Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

I have to wonder if laying ability is related to egg colour? All my hens are related, 3 lay white (off white) and 9 lay green or blue. The white lay almost every day, the colour eggs not so much. They are all doing pretty well except on slow days the 3 white layers often carry the load. Example if I get six eggs or seven eggs there is usually 3 white eggs in there, so 3 hens lay 2 or 3 of the eggs, while 8 hens lay only 3 or 4 eggs, (one green is hatching). Since they are all sisters and two of the white layers are on the bottom of the pecking order, I wonder if the genes to make a hen lay white or green eggs, is also tied to production? Any thoughts?

:easter34: :easter34: :easter32: :easter34:

Most birds that lay white eggs are "Mediteranean class" so Leghorns, Minorcas, etc. and they were bred for lots of eggs and less body weight: egg production was the first priority, looks second. Most brown egg layers come from a variety of bloodlines and were bred for looks, body shape/weight/colour, and laying ability in that order; in otherwords for show qualities then production qualities. The last 100 years as modern hybrids have taken over production flocks few of the older breeds were bred to maintain production qualities. Emily Robertson wrote the best blog on that: https://truenorthfarm.ca/products/light-sussex

The bottom line: its genetics.

Green egg layers are a mix of two breeds: a blue egg layer (ameraucana or cream legbar) with a brown egg layer (welsummer, Rhode island red etc) so it boils down to the parent stock.

My olive egger lays every. single. day. ATM. Pretty much anyway. Every two weeks she misses a day. Just saying.

That info would make sense Baron if I was comparing different breeds or different crosses. These are second generation Easter eggers... all sisters.... same parents.... same identical conformation.... some are like identical twins.... yet one lays white, one lays green or blue, with the white being a better layer. Either it's just a coincidence or the blue gene drags down the production some how.

They were all at %100 for a long time until I got feed that I swear was chick starter or it sure looked like it. It messed up the numbers but they are returning to %100, just that the white egg layers seem to stay at full throttle.