Araucana egg question

[GoodCheerJoy]

I just purchased/received araucana hatching eggs. They are white with the slightest tinge of blue but really very white! Can these be pure araucana chicken eggs or have I been had?

 

[Perris]

it is quite late in the season and the colour of eggshells fades as the season wears on and the hen's nutrient levels fall, so you could expect the same hen to lay more strongly coloured eggs at the start of next season than now. On the other hand, the gene for blue is dominant, so impure bred birds may still lay blue eggs, but the blue may be pale or green when mixed with genes for white or brown shells for example. And then there's natural variation within strains. Do you have any other reason to doubt the seller of these eggs? Are they a registered breeder, or a farmer, or just someone selling backyard eggs?

 

[willchickeneat]

I just purchased/received araucana hatching eggs. They are white with the slightest tinge of blue but really very white! Can these be pure araucana chicken eggs or have I been had?

Ditto. The blue coloring is seasonal, depending on egg laying cycle. New laying hens or hens coming back from strike will usually have the deepest blue. Even then, deep blue eggs are rare. You can always check inside a cracked blue egg. Peel off that thin white membrane inside the cracked egg. Inside egg color should be blue.

Same egg, same day. One shot is taken in full sun, one isnpartial shade. This was my bluest egg this year. Didn't happen too often that the color was this blue.

They're usually something like this, or lighter.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I just purchased/received araucana hatching eggs. They are white with the slightest tinge of blue but really very white! Can these be pure araucana chicken eggs or have I been had?

I don't know if you've been had or not, but if they are blue then they are blue. The way the genetics work there is one gene pair that determines if the base color of the egg is blue or white. Blue is dominant so if just one of the genes at that gene pair is blue, the base color is blue. It doesn't matter if one or both of the genes at that gene pair are blue, they are still base blue. This part is simple.

Brown and green are simply brown laid on top of the base color. It goes like this:

Blue + no Brown = Blue
Blue + Brown = Green
White + no Brown = White
White + Brown = Brown.

Where it gets complicated is that there are several gene pairs that influence brown, if it is present at all. Some add different shades of brown, there is even one that bleaches certain brown out. Brown is usually laid on in the last half hour or so before the egg is laid, so if you open the egg and remove that membrane on the inside of the egg you can see the base color. Or you can rub the brown off of the outside. So the base color goes through the egg shell from the inside of the egg to the outside. There is an exception, there is one gene pair that causes the base white color to be lightly tinted all the way through. A lot of base blue eggs have this "tinted" gene too so it can modify the shade of blue some. Like I said, it gets complicated.

All this brown stuff doesn't concern you except there can be some genes that are laid on at the end of egg laying that could modify the shade/color of the outside of the egg. This may not always be a shade of brown. These eggs could have some of that. After they hatch you can remove the membrane inside the egg and look at the color of the inside of the egg shell. That will give you the base color.

As others said, the eggs can get lighter later in the hen's laying cycle. Some brown eggs can get pretty light. The same thing can happen with green eggs, they can get more blue. And blue eggs can get lighter. This may be what you are seeing.

There is another potential cause. The last thing a hen puts on the egg as it is laid is what we call bloom. Bloom is a liquid so the eggs look wet as they come out but the bloom dries really quickly. Bloom is a coating that helps keep bacteria out of the porous egg. It's really effective, bloom is what enables a hen to lay eggs in a nest for a couple of weeks to get a clutch and then set on them for 3 more weeks without bacteria getting inside and killing the embryo. Bloom is usually transparent but it can be different colors/hues. Some hens put a thick coat of bloom on, some a thinner coating. It would not surprise me if some of what you are seeing is because of the bloom.

I'm sure this is a lot longer than you wanted but as long as the eggs have a blue tint they could be from an Araucana. They at least have the blue egg shell gene.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Can you post pictures of the eggs while they are resting? Photos of the breeders would also be nice.