Sponsored Post Selecting Breeds for a Rainbow Egg Basket

[Chicks Galore3]

All 12 of my chickens lay different color eggs- even if some are the same breed. Everyone laughs at me and my brother because we can say whose egg is whose. It is not uncommon to hear from our kitchen, "hmm...Polly needs some more oyster shells! Her egg was a bit to easy to crack" or "Wow, Crumpet sure put those extra worms to good use! look at that yolk!"

 

[bruceha2000]

... they'll for sure be loaded up with chicks. I wouldn't go except for the $5 coupon, and the 25% discount on all chick supplies after the workshop. Honest!

Oh good, self control

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Let us know how many and what breeds sneak into your shopping bag.

 

[ChicKat]

And don't forget about Cream Legbars...although relatively new to the USA they produce a beautiful blue or bluish green egg.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Oh good, self control

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Let us know how many and what breeds sneak into your shopping bag.

Hahahaha! I ended up not going -- had some visitors to the coop just when I should have been leaving. It's probably a good thing ...

 

[mo puff]

I want an Olive egger! When i go to the feed store... do i say "hey, i want an olive egger" ? Will they have any? I guess my question is.. how do i know i am getting a OE?

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I want an Olive egger! When i go to the feed store... do i say "hey, i want an olive egger" ? Will they have any? I guess my question is.. how do i know i am getting a OE?

I'm not an expert on this, but my guess is that as Olive Eggers aren't a specific breed I'm not sure there is a commercial hatchery distributing them to feed stores -- but you might have some luck with a private breeder as they are being "worked on." Therefore, I think you might have more luck if you make Olive Eggers yourself. As in take a proven dark brown egg layer and cross it with a proven blue/green egg layer, and hope for a female, then hope for olive eggs at POL. Obviously, "proving" the color of the egg from the rooster involves an extra step.

Here is a thread on Olive Eggers ... https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/131131/the-olive-egger-thread Lots of pages of info to dig through there!

I do have a couple of Easter Eggers that give me nice darker green eggs ... and almost all of my Cuckoo Marans (commercial hatchery stock) turned out to be male. I've kept one of the CM males. have on EE male, and if I can get myself organized to make trios with nice habitats I will see what I can do with various combos of EE & CM. I only have two female Cuckoo Marans. One of them seems to have a genetic defect that gives her really scruffy feathers (though she is looking MUCH better now after her first fall/winter season) and her eggs are often quite odd with fragile paint. I wouldn't breed her. The other which is younger has recently started laying and her eggs aren't super large or super dark. Yet. Meh.

If I get a broody I'm going to see if I have any luck ordering colorful hatching eggs from someone here who produces absolutely gorgeous eggs with good recommendations.

Anyone getting rose/purplish/raspberry-ish eggs? I get some really interesting shades of red, and some nice shades of orange. I'm also hoping to get some more just plain old middle-of-the-road brown eggs without so much red ... I think they'd make a nice contrast and have seen photos of them here at BYC.

 

[lemmerich]

Ok for ur hens coop can u use sand for floor? Try to think if a better base

 

[sargent spurs]

Nice thread, I like the chocolate eggs.

 

[willyworld]

I have a mixed flock of 15 chickens,Rhody reds, marans,americanas, lite brahma, suffolks, Plymouth rocks and 2 banties. Every loves getting "RAINBOW" eggs. I have one chick that lays PINK eggs with blue speckles. I have never been able to figure out which hen is laying them. Anyone got any ideas........WILLYWORLD

 

[CochinBrahmaLover]

Just want to point this out, but EE's can lay green, blue, purple, pink, white, any color really. While green, brown or blue is most common, their mix breeds so they can lay ANY color.