I should have added that there is no genetic link between ear lobe color and egg shell color. An old folks tale persists that the red lobed hens make brown shells and white lobed hens make white. It is a VERY general rule which is not based upon any facts.

Fun stuff, thanks! :) The old standard on earlobe color and egg color got thrown out the window with the advent of Easter Eggers...*L*

My Jersey Giant hen sometimes lays eggs with scratches in the brown color, it looks for all the world like a crummy dye job on my part. *L* I have one large brown Americaunas/RIR cross hen named Bear (due to her huge size at hatch and her tendency towards a bearish attitude) who lays army green eggs. :) Very fitting for no-nonsense Bear. Her daughter, Beast, lays lovely robin's egg blue eggs but has her moms' attitude, plus. Another of my hens, a little round, roly-poly bantam partridge cochin, lays nearly round eggs, shaped very much like her. Very amusing how things like this turn out sometimes. :)

Velvet ~:>

Loved all the info. What about leg color? I swear all my girls that lay colored eggs have green legs. And what about pink eggs? Are they just very light brown?

Hi,

I've got backyard bantams and enjoy my mixed breed chickens. I have one black aracauna and now have several of her offspring which have a barred bantam Cochin father. Am I breeding the lethal & deleterious genes into all my chickens and will that be a problem? It appears that most of the mixed offspring have some shade of green eggs, is this what I should expect. Some of my chickens are really beautiful & I enjoy the surprise of seeing what each batch of chicks will bring, but I don't want to be messing with mother nature if I am creating any problems.

Thanks,
Janice
in the Sierra

You wont be hurting your future chickens. Most likely you Araucana is a Easter Egger and not a true Araucana, they are not that easy to find. Hard to say what the egg shell colors may be? but might keep getting less blue and more brownor a darker green? Lots of poultry keepers prefer the mutt types and all the variety of mixed breed flocks.MaY BREEDERS BEGAN WITH BACKYARD TYPE FOWL AND PROGRESSED TO standard type as they gained experiencE.

The pink shells are a shade of brown. Araucanas have willow shanks/toes; Amaraucanas have slate shanks with with bottms of the toes/feet; no link to shell color from what I have read. Of course easter eggers, being crossbreeds can have any color shank/toes/ pads depending on what breeds were used to make them. The colors of shanks,toes/soles is a combination of inner and outer skin pigmentation.

wow. All very fascinating. I love seeing the colors I get from my mixed flock. One cochin esp varies her eggs from speckled to light or dark brown. One even had a spray of speckles just around the middle of the egg! Between hers and the americaunas, who needs to dye eggs for Easter?=)