Production Blue Variants?

[TheGreatEscapees]

Hey Everyone! In April 2025 I got 6 chicks from TSC. Among them I got three Production Blues. However, none of these look like your traditional PB from, say, Hoover's Hatchery. One, named Ombre, even laid a white egg as her first egg, though after close to two weeks, they are now tan colored.

I noticed she has silver leakage on her hackles instead of red, though, she did have red down on her face as a chick. If you zoom in on her breast feathers, you can see there is some red leakage. Here is Yogurt, another hen with silver leakage and

a small amount of red leakage on her breast as well.

Finally, here is Spidey. as you can see, she has red flecks and a few red feather shafts. It is important to note that all three had dark blue down as chicks, though Ombre's was a little lighter. Let me know what you think! Thanks.

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

@FunClucks and @2ndTink here is the new thread if you are interested!

 

[2ndTink]

@FunClucks and @2ndTink here is the new thread if you are interested!

Thanks for the tag!

So Ombre is living up to her name

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

Your welcome!

So Ombre is living up to her name

Wow I actually didn't think of it like that lol. I once had two Australorps, named Twilight and Eclipse. Twilight came to have lighter brown eyes and Eclipse had eyes so dark they looked black. Very ironic indeed.

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

I forgot to mention that I do suspect Silkie and EE interference. As a chick, Spidey had a mulberry face(and still a little bit now) and earlobes, and had blue - yes bright blue, spots on her ear. I don't have any photos of that but I do have one of Yogurt when she was a chick, and she had green legs and feet back then. I was wondering if that had anything to do with how when you mix yellow and black you get green?

 

[FunClucks]

The hatcheries never tell us quite what goes into their mixes.
@NatJ what do you think? These birds are supposed to be Production Blues, but it looks like they have some funky genetics going on.

@TheGreatEscapees - Can you post a pic of their current egg colors, for each chicken?

 

[NatJ]

The hatcheries never tell us quite what goes into their mixes.
@NatJ what do you think? These birds are supposed to be Production Blues, but it looks like they have some funky genetics going on.

If they are blue and they are producing well, then I would say the name is accurate enough.

For the ones with silver in the neck and also gold in the breast, I think it may be a bit like when a Silver Duckwing hen has a salmon-colored breast: she has the silver gene, but it still allows some kinds of sort-of red color in the breast area of hens.

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

@FunClucks here

are there most recent eggs from left to right: Ombre, Spidey, Yogurt.

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

If they are blue and they are producing well, then I would say the name is accurate enough.

Actually, the only one producing eggs the most is Spidey. 5 - 6 per week. Usually 6. Yogurt, however, does about 4 and Ombre is just starting up, so none from her this week. But, they don't compare to my RIR hen, Mango, who only takes like one, maybe two, days off a month .

For the ones with silver in the neck and also gold in the breast, I think it may be a bit like when a Silver Duckwing hen has a salmon-colored breast: she has the silver gene, but it still allows some kinds of sort-of red color in the breast area of hens.

Ok cool, would this mean silver leakage and salmon breast are linked? Assuming she is only BA and RIR, would this naturally occur?