The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Melmarsh on March 10, 2016, 01:24:57 pm
-
Can someone tell me if ,when a chicken first starts to lay, and it's a coloured egg layer ie blue, the eggs are not blue from POL but turn blue as the chicken matures ??? And would that apply to a dark brown egg layer too ??? ???
-
I can only draw on my own limited experience but with my two batches of home reared chicks coming into POL the coloured egg layers have always started laying properly coloured eggs straight away (Cream Legbars (blue) and Barnvelders (darkish brown). It seems to be more the shape of the eggs that needs a bit of practice to come right, the first few eggs always seem on the small side, and I had a couple of shell-less eggs too.
-
It's the other way around: the colour will lighten as the season progresses. So if you have a bought a chicken that is meant to lay blue eggs and it lays beige ones, they'll remain beige egg layers and the colour will only become paler.
Same with a dark brown egg layer: she should lay dark brown eggs at first but they'll become less dark brown the more she lays.
-
Colour true from the first egg, gets lighter with age. If egg colour is important or you're selling from the gate don't breed from hens that lay poor colours or mis-shaped or ridged eggs. I've got one hen that's laying a double-yolker every time (must've made her eyes water the first couple of times). Very popular in the egg box but the first and probably the last I've ever had.
-
Many thanks all, it was a neighbour that bought a blue egg layer and dark brown but got two beige eggs this am and took the chickens back ,only to be told that the colour comes with age !!! We thought this was wrong but wanted. To check with ' them what know ' ! Thanks again :wave: :chook:
-
My welsummer laid her first eggs this week and they were dark brown.
If your neighbours chickens laid different coloured eggs than their breed standards it simply means they are not pure breed.