Question for "eggsperts"

[CBarrett]

We have RIR's, Delawares and New Hampshires. We had a Delaware Rooster and still have a RIR Rooster. We hatched eggs from this mix of breeds and one of the young hens who is light red in color just started laying eggs. She is approximately 4-1/2 months old. The eggs she is laying are very small and olive green in color, with tiny specks of what looks like baby blue. I KNOW she is not an Ameracauna, as we do not have any Ameracaunas.

Why on earth would her eggs look like this? Anyone have any clues??

Here is a picture of what I collected today from all of our girls - The small olive green and more bluish colored eggs are the ones I am talking about.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Life really throws some surprises, doesn’t it? Genetically speaking, if all the eggs that hatched were brown, then the father provided a blue egg gene. If the hen had it, then the egg you hatched would have been blue or green. So your hens are not the guilty ones.

There is one specific gene that determines if the base egg shell color is blue or white. Blue is dominant, so if the hen has a blue egg gene, she lays blue or green eggs. The amount of brown that goes on top of the blue is what turns it green.

So the rooster that fathered the hens that laid those eggs had a blue egg gene. Either your Delaware or RIR rooster is not pure or there is another rooster lurking in the background. Would anyone you know play a practical joke and slip some strange eggs or chicks in your hatch.

There is something else going on too. You don’t have one hen laying those eggs. With that much difference in color, those eggs are from two different hens. I’ll mention it again; might someone be playing a practical joke and slipping eggs in the basket in you?

 

[CBarrett]

Life really throws some surprises, doesn’t it? Genetically speaking, if all the eggs that hatched were brown, then the father provided a blue egg gene. If the hen had it, then the egg you hatched would have been blue or green. So your hens are not the guilty ones.
There is one specific gene that determines if the base egg shell color is blue or white. Blue is dominant, so if the hen has a blue egg gene, she lays blue or green eggs. The amount of brown that goes on top of the blue is what turns it green.
So the rooster that fathered the hens that laid those eggs had a blue egg gene. Either your Delaware or RIR rooster is not pure or there is another rooster lurking in the background. Would anyone you know play a practical joke and slip some strange eggs or chicks in your hatch.
There is something else going on too. You don’t have one hen laying those eggs. With that much difference in color, those eggs are from two different hens. I’ll mention it again; might someone be playing a practical joke and slipping eggs in the basket in you?

Actually, the one that appears more green in the picture was wet - when it dries it looks more blue. Same with the blue egg, when it's wet they look almost identical. I guess my RIR rooster is the culprit, it's more likely he is not purebred than the Delaware which I purchased from a hatchery. The RIR was a yard bird...

No one is playing tricks, we are locked in pretty tight where we are, but thank you so much for your reply and input! Crazy stuff... lol

 

[CBarrett]

Anyone out there have a purebred RIR rooster they want to get rid of??

 

[NYRIR]

I always enjoy reading Ridgerunners posts!

 

[NYRIR]

We have RIR's, Delawares and New Hampshires. We had a Delaware Rooster and still have a RIR Rooster. We hatched eggs from this mix of breeds and one of the young hens who is light red in color just started laying eggs. She is approximately 4-1/2 months old. The eggs she is laying are very small and olive green in color, with tiny specks of what looks like baby blue. I KNOW she is not an Ameracauna, as we do not have any Ameracaunas.

Why on earth would her eggs look like this? Anyone have any clues??

Here is a picture of what I collected today from all of our girls - The small olive green and more bluish colored eggs are the ones I am talking about.

Beautiful eggs BTW!
I would also guess you have a mix in there somewhere!

 

[CelticOaksFarm]

Just so you know, Ameracuana do not ever lay green or olive eggs. They are also not sold at hatcheries or feed stores. Those locations sell miss labeled Easter Eggers. It sounds as though you have an interesting mix chicken in the flock that created the hen and the genetics behind the olive toned egg.