Egg Excitement

It's taken two hens and three years, six months but I finally got my first blue/green eggs this week.

Think it was worth it?

I do.

Those are lovely, lovely, eggs.  Beautiful eggs.  Gorgeous color.

And it's all thanks to this little gal, Hazel.  She just started laying this week and she is responsible for providing those coveted eggs.
Hazel is one of our newer hens, born this past April.

We have another hen of the same breed (called Easter Egg Hens for their egg color).
Ginger is a three year old hen. She looks just like Hazel, don't you think, yet she has only ever laid light pink eggs.
And I'm being generous when I call them "light pink". Her eggs are really just light brown.

But Ginger has been a great chicken. She lays regularly, although not always in the nesting box.
And I wouldn't be surprised if Ginger was responsible for Hazel's injury this past summer. Ginger is also the only hen who can get over our 7 foot chicken gate.
So, come to think of it, she's lucky she isn't chicken soup.
She's our "rough and tumble" hen.  Always looks like she just got out of bed, or out of a fight.

There is a lot of info out there on why chickens lay which color egg.  It has to do with their ear lobe color I'm told.
According to Tickiwoo Farm blog, "If you know what breed the chicken is, then you can be pretty sure you will know the color egg she will lay. For example, a Rhode Island Red will lay a brown egg and a White Leghorn will lay a white egg."

But, "It’s trickier when you’re dealing with South American breeds like the Ameraucana, Araucana or “Easter Egg-ers,” hens that aren’t purebred. Ameraucanas and Araucanas are known and prized for their blue eggs, but Easter Egg-ers can lay eggs in a rainbow of colors from blue to pink to green and many shades in between."

(Yes, I've seen those "pink" eggs.  Not impressed.)

Onto the ear lobe predictor:  "Another way to try to predict egg color is to look at the hen’s earlobe. If it’s white, then the egg will most likely be white. If it’s red, the egg will most likely be brown. This works about 75% of the time."

Have you seen a chicken's ear lobe lately?
I thought not.
Here you go....


Photo from Tickiwoo blog:   

For more info on chicken's ear lobe colors try the Hen Blog and Keep Hens Raise Chickens.

And no, in case you're wondering, those blue/green eggs don't look any different inside or taste any different from other eggs.  They're just more beautiful!