Odd egg colour

[TheOddOneOut]

As sure as I can be. She’s been sitting on nests, eggs underneath her since September. I’m thinking it’s a tinting thing. Her eggs were so light they looked brown until recently and then it’s “come into her color”. Shes almost a year old.

Huh. Weird.

 

[angela0408]

Huh. Weird.

I know right?

 

[TheOddOneOut]

I know right?

Pics of the hen?
You said she was a CCLB?

 

[pekin queen]

Fascinating! It’s weird that they would go so long laying brown and then switch to green. I love genetics!

same!!! there so interesting

 

[esme13]

Hm. I wish you had a photo of the egg she previously laid to compare to this new egg. My olive egger lays various shades of olive/green. I’m just curious of the variation. Can’t say it is or isn’t impossible, but curious I am lol.

Soooo… do you happen to have any old photos of the egg she laid before ?

 

[Leroyette2]

Strange, I love the shades of my blue, green, brown and white eggs. When I sell them, people always look in the cartons to see what colors they got. I only have 14 hens, so I sell for fun. Could a neighboring hen, come visit and lay with yours? Be interesting to set up a game camera by that nester to see what hens use that nest, if the green egg comes out of a certain nest?

 

[kodster]

First off, not a cream legbar.
Second: that’s legitimately impossible, lmao

No, it's not, if the roo she has in the flock is a brown egg layer breed. Overlaying of the color from the roo over the shell of the hen would produce the moss green color.

 

[sybonbon]

I've read a fair bit about genetics, and I've never seen anything that would explain this. A hen's genes make her able to lay eggs of a certain color. Her genes do not change during her lifetime, so her egg color should not be able to change either.

The amount of brown on the outside can change (darker or lighter, speckled or not), but if she lays eggs with brown on the outside, you would expect to always get some shade of brown. The same goes for blue in the shell: the shade or intensity might change, but whether it is present at all should not change.


I think the most likely explanation is that she never did lay eggs before, and only now started.

Or maybe she laid eggs with so much brown coating that you never noticed the green color underneath, and now they have less brown so the green is visible. (I think this is unlikely, but not quite impossible.)

If the blue (green) color requires some particular element in her diet, and if it was missing before but is present now, I suppose this could cause the change from brown to green. But I have never read anything linking dietary changes with a change in shell color, so I think this is probably NOT what happened.

I love your professional replies.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

The first “Americuana“ I ever had which was in the 1990s laid eggs so light in blue that you could barely tell the green, but she did have the blue gene... so made this egg colour that was almost brown with just the slightest hint of green… barely able to tell. My other ”Amercaunas” years latter (girls in my profile) laid vivid blue eggs absolutely gorgeous blue. You might have a bird like my first one. Also the egg colour genes are still being studied, there are two different closely related genes that produce blue egg shells… I am not sure how that effects the blue colour such as do the blue from gene 1 or 2 look different and it seems to me looking at egg colour charts clearly other genes enhance or decrease the “blue” expression and I don’t know if 1 blue gene vs 2 blue genes make for a brighter darker blue or if you have a bird with both types of blue genes how that effects things.

So two genes:

South American Blue most commonly found in Crested Cream Legbars, several other European breeds, EEs, Amercauna and Araucana. Source Chile Landrace birds.

Asian Blue seems to randomly occur in Asian breeds, though there are some breeds that consistently lay a green egg, but unsure those have made it across the lake. I do believe I did read sometimes very rarely Silkies lay a light light blue egg… but supper rare… if my memory serves right.

As to breeding a brown egg gene carrying rooster over a hen who lays blue will result in chicks that when old enough might lay green eggs (depends on how many blue genes the hen carries 1 or 2) but the mated hen herself will always lay a blue egg.

Reverse scenario Blue egg gene rooster over brown egg laying hen… again depending on if he is homogeneous for blue or heterogeneous blue the chicks produced may lay green or brown eggs.

There are genes that make eggs dull versus more glossy this effects the colour we see. ”Brown” is created by lots of genes some that cancel each other out. “White” as well is a bunch of genes… this is why at one time White eggs were rare and the exotic colour and browning runs from all sorts of cream shades through dramatically different shades, sand, terracotta, brown, chocolate, peach, violet and more.

 

[karint]

I get my birds from there too, and I would really doubt that's what happened. Before this year, you couldn't order the "Heritage" breeds with any other breeds, which made me think they kept them in separate facilities.

Have you ever ordered the ameraucana from them? Do you have pictures of what you got by chance?