Blue Eggs

I was thinking about keeping some chickens for egg production . Its quite Common where I will be moving too, however to give me an edge over other producers I was thinking of selling Blue eggs
What do people think of the idea?
Problem is I cannot remember the name of the breed!
Any one remember?

David

Araucana

I've been playing with that idea too. I now have hens that lay green, blue, pink, brown, beige and white eggs, sometimes spotty. People seem to like a whole basket of different coloured eggs best. I've also found that ex-pats go crazy over the different colours, but the locals are bit more reserved and suspicious. A little gift of a basket of multi-coloured easter-eggs at the appropriate time soon breaks down the barriers though. I also give them rainbow-chard seedlings. I seem to be developing a bit of a reputation here now, especially since we introduced the purple muscovy ducks...

Thanks for that but I was thinking of an English breed. I remember it now it was the Cotswold leg bar
You make a good point about the expats the french are a tad conservitive.

David

There's the cotswold leg bar, which I think can lay a variety of colours. And also the cream legbar, which *should* lay green eggs. They've all been developed from the araucana though, as far as I know.

We managed to get hold of a lovely cream legbar cockerel which passed his genes on well and produced a load of green and blue egg layers, and also crossed him with a marans to produce olive eggers. We now cross the best olive eggers with a Light Sussex to get a meatier breed, and the offspring lay all kinds of colours, as both the green/blue gene and the brown gene are dominant. It's great fun, and we just choose the best layers of olive eggs for the next generation.

This is my cream legbar cockerel.



And a basket of eggs. The legbar is the father of the hens who laid the green eggs. That nice brown egg is from a Marans hen.



We then crossed the Maran and the legbar to produce olive egg layers. And those were crossed to a Light Sussex. The egg at the back is a pink Light Sussex egg, and the one in the foreground is from a Light Sussex crossed with a legbar/marans cross. She's a lovely black hen, very regal and elegant.

Very Nice pics !
The eggs look good . Round here they sell mostly Brown eggs .
The ironey is we are moving to Maran ! Nô its not where the chicken breed origionated but its spelled the same. The village the breed came from is down in the vandee near la Rochelle

David

My EasterEgger lays blue eggs (about the same shade as in Burra's second pic above). Always elicits a comment when I give away a carton of eggs. I understand that because of the "mutt" nature of the breed, you don't know what color eggs you are going to get beforehand. You have to wait until the hen gets old enough and lays her first egg.

I have 3 hens. They are a hybrid of Poule de Bresse and Araucana. Bought together but they all
produce different eggs. Green, green with a brownish patina and brown.

When I got my "Starter set" of chickens, I went for Americauna because they produce blue or green eggs. It just tickled my sense of whimsy. As they did not have four of the Americauna at the same age when we went to buy our birds, we also got one Buff Orpington. So we get blue eggs and a nice light brown from the Orpington. I still want my green eggs, to go with my ham

I would expect that there is a market for the colored eggs, even while some people would probably avoid them because they know they are not natural.

Hey David, From my experience with Ameraucana's they want everything to be in perfect order to lay year round, I have one that lays green eggs and if the heat lamp dies once during the winter she won't lay for quite a while. If you can get their environment to stay as consistent as possible you should be fine. Other than that I think it would be a great idea to sell blue eggs. Best of luck!
~Jacob

I'm having good luck with my first Americaunas. I've raised all sorts of mail order chicks, but never this breed before. They started laying before Christmas, with no additional heat or light, not even an insulated shelter. I got them July 1, they were raised on whole grains and dairy surplus, and are very active foragers. I have nine of them and get 6 to 8 beautifully colored eggs a day, fed scratch and scraps in addition to free ranging (we have a good perimeter fence that contains cows and horses, too) Usually I get a uniform looking breed, but I have to say I like the diversity this flock shows.