在我作为一个自耕农开始照顾我自己的羊群之前,我对鸡蛋的理解从童年起就没有什么变化。有一种白色的,我可以在超级市场(Mega-Mart)买到泡沫塑料包装的,还有一种棕色的,我爸有时从“乡下”的朋友那里带回家。
现在我长大了,也更有经验了,我发现鸡蛋的颜色比我想象的要多:粉色的、绿色的、斑点状的,或者深巧克力棕色的。然而,没有什么比那些下蓝色蛋的鸡更让我感兴趣的了,就像我每天从鸡舍里取出的那些蛋:我那可爱的复活节艾格母鸡下的漂亮的、珍珠色的蓝色蛋。
Blue eggs are really no different, nutritionally, from the russet brown eggs that my faithfulRhode Island Redbirds lay, or the creamy, tan eggs that my bossySussexchurns out, but let’s be honest. There’s something just … special about eggs the color of the sky.
Related Post:Chicken Breed Guide
If you’re looking to make collecting eggs a visual adventure, why not add some blue egg layers to your flock? Children are sure to be delighted with a palette of colors to choose from as they learn to care for the chickens, and if you sell eggs at the market, you’ll definitely have an edge with your colorful clutches. Read on to learn more about the noteworthy chickens that lay blue eggs.
Araucana
It all starts in Chile. Delve into the poultry population of this South American country on our blue-egg journey, and you’ll come up with two specific native breeds. On one hand is the Collonocas, a blue egg-laying chicken with no natural tail. On the other hand is the Quetros, a brown egg-laying bird with both a tail and unusual ear tufts around its face — feathers that curl up from its head like the most luxuriously maintained 19th-century mutton chops.
为什么会有这些奇怪的特征?没有人确切地知道。有人猜测,19世纪的贸易路线将蓝色的产卵鸟从亚洲带到智利,在那里它们受到欢迎的原因很明显。Now bring those two hands together, and you have yourself the start of theAraucana— a tufted, tailless, blue egg-laying bird, and the modern source of the blue-egg gene.
The Araucana Indians of Chile formulated such a bird, in part, because the lack of tail made the chicken harder for predators to catch. This unique creature didn’t make it to the United States until many decades later when it was refined into a true breed (and finally recognized by the APA) in the late ’70s.
Araucana Characteristics and Personality
These unusual fowl are featured both as egg-laying birds and show birds, though getting a picture perfect Araucana is certainly an art form that takes lots of breeding practice. Exhibition standards favor symmetrical ear tufts. Since only one in about every four or five birds has the tufts, finding the perfect tufts will be an endeavor!
阿劳卡纳鸡属于较小的一类,无臀公鸡的体重约为5磅,而无臀母鸡的体重约为4磅。由于尺寸较小,它们是不错的传单(无论如何,对于一只鸡来说)。They produce about 250 teal or blue eggs a year, giving you a lot of production from a fairly bitty bird.
Decently hardy in cold and heat (with a small pea comb), Araucanas are also dedicated foragers. Personality-wise, they are intelligent, alert, friendly, and certainly make for a conversation piece in a mixed flock.
Related Post:Araucana
There are two main downsides to Araucana chickens. The first being they are difficult to come by reputably. Your best bet for getting a good-quality bird is to find a dedicated breeder. The surge of popularity in novelty colored eggs has led to the production and sales of many birds called Araucanas that may not be so.
The second downside is genetic. The gene that produces the characteristic ear tufts is linked with a high mortality-in-the-shell rate. About one out of every five chicks dies before hatching. So if you’re into the blue eggs, but don’t want to hatch a bunch of duds, hang on. There’s more to explore.
Ameraucana
Derived from the Araucana, theAmeraucanashares the blue egg gene with its Chilean progenitor, but not the lethal trait that kills off chicks in the shell. It looks different, too. The American Aurcana has slate-blue legs, is bearded and muffed, has a tail, and quite notably, no ear tufts — again, lacking the associated gene.
