Who is laying this white egg!?

[LaurelC]

I am feeling pretty confused right now. We are fairly new to the chicken game and just starting to get the hang of things. Below are our chickens and what I know about them. All were purchased from someone nearby with what seems to be healthy, if not slightly overcrowded birds, probably not super high quality genetics, which isn't that important to me because I won't be doing any breeding. I'm going by the breed names that the seller gave me. Their appearance seems consistent with my research on the various breeds. We got a couple of the birds 3 weeks ago, and 3 more just a few days ago. I wasn't expecting to see "new" eggs in the nest box for a while, so this was quite the surprise.

Ameraucana mix - 16 months old - For the last 2 weeks we have been getting 5 eggs a week. They are a pale grey-green color, usually very consistent, sometimes half will be more brown than the other half of the egg. Solid shells.


Red Sex Link - 16 months old - For the last week, we have been having some egg "issues." She's been laying exclusively in/from the roost at night. This has resulted in 2 eggs with shells - one was VERY soft, the other got a ding in the shell when it landed on the roost (and magically didn't roll off). There have been at least 1, but I suspect 2 shell-less eggs that I believe were at least partially consumed - no other egg eating behavior has been displayed. The 2 eggs that have had shells have just been a standard light brown. No eggs she's laid have been anywhere near the nest box.


Black Copper Marans - 16 months old - We got her 3 days ago. She was a favorite of one of their roosters and is needing to fill in on her back and head. Sweet as pie.


Black "Langshan" - 16 months old - We got her 3 days ago - This chicken has white streaks that are not consistent with the breed. I asked the langshan thread and at least one person believes that she may be a mutt. Her comb resembles a pea comb and langshans should be straight combed. She is who I suspect the most, but I guess that I expected that if she laid a different colored egg, it would still have that pinkish bloom that langshans are supposed to have. I'm not 100% confident that this chicken isn't a male. The seller swears up and down that she's laying eggs, and has offered to swap her out if she turns out to be male, so has nothing to gain by convincing me that she's female if she isn't.


Speckled Sussex - 4 months old - we got her 3 days ago - This is the only chicken that I'm reasonably confident is not laying. Her comb is still pretty pale and she hasn't filled in much.

 

[junebuggena]

The Langshan is male for sure. He has long, thin, pointed male saddle feathers. The Sussex and the Marans look a bit too immature for eggs yet. The Red sexlink is not a red sexlink. She looks more like a mixed breed to me. Her ears are white, which could mean that she's the one laying white eggs.

 

[bigt447]

Yep.....white ears should mean white eggs. My red sex links definitely have brown ears and are laying nice brown eggs.

 

[LaurelC]

The Langshan is male for sure. He has long, thin, pointed male saddle feathers. The Sussex and the Marans look a bit too immature for eggs yet. The Red sexlink is not a red sexlink. She looks more like a mixed breed to me. Her ears are white, which could mean that she's the one laying white eggs.

Thanks for the confirmation. I'll wait til it starts making noise and then return to the seller.

I have gotten 2 brown eggs from the "red sexlink." She very well may not be a red sex link, but she is laying brown eggs. It seems unlikely that she'd lay soft shelled eggs in the middle of the night from the roosts 3-4 times and then all of a sudden pop out a white, solid-shelled mid-afternoon egg, no? The last egg from her was found yesterday AM on the roost bar, and the white egg was less than 12 hours later. Based on photos, it looks like many birds labelled as red sex links have white ears. I was under the impression that red sex links are produced by breeding many different varieties of chickens together, so theoretically she could just be a different combination of breeds than yours, no?