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hippiechickX4 said:
So just a little fun...there is a debate going on at my house what color these eggs are. What's your opinion? My husband thinks they are blue and the other five of us in the house think they are a light green.
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I would say they are a pale sage green. Of course cameras can lie. If you want a true blue, Ameraucanas, are supposed to lay true blue. I have an EE who lays a beautiful blue egg and am waiting to see what her daughter lays. Olive eggers are usually a mixed or hybrid breed, one parent a blue egg layer the other caries a dark brown gene. You don't need to buy them. You can make your own. I also have some young pullets just starting to lay and they lay a beautiful shade of pale robin's egg blue. Their dad is an Ameraucana while the others are white production layers. Some of my EE"s lay greenish blue eggs.
Aracauna is a breed from South America, lays blue eggs, Ameraucana comes in certain colors only and lays a blue egg. EE's can be Ameraucanas who don't meet the color standard or might or might have something else in them and can lay any color egg although most lay greenish blue to green to blue and an olive egger lays a true olive colored egg (Some can be speckled olive) My adults I bred last year.. Their father was a cream legbar while the mothers were black copper marans, blue splash marans, welsummer, and surprisingly a mix I never expected olive eggs from.
This year I bred the same breeds to my Ameraucana rooster and all the offspring were boys.
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I'm assuming he carries a really nice blue gene because all his daughters from white production layers lay the beautiful blue I'm getting. (Those were the ones who all turned out to be girls, thankfully.)
 
hippiechickX4 said:
How are your Ayam Cemani's doing? I didn't realize they are cold hearty chickens. My husband has been reading about them because he wants to add a roo and a hen to our flock. Where are you getting them? I swear he told me they were like $1500!!
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They're doing very well so far. I've heard that Svart Hona are very similar to Ayam Cemani but are more cold tolerant. Mine haven't had any issues so far but they are still young and haven't been exposed to extreme temperatures yet. I got mine from @Cjwaldon on here BUT i won them in the games for eggs thread. Speaking of which, my chicks came today! The bigger one is Onyx, one from my first group. He's 2 weeks older than the ones that came today. He made sure they knew who was boss but was still sweet and welcoming. He's my baby boy :)

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hippiechickX4 said:
How are your Ayam Cemani's doing? I didn't realize they are cold hearty chickens. My husband has been reading about them because he wants to add a roo and a hen to our flock. Where are you getting them? I swear he told me they were like $1500!!
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Prices are whatever the market will bear. AC's have been in this country quite a while before Greenfire imported them and made a big deal about pricing them at $5000 per pair. As it turns out, the birds they imported were inferior in blackness (what all AC's are judged by) to some strains already here. GF did those breeders a solid by giving the breed so much notoriety. People wanted them just to have the world's most expensive chicken (why do people buy Ferraris?).

After getting them into the hands of good breeders, the prices for "ordinary" AC's like the Greenfire lines have dropped to well under $50 a chick, but the very blackest strains can still fetch $200 or more.

I don't have AC's, but a good friend has (what he claims are) the very best in the country. They have a waiting list for their $200 chicks. They also have a lesser grade (but still mostly black) pen that sells for less.

They have large single combs, like leghorns and legbars, making them more prone to frostbite than birds with pea or rose combs, like Ameraucanas and Wyandottes, but other than that, I don't see them as being less cold hardy.
 
dekel18042 said:
I would say they are a pale sage green. Of course cameras can lie. If you want a true blue, Ameraucanas, are supposed to lay true blue. I have an EE who lays a beautiful blue egg and am waiting to see what her daughter lays. Olive eggers are usually a mixed or hybrid breed, one parent a blue egg layer the other caries a dark brown gene. You don't need to buy them. You can make your own. I also have some young pullets just starting to lay and they lay a beautiful shade of pale robin's egg blue. Their dad is an Ameraucana while the others are white production layers. Some of my EE"s lay greenish blue eggs.
Aracauna is a breed from South America, lays blue eggs, Ameraucana comes in certain colors only and lays a blue egg. EE's can be Ameraucanas who don't meet the color standard or might or might have something else in them and can lay any color egg although most lay greenish blue to green to blue and an olive egger lays a true olive colored egg (Some can be speckled olive) My adults I bred last year.. Their father was a cream legbar while the mothers were black copper marans, blue splash marans, welsummer, and surprisingly a mix I never expected olive eggs from.
This year I bred the same breeds to my Ameraucana rooster and all the offspring were boys.
he.gif
I'm assuming he carries a really nice blue gene because all his daughters from white production layers lay the beautiful blue I'm getting. (Those were the ones who all turned out to be girls, thankfully.)
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I agree, I would call that green, not blue or olive. Pics can be hard to judge.\

I have 9 breeds/strains that are blue and green egg layers (Ameraucanas and Legbars, plus hybrids of those). There are definite differences between strains and even between the eggs laid by a single hen at different stages in her laying cycle. This is my list of "opinions" for the various breeds:

Clearest blue - Silver Ameraucana
Lightest blue (and best overall layer) - Blue Egg Sexlink hybrids (black Ameraucana over California Grey or Barred Holland pullets)
Most saturated blue (without trace of green) - Cream Legbars
Best looking green eggs - black and lavender Ameraucanas
Cutest - bantam lavender Ameraucana (small and very blue, reminds me of robin eggs)
Most variable - Olive Egger hybrids (never quite sure what they might lay)

The silkieds and wheaten Ams haven't laid for a long time, don't remember much of those.
 
hippiechickX4 said:
For you guys that raise Easter Eggers, Ameraucanas, Olive Eggers or Araucanas what's the biggest difference? Do you have a comparison of their egg colors? Do you prefer one over the other? I would love a true BLUE egg laying chicken and my husband wants a Olive Egger for the olive eggs.
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Somewhere I have a basket of eggs from my original flock. You can see a nice blue egg from an EE. Then you notice the richer, darker blue from my Ameraucana. It took paying attention to see the difference without both eggs present.
 
MotorcycleChick said:
Somewhere I have a basket of eggs from my original flock. You can see a nice blue egg from an EE. Then you notice the richer, darker blue from my Ameraucana. It took paying attention to see the difference without both eggs present.
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I've found that true too. I have gathered sexlink eggs that looked white to me, they were so pale, until I put them into a carton next to really white eggs, they it was obvious they were blue. I think I'm developing a better eye for the egg color as i handle more eggs, but putting them all in a carton together can be enlightening,
 
Auroradream26 said:
They're doing very well so far. I've heard that Svart Hona are very similar to Ayam Cemani but are more cold tolerant. Mine haven't had any issues so far but they are still young and haven't been exposed to extreme temperatures yet. I got mine from @Cjwaldon on here BUT i won them in the games for eggs thread. Speaking of which, my chicks came today! The bigger one is Onyx, one from my first group. He's 2 weeks older than the ones that came today. He made sure they knew who was boss but was still sweet and welcoming. He's my baby boy :)

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Beatiful birds!
Our Ayam Cemani hen is in her first Winter and had no problem with the recent 5F cold snap. She's so fast around the yard compared to the other hens and spends no time out in the open. I think she's a good breed to evade attack from predators. The others peck and scratch out in the open without a care in the world. I'd rather they took a page out of our Ayam Cemani's book.
 

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