Do you know someone who is a Crazy Chicken lady (or man)? What are the best gifts for chicken lovers?
Often times, the best gifts – for birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas and other holidays – are items that incorporate what we love and enjoy. …
Do I Have a Pregnant Goat? How to Tell if a Goat is Pregnant.
Pregnant goat or not? We get this question in emails a lot. People asking how to tell if a goat is pregnant. I also see it on a lot of posts on social media pages – people wondering if a goat they recently purchased is pregnant or not.
In fact, our first year breeding goats, we wondered the same thing….
Molting Chickens – What is it, Why do they do it, How you can help!
Molting chickens may be a huge surprise for first time chicken owners. I know that it was for us. One day we went out to check on the girls and there were feathers EVERYWHERE!
What the heck?! I mean, it seriously looked like a huge pillow fight had happened overnight. None of the chickens seemed to be hurt, injured or missing. But we wondered what would cause this? Were they sick?…
Can You Freeze Eggs?
Can you freeze eggs? You might be asking yourself this if you have backyard chickens who are laying more eggs than you can eat. Or, if you have found a banging sale on eggs and you know that building a stockpile is one way to save boatloads of money.
You can freeze LOTS of different foods to help preserve them for later use. Some examples are: freezing sweet potatoes, freezing mashed potatoes, freezing peppers and freezing milk.
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Do Roosters Lay Eggs?
If you are are looking into getting chickens for eggs, one question you may wonder about is “do roosters lay eggs?”
To answer the question do roosters lay eggs, first you need to understand basic chicken terminology. (And maybe also understand a little basic biology.) If you don’t already know, a rooster is a mature male chicken.
So, knowing that roosters are males – do roosters lay eggs?
Of course, the short (and probably obvious answer) to this question is no. No, roosters do not lay eggs. Males of most species do not lay eggs, and roosters are not an exception to this.
Ok, so that seems pretty simple, right? But, if you were wondering do roosters lay eggs – that may have also made you wonder:
Your rooster is going to need a good coop to protect.
Do chickens need a rooster to lay eggs? Or, can chickens lay eggs without a rooster?
This perhaps, isn’t quite a simple as the fact that males do not lay eggs. But, the answer is still the same. Do chickens need a rooster to lay eggs? No, they do not.
However, if you want to hatch your own chicks either by incubating eggs or using a broody hen then you WILL need a rooster. While the answer to can chickens lay eggs without a rooster is yes, they can. The eggs that hens lay without a rooster are unfertilized.
Keep those unfertilized eggs fresh in your fridge with some cartons.
In order to hatch and raise baby chicks from your flock, you will need fertilized eggs. And, you can only get fertilized eggs if you have a rooster (or roosters) with your hens. So, if you want to get chicks, then you will need a rooster.
So, if you do not need roosters to lay eggs, why would you want a rooster?
First, roosters tend to be much more colorful and flashy than hens. So, if you want really striking looking birds in your flock, you may want to add a rooster or two.
Also, as mentioned above, while chickens can lay eggs without roosters, in order to get fertilized eggs you need a rooster. So, if you want to hatch your own chicks, you will also want a rooster.
Additionally, roosters are good flock protectors. They will help ward off potential predators. We actually had one of our boys defend his girls against a predator one night – he was almost killed, but he kept all of his girls safe and we were able to nurse him back to health.
We make sure our roosters stay strong by filling their feeders with quality feed.
So, even though the answer to the question – do roosters lay eggs – is no. There are several reasons you may still want to consider adding a rooster to your flock.
For More About Chickens:
Chickens That Lay Green Eggs – What Chickens Lay Green Eggs?
There are so many chicken breeds in the world, that it should come as no real surprise that there are chickens that lay green eggs.
Afterall, there are other colored egg layers, frizzle chickens, bantam chickens and all sorts of other fun types of chickens. So, getting green chicken eggs is not too much of a stretch.
We have all kinds of different breeds in our layer flock, and when we started getting our flock together, we intentionally added in some chickens that lay green eggs. We wanted to get all the different possible egg colors from our chickens.
Chickens That Lay Green Eggs – What Makes Green Eggs?
If you have read about how chickens make blue eggs, you may have a bit of an idea as to how green chicken eggs may come about. All eggs start out white in color.
Keep your laying hens warm and safe in a new coop.
The egg color differences then come about by pigment being added to the shell during the time that the egg passes through the chickens oviduct. When and what kind of pigment is added determines the ultimate color of the egg. (source)
Most chickens that lay green eggs have a blue egg base that then gets a brown egg tint put over top at the end of the egg formation process. (source) This results in green chicken eggs!
What Chickens Lay green Eggs?
1) Isbar
Isbar’s may be the one purebred chicken that lays green eggs. They were developed in Sweden and lay varying colors of green eggs, sometimes with brown spots. Isbar’s are considered a rare breed.
Another interesting fact about Isbars is that they are autosexing – this means that you can tell the sex of the chicks at hatch.
Healthy chickens lay more reliably. Keep their feeders full of good layer feed.
2) Easter Egger
Easter Eggers, while commonly referred to as a breed are not a purebred chicken. They are simply a cross of a blue egg layer with a brown egg layer.
Our Easter Eggers mingle with some of our other hens
Easter Eggers are above average year round layers of medium sized green eggs.
3) Favaucana – Faverolles x Ameraucana
Favaucana’s are one of the types of chickens that lay green eggs which is also technically an Easter Egger. You can make your own Favaucana’s by breeding faverolles and Ameraucanas.
By VanTucky [CC BY 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0)], from Wikimedia Commons
4) Olive Egger
Technically speaking an olive egger is a type of Easter Egger. Olive eggers are, as you can probably guess by their name one of the chickens that lays green eggs which are a dark olive green in color.
Olive Eggers are a cross of a chicken that lays blue eggs with a chicken that lays a dark brown egg. The blue egg has the brown tint added on making the egg appear olive green. To get darker olive colored eggs, simply mix in chickens that lay darker chocolate colored eggs.
Why Would you Want Chickens That Lay Green Eggs?
The main reason to get chickens that lay green eggs is just to add a little fun and color to your egg basket. Also, if you are trying to make money raising chickens colored egg layers are always a popular choice for chicks to sell.
Another cool thing to having chickens that lay green (or other colored) eggs in your flock is it can help you tell which chickens are and are not laying.
You’re going to need somewhere to keep all of your green eggs!
Are Green Eggs different than other eggs?
Green chicken eggs are obviously different than other eggs in color. That’s the whole point, right? But in terms of taste, nutrition and all of the actual egg components, no, green eggs are no different than other eggs. Additionally, chickens that lay green eggs start laying eggs around the same time as other chicken breeds.
