85+ Chicken Breeds for Colorful Eggs

Today we will be talking about chicken breeds for colorful eggs, which breeds lay which color eggs so you can get that colorful rainbow collection of eggs that you have always wanted!

Bringing Chicks Home in Spring

Spring time is the best time to add chicks to your homestead and before you do, you may want to consider certain chicken breeds for colorful eggs! Last week, we talked about Chickens for Beginners. So be sure to check out that article if you are new to keeping chickens!

Spring is a good time for chicks, because that is when chickens naturally want to reproduce.  So there are lots of options for finding them, from an online hatchery, to your local feed store, or you can turn to local chicken keepers.

Spring is also a time where you may be over run with eggs, because the birds produce the most in the spring. If you find you are over run with eggs, see my article 12 Ways to Use Eggs to get some great ideas on how to use them up.

Planning for Rainbow Egg Colors

In order to have a beautiful variety of egg colors from your flock, you will need to have a bunch of different chicken breeds in your flock.

Some breeds lay white eggs, some lay brown, blue or green. Others lay off white or cream colored, and some lay those dark chocolatey brown eggs that are so sought after.

Below I will go over which breeds lay which colored eggs, generally speaking. Sometimes, you don't know the genetics of a bird, so an odd egg color may show up in a bird.

Other times, it is harder to guarantee that an egg layer will lay a certain color egg, as is the case in cross breeds.

21 Chicken That Lay White Eggs

Popular white egg laying breeds are as follows:

1. Ancona
2. Andalusion
3. Appenzeller Spitzhauben
4. Campines
5. Crevecoeur
6. Dutch Bantam
7. Hamburg
8. Holland
9. Houdan
10. La Fleche
11. Lakenvelder (white to cream)
12. Leghorn
13. Minorca
14. Modern Game
15. Polish
16. Sebright
17. Sicilian Buttercup
18. Sultan
19. Sumatra
20. White Faced Black Spanish
21. Hybrid Breeds: California White, Austra White

17 Chickens That Lay Cream or Lightly Tinted Eggs

Popular cream/lightly tinted (off white) egg laying breeds are as follows:

1. Aseel
2. Catalanas
3. Cochin (cream to light brown)
4. Cornish
5. Cubulaya
6. Dorking
7. Egyptian Fayoumi
8. Faverolle
9. Japanese Bantam
10. Lakenvelder (white to cream)
11. Mille de Fleur
12. Old English Game
13. Phoenix
14. Redcap
15. Rosecomb
16. Silkie
17. Yokohama

20 Brown Egg Laying Chickens

These brown egg laying breeds lay a light brown to a medium brown egg:

1. Australorp
2. Brahma
3. Buckeye
4. Chantecler
5. Cochin (cream to light brown)
6. Cornish
7. Delaware
8. Dominique
9. Java
10. Jersey Giant
11. Langshan
12. Malay
13. New Hampshire
14. Orpington
15. Plymouth Rock
16. Rhode Island Red
17. Sussex
18. Turken
19. Wyandotte
20. Hyrid Breeds: Sexlink, Red Star, Black Star & Blue Sapphire

4 Chicken Breeds That Lay Dark Brown Eggs

These breeds are highly sought after for their dark brown egg color:

1. Barnvelder
2. Marans (This breed probably lays the darkest of the brown, but only if acquired from a true breeder of the line. Hatchery stock has not bred for this trait nearly as well)
3. Pendescena
4. Welsummer

5 Chicken Breeds That Lay Blue Eggs

Popular breeds that lay blue eggs are:

1. Araucana
2. Ameraucana
3. Easter Egger (not a true breed, but a mixed breed)
4. Cream Legbar (their eggs will range from a true blue to a greenish blue color)
5. Hybrid Breeds: White Sapphire, Whiting True Blue

4 Chicken Breeds That Lay Green Eggs

These are probably the hardest egg layer to find. Green eggs are not a natural egg laying color by any breed. Generally, cross breeds will lay the highly sought after olive egg color.

Also good to note, all hens from an olive egger crossing may not lay green eggs, this is why they are hard to come by. 

Often the birds crossed for an olive egger offspring, are a Marans x Ameraucana or Easter Egger. If the female offspring inherits the brown egg laying gene from the Marans parent, she will lay brown eggs.

The females that inherit the pea comb from the Ameraucana or Easter Egger parent, are often more likely to also have the blue egg laying gene. So when choosing chicks from this breeding, look for chicks that have the pea comb vs the single comb.

1. Easter Eggers (not a true breed, but a mixed breed)
2. Olive Eggers (not a true breed, but a mixed breed)
3. Cream Legbar (their eggs will range from a true blue to a greenish blue color)
4. Sapphire Gem (hybrid breed that lays light green eggs)

Eggs that are Other Colors

The colors of eggs we went over above, are the standard colors found in chicken breeds or popular crosses.

Sometimes other colors can come up in your bird, that may seem pinkish, or lavender. This is often caused by the bloom on the egg, but is not a true egg color.

The bloom is the protective coating on the egg, that prevents bacteria from entering it. But sometimes it can be extra thick, or tinted, which results in an odd colored egg. Sometimes a bird will do this consistently, other times it is just a fluke.

 

Other Considerations Besides Egg Color

It is a good idea to consider many factors when choosing the right chicken breeds for you, other than just egg color. Other important factors to consider include how calm a breed is, how it fares in extreme temperatures and how many eggs that breed is known to lay.

Some breeds are very flighty, and this may not work well for young children who may want to love on them. Other birds will suffer severe frostbite if you live in a very cold climate.

And yet others might not do well if you live in a very hot climate. Lastly, some birds don't lay very many eggs at all, and if you are getting chickens to have eggs, this would not work out well for you at all!

So be sure to consider all aspects when it comes to choosing which chicken breeds will work for you. An assortment of egg colors are fun to have, but only if it will work for you if all things are considered in choosing which breeds are best for you.

My Farm Fresh Tuesday Blog Hop Featured Post this Week:

How Long Do Eggs Last?

How Long Do Eggs Last from from Homestead Wishing

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