Chicken laying different color eggs.

[TheSilkieInn]

I have a blue Olive Egger laying olive eggs I thought. I found a blue egg in her nest today! Does anyone else have a chicken that lays different egg colors? I know it’s her because the others are Marans that lay brown eggs.

 

[saysfaa]

Maybe. My australorps laid medium brown colored eggs for the most part. But once, one of them laid a pale tan colored egg. Only once, and in the middle of the season so I think it was a random glitch of the part of her reproductive system that generates the brown coating.

Since green eggs are brown eggs over a blue base instead of a white base, that might be what happened with your hen too.

 

[aart]

Since green eggs are brown eggs over a blue base instead of a white base, that might be what happened with your hen too.

Exactly!
Spray booth glitch.
The brown coating can vary or be absent.

 

[MysteryChicken]

I have a blue Olive Egger laying olive eggs I thought. I found a blue egg in her nest today! Does anyone else have a chicken that lays different egg colors? I know it’s her because the others are Marans that lay brown eggs.

Olive Eggers aren't consistent egg color layers. They can bounce from Olive to Turquoise, to greenish blue, to blue with green speckles. I had an Olive Egger that did this.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree. Any pullet or hen can have an egg-laying glitch at any time. The egg-laying process is pretty complicated, in some ways it is surprising there aren't more glitches. As long as it is an isolated event I don't worry about it at all. If it becomes a repeat event I might become concerned, depending on what it is.

Even if something like this became a permanent change it would not concern me. I don't see it as a threat to her quality of life or to the quality of her eggs.

Since the brown coating is put on during the last half hour or so in the egg gland my guess is that something caused her to lay the egg earlier than normal in her egg-laying cycle. That is relatively common. And generates a lot of threads like this.

 

[Altairsky]

I was wondering why my fake araucana changed egg color from mint green to blue.

 

[PoppasGrill]

This explains some things.
I can understand light brown to medium brown from the same hen, but didn’t know about the primer coat. Always thought it was a base color depending on the breed.( or the color of their ears)

 

[Ridgerunner]

This explains some things.
I can understand light brown to medium brown from the same hen, but didn’t know about the primer coat. Always thought it was a base color depending on the breed.( or the color of their ears)

The base color is either blue or white. That's genetics. If a certain gene is present the shell is the same base blue through the thickness. If that gene is not present then the shell is white through its thickness because it defaults to the color of the materials that make the shell, which is white. Of course there is an exception, there is almost aways an exception in chicken genetics to make it more complicated. There is one specific gene that colors the thickness of the shell to a light tint, not pure white.

If there is brown it is applied during the last half hour or so in the shell gland. There are a lot of different genes that can affect the brown, that's why you can get so many different shades. A brown egg is one that the brown pigment is applied on top of a white egg. Green is brown pigment applied on top of a blue egg. If you open an egg and remove that film layer underneath you can see the base color.

Breeds are manmade. The people that designed the breed determined what color and shade of egg they wanted the breed to lay. If the breeder that selects which chickens get to breed uses eggshell color as a criteria then a specific breed should lay a specific color and shade. But not all breeders use eggshell color as a criteria. If the don't then you can get varying colors and especially shades from the same breed. That confuses a lot of people on this forum.

There is no genetic link of earlobe color and eggshell color. Again, whoever designed the breed determined what it would be. As long as the breeder uses that as a criteria you should get what you should.

In general, most eggshell colors do coincide with earlobe color. Mediterranean breeds tend to lay white eggs and have white earlobes. Brown egg layers tend to have red earlobes. That leads people to believe there is a genetic link between the two. But there are a few breeds where that is not true. For example, a Pendesenca lays a very dark brown egg and has white earlobes. A Pheonix lays a white egg but has red earlobes. There are other examples. And if you cross breeds with different eggshell colors and earlobe colors you can get various results. Earlobe colors often do not follow eggshell colors.

 

[Slothinc]

I had my olive egger give me a fun colored egg this week too

 

[RennaeHanson]

My chickens are boring, they all lay varying tones of brown or tan. LOL