I'm Not Colorblind, But..

[NorthernHomestead]

I had one hen last fall that laid a colored egg. Since she was a BYM my mind told me this teal egg was green. But one of her spawn lays what I would call closer to green and not dark enough to be olive. Someone gifted what they called blue eggs to me and they were the same color as the eggs from my hen.

On the Internet I see pictures of eggs from Tractor Supply (and other places that sell live chicks) that look closer to true blue.

So what is a blue egg? Do blue chicken eggs look like large robin eggs or are those Internet photos likely Photoshopped? Is there a range of "blue" chicken eggs?

Don't ask for a photo of the eggs. The color that shows up for you depends on your monitor, the lighting, and the quality of my cell phone camera. I have to imagine many people wonder this.

 

[BlindLemonChicken]

“Blue” eggs are not sky blue if I understand the question correctly. They could be considered teal. I have never had one that looked like a Robin’s egg and have never seen a chicken egg that looked like that. It’s possible there is a breed that does lay an egg that dark and blue I just am not aware of it

 

[ChickyCh00k]

Is there a range of "blue" chicken eggs?

Yes. Also a range of "green". I have 2 Cream Legbars - one lays what I would say is "true blue" (but quite a bit lighter than what pictures online show), the other lays a VERY light colored bluish green. I also have a "Green Queen" bantam that lays a VERY lightly tinted more-blue-than-green egg. Aaannnd, I have a bantam Splash Ameraucana who lays the most blue egg of the bunch (but it still isn't as vibrant as the pictures of that breed's eggs online).

I have 3 "olive eggers" - one lays a true dark, olive, one lays a lighter olive, and one lays an egg that's the color of mint ice cream.

It's all genetics and, probably even individual differences in what our own eyes/brains perceive.

 

[NorthernHomestead]

By NO means am I claiming ANY of my birds are Ameraucana, but this is the quickest image I could find that demonstrates the color without whipping out my crap-awful Samsung phone camera.

Egg Colors

My girl lays eggs this teal color and her daughter is laying eggs the color of the one at the bottom left. I don't give a darn about purebred chickens. I like good, large layers that lay often.

I'm considering a straight run order of Prairie Blue Bells next spring to throw more color into the future generations of chicken math (and when some need to retire to the freezer/pantry farm).

But stuff like this? Smoke and mirrors photoshop?
Is this the real color?

 

[ChickyCh00k]

The colors in the 1st link are close-ish to what my Ameraucana lays (but the ones in the link are MUCH more vibrant/darker blue).

The eggs in the second link have GOT to have a filter on the pic that makes them that blue. I was somewhat disappointed when my blue layers started laying because of how muted the blue really is (I had been given false hopes by the hatchery photos). I'm sure there are some Cream Legbars/Ameraucana/EE that might lay a deeper shade, but I think the hatcheries and even the chicken owners alter the pics to make the eggs look more colorful...

 

[NorthernHomestead]

The colors in the 1st link are close-ish to what my Ameraucana lays (but the ones in the link are MUCH more vibrant/darker blue).

The eggs in the second link have GOT to have a filter on the pic that makes them that blue. I was somewhat disappointed when my blue layers started laying because of how muted the blue really is (I had been given false hopes by the hatchery photos). I'm sure there are some Cream Legbars/Ameraucana/EE that might lay a deeper shade, but I think the hatcheries and even the chicken owners alter the pics to make the eggs look more colorful...

This makes me feel a bit more sane. The one of her daughters that lays that barely green color is her crossed with a BO. And most of them lay eggs that are nearly pink for most of the year. I haven't tried washing the daughter's eggs to see if the bloom is what gives them the greenish tint (because I'm just happy to have splashes of color in my basket - no financial gain, it just makes me smile).

Those two are the daughters green-tint ones. Don't have mom's in this picture (pretty sure I took the picture while saving hers for incubation). Mom's eggs are larger, Hoping her daughter's get up to size over the next few months.

Posted this photo to sell some excess eggs on FB (mentioned they were likely all fertile). Someone asked what breed they were. I seriously wonder if there are swindlers out there that would say this variety is from a single true breed.

 

[500Chickens]

“Blue” eggs are not sky blue if I understand the question correctly. They could be considered teal. I have never had one that looked like a Robin’s egg and have never seen a chicken egg that looked like that. It’s possible there is a breed that does lay an egg that dark and blue I just am not aware of it

My mom had an Amerucana that laid robin-blue eggs. I also have 4 CCLs that lay robin blue eggs.

 

[ChickyCh00k]

This makes me feel a bit more sane. The one of her daughters that lays that barely green color is her crossed with a BO. And most of them lay eggs that are nearly pink for most of the year. I haven't tried washing the daughter's eggs to see if the bloom is what gives them the greenish tint (because I'm just happy to have splashes of color in my basket - no financial gain, it just makes me smile).


View attachment 4202301

Very pretty!!

I really don't mind either (other than the false advertising, lol)! It's so difficult to really capture the true colors in pictures, but they are quite beautiful either way!

Here's the best pic I could muster of my girls' contributions (the blues look almost white - they are "bluer" in person):

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Aren't green eggs blue eggs that got a hit of brown in the spray-paint booth? Meaning that somewhere in their ancestry is a brown-egg layer as well as a blue-egg layer.

Are the insides of green eggs the absolutely identical hue as the outside, or are they blue, or white, or something else entirely? My understanding is that all eggs start out white, or blue if they have the oocyanin gene, and then either do or do not receive a varying amount of brown after the shell is formed.

 

[NorthernHomestead]

Very pretty!!

I really don't mind either (other than the false advertising, lol)! It's so difficult to really capture the true colors in pictures, but they are quite beautiful either way!

Here's the best pic I could muster of my girls' contributions (the blues look almost white - they are "bluer" in person):

View attachment 4202325

Beautiful!