown chicken (Ex. RIR or NHR) crossed with a barred chicken (Ex. BR) the males will have a silver white spot on their head and the females will be solid black (if I'm correct)