The Egg Anomalies Thread

[TheGreatEscapees]

Hey Everyone! I thought it would be cool if there was a thread where we could share our strange eggs, and here it is! Meet Ombre:

She is a Production Blue I got from TSC. Along with her, I got three RIRs and two other Production Blues who happen to be black(they had dark blue down as chicks). This week, she laid her first two eggs:

I'm very confused! The other two PB's both lay light-to-medium brown eggs with darker spots. Do y'all have any ideas as to why/how this happened. It's worth noting that she is 39 weeks old and is a very stressed and scared chicken - she's at the bottom of the pecking order and everyone doesn't waste any time when it comes to putting her in her place.

 

[FunClucks]

Can you post of picture of everyone else's eggs for comparison?

Production Blues are a hatchery cross-breed. Occasionally there is variation in how they turn out. If all her eggs are like this, then this is the normal color for her. Enjoy your sweet girl and colorful egg basket!

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

@FunClucks Here are two of the other PB's eggs.

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

I promise my finger's aren't that short!

 

[FunClucks]

Based on egg shape and mottling, and assuming Ombre continues to lay the same shape/color of eggs, it looks like she just didn't inherit many of the genes that give the tan coloration. There is some coloration, but not much. Brown eggs are genetically white, with a brown "wash" that is applied after the hen forms the shell around the egg white and yolk. If I recall correctly there are something like 23? (a heck of a lot) different genes that direct the deposition of brown pigment. How many of these are present/active determines the shade and tint of the brown pigment. Ombre may have only a few present.

(if you crack a brown egg and peel away the inner membrane from the shell, you will see the shell is white. Also, if you look at the edge of a broken shell piece, it looks white. The brown is a surface phenomenon only, unlike blue eggs, where the color is throughout the entire shell. Green or olive eggs are actually blue eggs with various darknesses of brown wash over them)

If she only lays the occasional lighter egg, and all the others look like the brown of her siblings, then she has an issue with her brown "wash" application station in her egg production "factory". It won't impact the quality of her eggs.

Either way, whether this is a one-off or a permanent condition for Ombre's eggs, it will not affect the quality of the eggs, only the color. Your chicken is also perfectly healthy.

 

[2ndTink]

I'm not familiar with production blues so just did a quick google search and I'm seeing blue chickens with red leakage where yours has silver leakage.

Here's a link to Hoover showing blue chickens with red leakage as well.

https://www.hoovershatchery.com/Production-Blue

Would it be possible that your beautiful Miss Ombre is a different breed? This would explain the egg color difference.

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

I'm seeing blue chickens with red leakage where yours has silver leakage.

@2ndTink She did have a red face as a chick, and one of the black Production Blues does have a few barley noticeable copper feathers. I know I can't 100% rule out that she isn't a Production Blue since I got her at TSC ( the same TSC that had RIR labeled GLW). But, I must say the black ones are soft very much like Australorps, and Ombre is tight feathered like the RIRs. Also, thanks for pointing out her silver leakage! I had no idea what to call it! My other PB, Yogurt also has silver leakage.

On a side note her egg from today is a shade darker?

 

[TheGreatEscapees]

Is there any genetic link between red leakage and silver leakage? Could it be possible if a mutation caused her to express both silver leakage AND paler eggs?

 

[FunClucks]

Is there any genetic link between red leakage and silver leakage? Could it be possible if a mutation caused her to express both silver leakage AND paler eggs?

Typically, you get either silver or red leakage, not both. Also, chicken feather color is not tied to egg color. You can have any color chickens laying any color of eggs if you breed them correctly for long enough. Egg color can be tied to comb type in a few specific ways, but that's not what's going on here.

The hatchery can go pretty far afield on individual chickens, because they breed them in groups, and don't select stringently for type (their appearance and physical characteristics). You have one bird with a few copper feathers on their neck, most other characteristics line up with Production Blue? Hatchery quality production blue. I think your other two are Production Blue.

Now, it looks like Production Blues are RIR x Blue Australorp. Nothing in that mix should give you chicks with silver leakage. Maybe Ombre is an EE or something else that got into your order by mistake?

 

[2ndTink]

Now, it looks like Production Blues are RIR x Blue Australorp. Nothing in that mix should give you chicks with silver leakage.

@FunClucks now I have to google that gold x silver gene chart... I can remember the "gold male over silver female" but not the other way around

Ok, so are Australorps silver based? If so that would explain the silver leakage.

This page has a great gold / silver cart if you scroll down a little.

https://www.featherfernfarmstead.com/about-the-colors.html

So if the Australorps are silver based, then Ombre and Yoghurt would have an Australorp dad and a RIR mom. Then your one with the red leakage would have a RIR dad and an Australorp mom.

As for the feather tightness and character difference, I have had the whole spectrum of RIR's from the hatchery, I have had gorgeous deep colored larger ones and some really scrompy ones with paler feathers and smaller bodies. It's possible she just inherited her nervousness and different feathering from one of her parents. I've had the same experience with the Australorps too, they were not consistent from the hatchery at all.

There are over a dozen genes that impact the brown pigment on the egg shell, so what color she lays is dependent on how those genes were inherited and then how they interact. I'm not saying they did, but if they had used another breed, especially leghorn, to work on increasing the egg production, then they apparently have a zinc white gene that can be passed along and it somehow makes the eggs paler, I'm not sure how though that's way deeper genetics than I know!