Egg colour

[Jerry]

I currently have a few eggs in an incubator.

Bit of an experiment.....Leghorn hens that lay white eggs, Legbar Cock so a blue/green egg colour breed.

Any one hazard a guess as to egg colour from resulting pullets?

 

[Still Farming]

Egg yolks artificially brightened by additives in food pellets

Most Australian egg producers have been secretly adding food dyes - derived from agents like paprika, capsicum and marigold - to artificially brighten the appearance of their egg yolks.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Alias]

I currently have a few eggs in an incubator.

Bit of an experiment.....Leghorn hens that lay white eggs, Legbar Cock so a blue/green egg colour breed.

Any one hazard a guess as to egg colour from resulting pullets?

They will likely be a paler version of the legbar egg colour. I know one man who shows eggs, and he was trying to breed a little bit of Araucana into his white eggers to bring out the whiteness, like they used to put dolly blue in whitewash to make it whiter.

 

[Bones]

A lot of food companies dictate the colour of the yokes they need, , pasta companies need dark coloured yokes to help dye the pasta, but its sun flower seeds that make the colour.

 

[Jerry]

They will likely be a paler version of the legbar egg colour. I know one man who shows eggs, and he was trying to breed a little bit of Araucana into his white eggers to bring out the whiteness, like they used to put dolly blue in whitewash to make it whiter.

backs up my thoughts.

also have some copper Marran eggs in with a legbar cockerel over them. So dark brown eggs with blue egg cockerel

Guessing will end up with a brown egg of some shade.

 

[Wisconsonian]

I don't agree with the premise of the article in post #22, if they're using natural feed ingredients, and the ag industry is transparent as it is, hardly "secretly adding food dyes... artificially".

On the other hand, the commercial link I posted suggested some of the feed ingredients were indeed synthetic, so they may have an "e number". I'm in the USA, so I can't speak to that. The closest thing we'd have is organic certification, and that would not require anything of the sort, no synthetic feed ingredient could be added though, it would have to be natural sources of coloring.

"spent hens" have been laying for a while and are ready to molt, they have literally spent all the vitamins out of their bodies, the beaks and feet are bleached almost white. A free range hen that is not under artificial light so not laying as much, will have much darker eyes, beak, feet, and egg yolk, there's no comparison between the two.

edit: after reading the article, I agree in practice, seems most "free range" eggs that are that orange are fed additives specifically for orange yolks. "It's not natural for yolks to be a consistent shade of deep orange or yellow" is false, free range chickens (with beaks and on adequate grazing) without artificial light will produce consistent orange yolks, but you'll almost never find those for sale commercially.

This is the only place I've found to get good eggs:

 

[Still Farming]

Egg Yolk Color Chart - Good and Bad Egg Yolk Colors

Wondering what a bad egg yolk color is? We have an egg yolk color chart to help you compare your egg yolks.

chickenmag.com

 

[Alias]

backs up my thoughts.

also have some copper Marran eggs in with a legbar cockerel over them. So dark brown eggs with blue egg cockerel

Guessing will end up with a brown egg of some shade.

My brother has don that, or it may have been Maran x Araucana. You should get like an olive sort of colour. Not particularly attractive, but adds to the variety. I'll try and get a photo if it's still laying, but I think it might have stopped

 

[Lincs]

backs up my thoughts.

also have some copper Marran eggs in with a legbar cockerel over them. So dark brown eggs with blue egg cockerel

Guessing will end up with a brown egg of some shade.

This will give you an olive colour egg. We sell a few eggs and people ask for the olive coloured eggs as they taste the best. Im not sure of that, I think it might be a trick of the eye.
The chicks will be sexable at hatching as well

 

[Alias]

backs up my thoughts.

also have some copper Marran eggs in with a legbar cockerel over them. So dark brown eggs with blue egg cockerel

Guessing will end up with a brown egg of some shade.

The egg on the right is a Maran x blue egg

 

[TexelBen]

My brother has don that, or it may have been Maran x Araucana. You should get like an olive sort of colour. Not particularly attractive, but adds to the variety. I'll try and get a photo if it's still laying, but I think it might have stopped

backs up my thoughts.

also have some copper Marran eggs in with a legbar cockerel over them. So dark brown eggs with blue egg cockerel

Guessing will end up with a brown egg of some shade.

If you use a CBM cock over legbar hens and then cross back again you get a really dark olive egg, I tried to find a pic, but can only find one of an F1 cross

 

[Pasty]

Interesting chickin fact. For a good idea of what colour eggs a hen will lay, check their ear lobes. Not a lot of people know that.

Olive eggs do seem sought after for some reason although I have always found Araucanas to be excellent layers of nice green / blue eggs (inside the shell as well) so I would put a Marans cockerel over them to make olive eggers. Never had much luck with Legbars in terms of shell quality or longevity.

 

[TexelBen]

Interesting chickin fact. For a good idea of what colour eggs a hen will lay, check their ear lobes. Not a lot of people know that.

Olive eggs do seem sought after for some reason although I have always found Araucanas to be excellent layers of nice green / blue eggs (inside the shell as well) so I would put a Marans cockerel over them to make olive eggers. Never had much luck with Legbars in terms of shell quality or longevity.

Got to agree with you there, legbars do seem quite soft ime, most she'll imperfections will be their eggs too

What are araucanas like? I've no experience of them

 

[Pasty]

Got to agree with you there, legbars do seem quite soft ime, most she'll imperfections will be their eggs too

What are araucanas like? I've no experience of them

Strong sturdy little birds with a great laying rate in my experience. Good shells and pretty eggs. Lavender ones are charming little chaps too. Agree on the Legbar shell quality. Aside from permanently obsessing with feather colour to get a 'true' one, the shells usually had those crumbly barnacle bits on them often. I've forgotten what it's called now but I was always told it was down to disease even though I had about 20 pens of different breeds close together and never had this problem with any other breed. If I had to choose one breed, Araucanas would be up there. No meat on them of course but I always had little trouble, good fertility and lots of eggs.

 

[TexelBen]

Strong sturdy little birds with a great laying rate in my experience. Good shells and pretty eggs. Lavender ones are charming little chaps too. Agree on the Legbar shell quality. Aside from permanently obsessing with feather colour to get a 'true' one, the shells usually had those crumbly barnacle bits on them often. I've forgotten what it's called now but I was always told it was down to disease even though I had about 20 pens of different breeds close together and never had this problem with any other breed. If I had to choose one breed, Araucanas would be up there. No meat on them of course but I always had little trouble, good fertility and lots of eggs.

Sounds like they'll do a better job than my legbars, they do have a lot of those calcium deposits, spoils the eggs in my opinion!

Just need to find some now!