PINK eggs! I think my pullets have started laying! (pics!)

[Chick-a-roos]

Thanks for the posting the pictures! I want colored eggs NOW!

btw....didn't know I could crush the shells and feed back to girls!

I feed them boiled mashed eggs for breakfast but thought if they had the shells it would make them peck at their own!

I have always put the shells in the compost pile. But, thanks to the great BYC friends...I will do better!

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Just crush them up and they won't resemble an egg to them. Chickens, not being the brightest of creatures....

All my LF brahmas are back to laying now after a molt and all are back to laying pink eggs. I sold 5 dozen this morning and every one of them was pink.

Congrats! I love the pink eggs too.

 

[Happy Chooks]

So pretty! It almost looks mauve.

 

[dianneS]

Thanks. I really like colored eggs too. I'd like to get some of the deep brown layers and some true Amerucanas, but I heard that those birds don't tolerate cold winters very well?

I also considered giving my chickens egg shells too, just mixing them in with the cooked scrambled eggs that I give them from time to time, but I wasn't sure if I should or not. I used to give egg shells to my zebra finches many years ago, but the bird experts always told me to bake them in the oven first to sterilize them or something so that they wouldn't transmit disease?? I didn't understand that since I was feeding them their own egg shells? But glad to hear that you can give them to chickens and it won't do any harm! And not as much hassle as baking a bunch of egg shells either!

 

[dianneS]

Another one of my pullets has started laying, and this one is laying green eggs! I wouldn't normally be that excited because I have EE's that lay green eggs, but they are full sized eggs and this one is a bantam sized green egg! These EE/bantam cross girls are not quite as big as a standard EE so it looks like I'll have two sizes of green eggs now, banty sized pink eggs, big brown eggs and tinted banty eggs! Now to get some of those dark egg laying Marans!

 

[cmom]

Very pretty!!!

 

[Akane]

Pink is not from the gene usually associated with EE and is not actually even an EE trait really. Pink eggs come from having certain brown egg genes. You can find them in any breed not bred for egg color so that they don't lay pure white and they don't lay dark brown. All those people who get EE from hatcheries and end up with brown eggs could have gotten pink eggs if their EE had fewer brown genes (it's the stacking of brown genes that gives dark brown eggs) or different ones.

Here are pink egg from a pure japanese bantam next to a white store bought egg and a quail egg.

 

[dianneS]

Quote:
That's good to know. These girls mamma was a tinted egg laying mixed breed banty, daddy was an EE with all green egg laying sisters. I wouldn't call mamma's eggs pink though, they were more like a very pale brownish, certainly not pure white though. I would consider these new eggs pink, and now one of the new girls is laying banty sized green eggs, so I've got more shades and sizes in my egg basket!