rainbow of eggs

[gabrielle32]

hi all,gonna get five or six new pol chickens in the next week or so,see people here talking about the rainbow of coloured eggs they collect every day and i would love to have that! could i get some advice please on the breeds that lay different coloured eggs? i'm currently getting brown, tan,off white and really white from my layers at the moment and i have barnevelder,rir,light sussex and maybe a vorwerk chicks. would love to see some blue,green or speckled eggs in nesting box!

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Well, for blue, green, and pinkish eggs, I would suggest the ever popular Easter Egger. These are mutt chickens mostly sold by hatcheries and are easy to find and care for. Being hybrids, they also tend to be healthier and grow faster than some pure breeds. Mine are absolutely the friendliest in my flock. Three of them like to come up to me and sit in my lap, and one will even hop on the top of the chair and try to preen my 'feathers' (hair). They are sweet. Now, if you're a pure breed kind of collector, you can also go with Araucanas or Ameraucanas, basically the pure forms of Easter Eggers, but those will be harder to find and you will have to get them through a breeder. If you want dark green eggs, you can cross a green egg laying hen of any of these breeds with a rooster whose breed lays a dark brown egg. These are known as olive eggers, and tend to look and behave like any other EE.

For dark brown speckled eggs, you pretty much can't go wrong with the Welsummer. These birds are usually not too hard to find, as they are becoming more popular because of their beautiful terra cotta colored eggs. Not all hens will lay speckled eggs, but that just adds to your color variety as you will get both solid and dark speckled eggs if you have a few of these hens. I have seen a lot of people say that these birds are friendliest in their flock. My experience is that they can be friendly, but mine do not like to be touched at all and they are a little noisier than my other breeds, and I have several kinds. If you can deal with that, then I would still recommend them. You can also go with Marans for dark eggs, but I have heard their temperament is not as good as the Welsummer, and the Welsummer also lays more eggs. Hope this helps! Happy collecting!

 

[gabrielle32]

thanks for all that advice it's brill,would love love love to get some easter eggers but they don't seem to be available here in Ireland,or maybe they're called something else,if anyone had some pics to post so i know what they look like that would be great,I actually had some araucana eggs but for some reason they didn't hatch,

you're right them and ameracaunas are so hard to get,so for now I'll focus on gettin me some welsummers

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Wow, Ireland huh? I have always wanted to visit there, it sounds so pretty. I'm from Arkansas. EEs actually come in all different shapes, colors, and sizes but most of them share these characteristics: Muffs and/or a beard, slate colored legs (I have had every color legs except traditional yellow and most do not have feathered shanks), and it seems like their neck feathers are more poofy than other chickens. Here are some of mine:



These girls are Jolly Roger, Chichi (the preener) and Honker, respectively I used to have a rooster, too. Here's an old pic I found of him.

I hope you can find some! My first guess would be to check the big hatcheries in Ireland, all big hatcheries here in the US have some.

 

[gabrielle32]

thanks for the pics,what beauties! I know of a couple of hatcheries I can get in touch with to see what they have,will be interesting to see what they say I've never seen anything like them in gardens here,ya Ireland pretty but too much rain! Now Arkansas sounds very cool,read about it in a couple books,it's a part of America I would love to travel around,someday...

 

[devora]

Gorgeous birds, so pretty! Good job summing up the breeds. Wanted to add that my Welsummers have always been incredible friendly, charming birds. My Marans (Cuckoo) are way too broody for my taste. But beautiful eggs from both (when I can get them from the Maran!).

My EEs are flighty but I don't have them for pets; they are in the flock for the colored eggs.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Love those eggs! I hope thats what mine looks like come September.