Ameraucana Breeders Club
The Official Forum of the Ameraucana Breeders Club => Breeding => Topic started by: Kitsch6 on January 12, 2014, 02:15:43 PM
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Would love input on this egg...the most pigmented we've gotten in about 8-10 years. (Yes, there is some brown, it was laid in the mud and completely covered).
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The color does change when wet also. I use a spray bottle with disinfectant and soak the eggs before placing them in the incubators. I've found this is the best time to cull for the bluest shell color.
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While the egg is highly pigmented, it appears quite green on my screen. I have had a few like that, and the pigmentation drops dramatically after the first few eggs are laid. It is always a pullet just starting to lay.
Have you been feeding something high in copper content by chance? There is a theory out there that pigmentation can be influenced to some degree by certain kinds of nutrients, but I've never seen any thorough documentation of that.
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No idea who laid it; we have pullets and hens running together at the moment. Probably a pullet, but it's still much darker than what we normally get, even from pullets. The pic doesn't do it a whole lot of justice. The more I scratch and pick at it, the bluer it is underneath. And no, Mike, nothing unusual that I know of; kitchen scraps, scratch/sunflower/catfood, and 16% layer ration; on the next feed delivery we will switch to a breeder pellet.