Blue/Green Egg layer...who is it?

Question

Are there chickens, other than the Araucana, that lay light blue/green eggs? We have 2 Australopes, 1 RI Red, 1 gray feathered chicken, and mixes of Australopes and Reds that we received from a friend. It is driving me crazy trying to figure out who it is.

Answer 1

Look hard and long at your "grey feathered chicken" I note that you can name the antecedents of the rest of your flock so I wonder if the grey one may be a silky bantam or closely crossed to one.

Silkies are known to lay eggs with coloured shells, and if it is, you have one of the most doting and loving mother hens that it is possible to have. Unless you keep an eye on her she will kidnap any eggs the others lay and go clucky on them very easily.

Answer 2

Does your grey chicken have 5 toes? If so It's a cross with a Silkie Bantam.

The Silkie is a variety of chicken believed to have originated in eastern Asia. Silkies generally have a fluffy appearance due to their feathers lacking functioning barbicels; essentially, all their feathers are very much like down. Their unique appearance and their quiet temperament mean they are often kept as pets. The hens easily become broody, laying only a dozen or so eggs before attempting to hatch out their clutch. They are considered excellent mothers. Their broodiness makes them a poor breed for egg production, and their dark skin makes them difficult to market as meat birds in Europe and America.

Silkies are near-unique among chickens — both skin and bones are black which, apart from Silkies, is only found in the rare Ayam Cemani breed from Indonesia (which is a normally-feathered breed that is completely black, not including the blood, as rumor once held). They also have five toes on each foot, whereas most chickens only have four. The American Bantam Association accepts six standard colors for silkies: black, blue, buff, white, partridge and gray. There are also other colors: red, calico, cuckoo, etc. One theory presents white as the original color with black following as a mutation. Buff was introduced via a cochin cross, as well as for the cuckoo pattern. There are two varieties of silkie: bearded and non-bearded. Marco Polo is reported to have encountered Silkies in China at the end of the 13th century, where they are raised for the gourmet meat market to this day. Silkies are only bantam size in the USA. American silkies are actually intermediate in size, not proper bantam but not large fowl either. Elsewhere there are standards for both the bantam Silkie and the standard Silkie. Silkies are used in traditional Chinese medicine, due to their dark skin colouration. A cross has been undertaken to transfer this pigmentation to a larger breed.

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