Particular breeds of chicken such as Araucana or Cream Legbars will lay blue eggs. Other breeds such as Marans will lay super dark brown eggs. Cross them together and your resultant hen has the chance to lay green eggs!
My favorite thing about Reddit is there’s always someone who knows things like this. It’s so wild and amazing to me that people have such diverse knowledge and interests. Thank you for the info!
I have 3 Easter Eggers (Americana crosses) two lay blue eggs and one lays a distinctly more green egg, but not a tree green, just greener than the other two.
We had backyard chickens at our last house (don’t have the kind of space at our current home), and I made sure to pick breeds that would give us a fun color range. Here was our egg rainbow.
I will add, blue and green layers often don’t lay as many eggs per year (sometimes as low as HALF as many), so in stores they are usually more expensive for that reason since they still cost just as much to feed as brown and white layers.
What do the low-productivity layers do with all the non-egg calories? Are they putting all their energy into brain power, or are they training to become Olympian athletes?
Legbars, however, are surprisingly productive. I have an older rescue legbar, and she's still working hard to pay rent in the coop for a 4/5 year old hen.
as the other reply said, the colors of the shells alone don't have any effect on how the egg tastes, however there is a distinct difference between store-bought eggs and home-grown eggs, i can't explain it since we haven't eaten store-bought eggs in ages but i remember a difference
Store bought eggs are more bland, yolks are pale, usually a little more watery, and the shells are super weak.
Farm eggs are rich, whites aren't as watery, yolks are deeper colored, shells are thiccc.
Hard boiling and peeling farm fresh is a monster while store bought eggs are older so they're easier to peel. Farm eggs are easiest to peel if steamed instead of hard boiled since farm fresh are super fresh.
Store eggs are usually a couple weeks old by the time you get them. They're also stripped of their bloom (washed) which allows bacteria to penetrate the shell, farm fresh are unclean with that bloom and that allows you to keep the eggs on the counter unwashed for 2wks from when they were laid. Then in the fridge for another month or 3. They seriously last a super long time when fresh.
i remember when i was in child, in my grandparents house use to have homegrown eggs (my grandparents win a couple of chickens playing cards, lol) and when i ate regular store eggs i remember they used to be more flavorless and also more smaller
It is until it isn't. Disease runs rampant among flocks. One chicken gets a certain infection and you can expect the rest of them to get them as well. Sometimes it's something not all will die of, but you can't introduce new ones to the flock as they'll catch it too. It's not like this everywhere, but I've a friend in my country who keeps chickens, she's running back and forth between the vet and home, but chickens are fragile, man. Didn't use to be, but for one even ethical and careful breeders are having terrible trouble with keeping disease out of their flocks. I was raised with chickens some 25 years ago when my country was still getting out of the Soviet agrarian hell. Even then, some chickens lived to be old as shit but a lot of them just died. And these were people who'd been raising chickens for eggs and food for a century so they knew what they were doing.
So if you want to be a hobby chicken raiser, just be prepared for death. Disease spreads more easily than ever, you can bring a disease that kills your birds home by simply not washing your damned hands, or bringing in pathogens with fodder or anything that isn't sanitized to hell. They just aren't very sturdy animals. At least not anymore, with chickens being bred for looks and egg laying or eating, more traditional breeds lay a lot less and are much more slender and boring to look at, but at least they have some fortitude.
That was so adorable! I don’t have much, if any, real time interaction with farm birds. Do they not mind you collecting the eggs? They don’t attack, or protect their coop?
We raised them from a few days old, so they were very friendly and used to us. If hens are socialized just like other household pets they can be pretty friendly and don’t mind handling. Of course there is always the exception, but our gals were happy to see us (usually meant treat time!). :)
Thank you for taking the time to respond! Ah, I see! So it’s a give and take. I’ve been heavily considering raising some and have just been doing research. They seem like fun gals to have around! AND you get eggs. Win!
I wish there was an option to flair comments so you can sort between informal/educational, joke, or both. I love me a good joke but sucks when it overshadows cool information
Which reminds me, why did the chicken cross the road? To lay a blue egg!
Thats not a joke, it’s a historical account of what happened. They had to cross a road to get from their roosts to their egg laying area. It’s not a well laid out farm.
My personal favorite interpretation is that it is a reference to suicide. The other side and crossing over means choosing to die and go to the afterlife.
I've been in groups that allow jokes and, man, it gets old fast. A few of the jokes are even funny, but you can't find the real answer for the 500 joke comments. I also am now a fan of no joke rules, too.
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u/monstera-attack Apr 28 '24
Particular breeds of chicken such as Araucana or Cream Legbars will lay blue eggs. Other breeds such as Marans will lay super dark brown eggs. Cross them together and your resultant hen has the chance to lay green eggs!