Ameraucana Characteristics and Personality
阿美劳古纳可以作为产蛋的鸟类饲养,也可以作为展览品饲养。他们两者都做得很好。你应该期待每周从你的鸟那里得到大约三个中等大小的蛋,以及这些有趣、和蔼的家禽的大量感情。它们比它们的祖先长得大一些。
Related Post:Ameraucana
公鸡通常能长到7磅,母鸡能长到6磅左右。它们长着豌豆羽毛和蓬松的羽毛,应该能从容应对冬天,但它们可能对夏天的炎热有点敏感。一定要在一年中最热的时候给他们一个荫蔽的运行。
Ameraucanas are a breed, meaning they have been recognized by the APA and reproduce true-to-type. They are not as rare as Araucanas but are still generally hard to find. At the current time, they are only available from official breeders.
Watch Out For “Americana” Chickens
如果你在当地的饲料店看到卖美国菜的,请记住这个单词的拼写。拼写错误的名字和较低的价格是一个提示,你可能是卖复活节彩蛋。
The store may not be malicious, just misinformed, but online sellers are often scamming you — offering you cheap cheepers at prime prices and hoping you won’t catch on to their bluff. If you do decide to bring your birds into the show ring, be sure you have real Ameraucanas, or you may be heading home red-faced.
Want to find bits of the sky in your nesting basket but not worried about breeding true-to-type? I can see you’re an adventurous sort. The next chicken in our list will be just your box-o-chocolates.
Easter Egger
The Easter Egger is a hybrid chicken — a cross between a blue egg-layer and any other chicken. What results is a fantastically variable bird, every one with their own specific egg color and unique assemblage of features and colors.
EE chickens (as they are sometimes referred to online) aren’t a true breed, so hatching their eggs will further the random mix you’ll be sure to find. As a hybrid, they can’t be shown as exhibition birds. There are too many variables to have a standard to judge.
Easter Egger Characteristics and Personality
Typical appearances include beards, muffs, pea-combs, and willow-green legs, but you will always have an exception to the rule in your band of birds. As far as plumage goes, their color is anyone’s guess which is part of the fun! Generally, they are on the smaller side, and reach around 5 pounds as hens and 6 1/2 pounds as roosters.
Related Post:复活节艾格斯
复活节艾格斯don’t always make blue eggs. Sometimes they come out brown, pink, or even green. As a result of their muddled parentage, it’s impossible to truly determine how many eggs they’ll lay in a year. That said, at least 200 medium-large eggs is a reasonable estimate. You’ll just have to sit back, watch, and find out for yourself.
What they lack in predictability, however, they more than make up in personality and vigor. EE chickens are typically friendly, and without a standard of perfection to dictate how they should be bred, they’re usually incredibly healthy, too.
But maybe you want a little more predictability with your chickens. Wouldn’t it be nice to know which chick was a blue egg-producing hen in the making and which was a rooster? Enter the Cream Legbar.
Cream Legbar
奶油Legbar是Legbar更广泛的品种的一个特定迭代,其显著的区别是,它是一种产蓝色蛋的自动性别鉴定鸟类。其他被认可的Legbar类型——金雀和银雀——不会下蓝色的蛋,也不会有自动性别鉴定的小鸡(尽管它们是不错的下蛋鸟)。
奶油Legbar是一个相对较新的英国品种,在其祖先中有一点阿劳卡纳,使其鸡蛋具有独特的天蓝色色调。它还有一个不寻常的小冠和有点松软的单梳在它的头上,被亲切地称为“带花的贝雷帽”。”
Cream Legbar Characteristics and Personality
Producing around 250 medium-to-large eggs a year, this breed is medium in size. They rarely go broody, so each 5 ½-pound hen should be providing you with plenty of blue eggs around the year. The active roosters are apparently excellent at watching over the flock which is a plus for keepers who decide to free-range their birds. This breed is an excellent forager, but a little noisy and flighty, so it’s best for folks with enough space to let them do their thing in a way not annoying to neighbors.
Related Post:Legbar
Sometimes also referred to as the Cotswold Legbar, this breed is still relatively new to the United States, so getting your hands on a good strain may be difficult. The best advice is togo through the most reputable breeder you can find. Though backyard-produced or Craiglist-found poultry may be perfectly fine for people not looking for a hen to show, it’s worth knowing that many poorly-bred Cream Legbars have lost the auto-sexing trait, and may even lose their ability to lay blue eggs.
