Breeding for egg color takes a lot of patience. Not only do you have to wait for the eggs to hatch, but you don’t know what you’ll get until the chick grows and starts laying!!! When aiming for certain colors, think of it a little like mixing paint, and using “filters” on pictures!

ALL eggs are either blue shell or white shell (crack them open and look at the inside.) The color is determined by the pigment the hen adds to the egg. This can get really deep and difficult really fast, but basically; here is what I do…

I have blue egg laying Ameraucana hens, bred to a marans rooster, the offspring will lay a dark green egg, possibly with spots. My Orpingtons lay pink eggs with a heavy bloom, these blooms create some really pretty colors. When they are under a rooster with a “blue egg” rooster (Ameracauna or Easter Egger) their offspring typically lay light green eggs with neat variations due to the bloom. My Welsummer and Bielefelder hens lay dark speckled eggs, so their offspring will lay olive speckled eggs or dark speckled eggs depending on rooster. I added the white egg to my basket with some leghorn hens. My Leghorn rooster covered my Ameraucana hen to give me a “super blue” egg layer pullet this year!