New Ameraucana Eggs

Wanted to share the eggs this year’s pullets are laying.  Three or four young hens have started producing eggs nearly daily and I think the colors are very nice.  My goal is to produce a medium blue egg.  The one in the above photo at upper left center is getting close to the color I’d like.

The Ameraucana chicken, like it’s cousin the Araucana, lays an egg with a blue tinted shell.  There are three egg shell color genes in chickens:  white, brown or blue.  Shell color is one or a mix of those shades. All the eggs in the above photo have blue in them.  The green color is a result of dilution by brown.  The depth of color is a function of dilution by white.

When a hen first begins to lay, she produces the deepest shell color.  As she continues to lay the color fades.  The true egg color of a hen is found in the pullet shells or the shells of eggs made immediately after a hen finishes her molt.  While the bird molts, or sheds and regrows much of her feathers, she will not lay.

As a sometime dues paying member of the Ameraucana Breeder’s Club, I procured a copy of their Egg Color Reference Chart.  Around the edge of the chart are all the known possible colors of egg shells that Ameraucanas produce.  To determine the shade, the card is held up to the egg until a close match is found.  To me, some of the colors are so similar that it is difficult to differentiate between them when comparing to an egg.  The best I can tell, my blue egg is similar to B2.  This would mean something to another Ameraucana breeder.  The shade in the center of the card surrounding the rooster is the ideal blue that all breeders hope to attain.

There are eleven pullets from this year’s breeding program, so I am waiting for most of them to begin laying.  It will be exciting to see what the rest can do!  I have been selectively breeding for the best egg color for many years and I feel my efforts are beginning to show success.