Though these four chicken breeds and hybrids are the most popular when it comes to producing homegrown blue eggs, they’re not the only ones. If you spend enough time on the Internet researching blue egg-laying breeds (that’s what we all do on a Friday night, right? … right?) you may come across a few additional, lesser-known chicken breeds or designer hybrids that are capable of producing blue eggs.
Many of these are quite recently developed — probably in step with the relatively recent surge in interest for homegrown flocks. While some may not be widely available, they’re still interesting.
Arkansas Blue
I haven’t found much about this chicken beyond its name and a few photos because it is still being developed, butArkansas Bluesupposedly features a pea comb, no muffs, tufts, or beards, and, of course, blue eggs.
Whiting True Blue
Anew true breedonly recently developed, these clean-faced birds will lay blue eggs and are apparently not very broody.
Designer Breeds
You’ll find many hatcheries offering the equivalent of the Goldendoodle.An exclusive combination of chickenthat, while a hybrid, can offer unique traits and vigorous health to the backyard coop. Among some blue egg possibilities are the following:
- Ice Cream Barsare a hybrid of the Cream Legbar and Isbar chickens.
- Favaucanasare a mix of the Faverolles and Araucana.
- Skyline Chickens是Cream Legbars和Colombine Hybrids的杂交品种。
Indigenous Chinese Breeds
I was able to find mention of several blue egg-laying breeds that can be found in various provinces of China, but it is difficult to find much more information about them beyond scientific journalsanalyzing their genetics.You’ll be tantalized by names like the Lushi Blue, Dongziang Blue-Shell, and Jingmen Blue — wondering if they’ll ever make it to prominence in breeding circles beyond their native China!
Perhaps, locked up in the histories of these birds, is the true secret to the origin of the blue egg. Some rumors I’ve read imply the blue egg gene was derived from hybridizing pheasants and chickens — both Asian birds with a long history of domestication. However it happened, there’s no denying that those of us enjoying blue egg-layers are happy they’re here.
是什么让鸡蛋变成蓝色的?
鸡蛋壳在形成的时候是白色的。然后,在下蛋之前,在母鸡生殖道的壳腺袋中放置棕色色素。仔细刮一刮刚产下的棕色鸡蛋,你应该能去除这层色素。
Blue eggs, however, are an exception to this typical pattern. Rather than having their color “painted on” before being laid, the color itself is part of the eggshell. Believe it or not, the blue color is due to a良性的逆转录病毒!The clear-sky hue is actually a pigment from the liver (called oocyan for those interested) that is deposited in the eggshell itself — rather than over it — as the shell forms.
Is It Possible To Tell What Color Egg A Chicken Will Lay?
Some general chicken knowledge says that you can tell the color of a chicken’s eggs bylooking at its earlobes. Chickens with white earlobes generally lay white eggs, and chickens with red earlobes typically lay brown eggs. But blue eggs? Not as easy to predict. Silkie chickens, for example, feature blue earlobes but produce tinted eggs.
Related Post:Egg Substitutes For When The Chickens Have Stopped Laying
Even though all three of my Easter Eggers make blue eggs, only one of my Easter Egger chickens has a bluish tinge to her earlobes in the spring. The other two have lobes as red as the rest of my brown egg-laying flock. The only real way to know exactly what color egg a chicken will produce is to patiently wait until she is old enough to lay.
So are you considering spicing up the colors in your collecting baskets? What stories do you have to share from your blue egg layers? Let us know in the comments below!
Sylviasays
How do I get fertile eggs to look like the photo above.
With much appreciation and gratitude,
sylvia 530-913-8668
Wren Everettsays
Hello, Sylvia! I’m not completely sure what your question is–if you’re looking for blue eggs to hatch in an incubator, you can often find “hatching eggs” locally–your local feed store or local craigslist (or the craigslist of a rural area nearby) is a good place to start. If you’re looking to get fertile blue eggs from your birds, any of the breeds listed in the article are a good way to start–just make sure you have a rooster!