Blue, Green, or Both?

[Tailfeathers]

This was recently posted on another poultry site:

\"Question:  I have a question...if you get Ameraucana eggs that are green, not really blue, is this a really bad thing???

Answer:  No, it\'s not a really bad thing. If you plan to show, egg color is not judged.  If you don\'t plan to show, but plan to sell your eggs, it will depend on who\'s buying. If you don\'t plan to show and don\'t plan to sell, then it\'s up to you to determine.

As a side note, all ameraucana eggs have a hint of green to them - at least every one I\'ve seen.  If you look at the ABC Egg Color chart, you\'ll see that blue is not even on the chart. A7-A8 are about the closest, but even they are distinctly green when holding true blue up next to them.  So, ameraucana eggs are actually a blue/green color with the best of them leaning towards more blue than green.  The standard calls for a blue egg, but since I don\'t think a single bird has achieved this yet, the best any of us can do is to work towards it - if that\'s what turns you on.\"

Now here\'s my question, how accurate is the last paragraph?  I mean, are all Ameraucanas really a blue/green color?  I did go look at my color chart and while I have no idea why this is so, it is correct that there isn\'t even a blue listed on the chart.  

And here\'s another thing, I have many eggs that show no signs of any green and are very much blue when I collect them.  Many of them are the color of the inside of the egg chart and some are even more blue than that.  BUT after a day or more of sitting in a carton, they do take on a greenish tint to them.  They are blue/green.  

I apologize in advance if I\'m covering old territory here but why is that?  Is this seen by others?  Has this topic been addressed yet?

God Bless,

[Beth C]

I was wondering about the color change, too. The eggs in my incubator were a deep turquoise color when I collected them and they are now an ugly gray. The eggs in the fridge also change. I read somewhere that the truest representation is the inside color, but I don\'t know if that is true.

[verycherry]

I agree with the part about working towards it.  If we let it slide, it will only get worse.

A brown coating on the eggs is what makes some Ameraucana eggs look green, whether it\'s a lot of brown or just a tiny bit.  I\'m thinking the blue base color must naturally fade over time making them appear more green.  Either that or the brown coating gets darker, or a little of both.

I\'ve noticed that a few of my hens lay an egg that\'s a lot more blue on the inside than others.  I would think that these would be the eggs to hatch if I could just figure out which ones they were without cracking them first!

[Beth C]

I know - that\'s what I thought when I originally read that. It would be a pain - you\'d have to separate the hens, mark each egg when collected, then wait until it\'s either an omelet or a chick to check the inside of the shell. I like a pretty egg, but not quite that much!

I agree that good egg color needs to be a goal, but worry about how much focus is sometimes put on it. In the grand scheme of things, it\'s not as critical as other things that still need work. I\'ve read posts on another site where people (usually people new to the breed) have gotten very upset at receiving \"bad\" egg color from a \"good\" breeder. One even accused the breeder of saving their \"good\" eggs for their fellow breeders (like they keep an \"A\" grade breeding pen & a \"C\" grade pen??). Others have said they ordered hatching eggs and threw them out because they didn\'t like the color.  The hen that laid that egg only represents 50% of the genetics of the offspring - what if the rooster came from a very blue egg? And regardless, the offspring (assuming the eggs came from a reputable breeder) should still be an improvement over the previous generation in some way. What a waste!