Chicken Egg Colors by Breed - Silver Homestead

Each breed of chicken lays a slightly different color egg and you can’t always tell by looking at her what colors you will find in your egg basket. Here we’ll show you a huge range of egg pictures with breed labels so you can decide exactly what hens you want!

Chicken egg colors by breed in blue, green, pink, peach, light, brown with text that reads what chicken laid that color egg

What Chicken Laid That Color Egg? Chicken Egg Colors by Breed

I love when people photograph the various colored eggs they get and then label the eggs in the image by breed!

12 chicken ggs labeled by breed in a stamped vintage square carton. Blue eggs are Whiting True Blue, one black copper marans egg, one welsummer egg and speckled olive eggs in Back-cross 1 and F2 speckled olive egger tones — Click the image to visit our Etsy shop where you can view a larger version of this image and zoom in on the eggs!

12 different colored chicken eggs in a white egg carton with black text over each egg labeled by hen breed that laid the egg — Our rainbow eggs labeled by breed & hybrid who laid them! Back-cross olive eggers are fathered by Black Copper Marans roosters from Clucks & Waddles Homestead. Click to learn how to get a Pink Egg Laying Hen

black copper marans, speckled olive egger, welsummer and a whiting true blue egg in a row, all labeled by breed — The Black Copper Marans egg in this image came from a hen purchased from Clucks & Waddles Homestead. The Welsummer hen came from Hoover’s Hatchery. Whiting True Blue came from Murray McMurray Hatchery. The Speckled Olive Eggers were bred here on our homestead.

very dark chocolate black copper marans eggs labeled — Click the image to visit this breeder’s website!

Eggs labeled by breed in a fabric lined basket with easter egger blue, olive egger green, buff orpington, barred, rock, welsummer purple speckled, golden lace wyandotte pink — Blue eggs are notoriously hard to photograph to show their true color. These blue eggs are pale bluey-green. The Welsummer egg really does have faint purple speckles in real life!

five chicken eggs in a straw nest, all labeled by the breed of hen who liad them & blue egg is from an Easter Egger — What the nest box looks like around 11 am.

Different blue and green chicken egg color shades arranged in a ring — Green eggs with a heavy bloom tend to look grayish, especially in photos.

Bowl full of green, blue, brown, cream, speckled easter egger, welsummer, and golden lace wyandotte eggs labeled by breed — A bowl full of colored eggs from our little country coop.

a white tea towel lined basket holding 13 chicken eggs all labeled by the breed of hen who laid them, including blue eggs from Prairie Bluebell eggers, Whiting True Blue and Easter Egger hens — The Bright Layers are a breeding project we are currently working on. We use vibrant Whiting True Blue genes to create richer green tones. Both Barred Rocks came from Hoover’s Hatchery and one lays eggs with a heavier whitish bloom while the other lays eggs with brown speckles. This is not typical for the breed.

blue and green easter egger eggs on a white tea towel labeled by the breed of hens who laid them — These eggs were photographed in cool morning sunlight to show the unique green shades we get from our Bright Layers. They are more bluey-green than standard hatchery Americanas or Easter Eggers.

Whiting True Blue eggs, Whiting True Green eggs, peaches and cream egg, speckled easter egger egg, and a barnyard mix eggs arranged in a row on a kitchen countertop — Whiting True Blue and Whiting True Green chicks were purchased from Murray McMurray Hatchery. Barnyard Mix is a Buff Orpington x Barred Rock cross.

a white half dozen egg carton holding six eggs next to a bird's nest, holding two eggs, with six more eggs scattered around and all numbered to identify breeds that laid them

Eggs by Breed in the Image Above:

Prairie Bluebell Egger (Hoover’s Hatchery)
Whiting True Blue (Murray McMurray Hatchery)
Easter Egger – Sea Glass Blue Layer (Hoover’s)
Easter Egger – Speckled Peach Layer (Hoover’s)
Green Bright Layer
Easter Egger – Sage Green Layer (Hoover’s)
Welsummer with genetic pigmentation issues (Hoover’s)
Welsummer (Hoover’s)
Whiting True Green (McMurray) – both eggs in nest

a basket of blue, green, peach and brown chicken eggs labeled by breed of hen who laid each color — The Green Bright Layer egg in shadow at the top is bred using Whiting True Blue roosters hatched from the brightest blue eggs over very light peach or green laying Americanas.

one dozen hatching eggs in an egg carton with black text over the egg identifying each breed of chicken who laid it

a carton of 6 different colored eggs, arranged two colors together from darkest to lightest, to resemble a paint palette — This rainbow carton of eggs was collected just before Thanksgiving 2021. Darkest brown eggs on the left are Welsummer from Hoover’s Hatchery. Light brown are large Barred Rock eggs. Speckled olive (center left) are Whiting x Welsummer F1. The jade green eggs (center right) are laid by an F2 hen from Sky Girl Farm. The jumbo pistachio green eggs are from a Cuckoo Marans x Prairie Bluebell F1 OE we bred in 2019. The vibrant blue eggs are purebred Whiting True Blue.

a ring of different colored chicken eggs

Easter Eggers lay Colored Eggs

Easter Eggers are technically a mixed breed, having some Araucana genes somewhere in their parentage. They are only bred for egg color, not appearance, so Easter egger chicks can be all different colors. White, gray, brown, black, speckled or not, every feather color exists among the breed and all the chicks look different, too. You can even breed only bright blue and green egg laying Easter Eggers if you know the secret recipe!

whiting true blue vs prairie bluebell eggs compared to easter egger aqua egg speckled sea foam green eggs — Powder Blue Prairie Bluebell eggs next to vibrant Whiting True Blue eggs in a rainbow of blues and greens!

How to Tell if Your Easter Egger Hen will Lay a Colored Egg

The blue egg gene (which gives us blue & green eggs) is linked to the same gene that gives chickens a pea comb. If your pullet has a pea comb, there is a higher chance of her laying a blue, green or olive egg.

blue, speckled sea foam and speckled peach easter egger eggs — Speckled Seafoam eggs come from breeding Olive Eggers back to Olive eggers where a khaki speckled overlay is passed on to blue laying offspring, creating a seafoam egg.

whiting true blue egg next to green easter & olive egger eggs

Blue vs. Blue – Who Lays the Bluest Egg?

I have blue Easter Eggers, Prairie Bluebells and Whiting True Blues in my flock. Here is a picture of their eggs taken November 2020 in cool afternoon shade on a sunny fall day. I used Photoshop to add the labels to each egg but did not change the egg colors.

Whiting True Blue vs Prairie Bluebell eggs — Whiting True Blues lay the bluest eggs I have ever seen in person. Some of my Prairie Bluebells are a very close second.

Whiting True Blue vs Prairie Bluebell eggs in a white basket and each type labeled — Here is the same picture with the Levels increased in Photoshop to brighten the image. You can see the Whiting True Blue eggs “hang on” to their blue tones a little more – indicating the eggs naturally have a deeper blue shade – where the others begin to look more powder blue, which is accurate.

purebred whiting true blue eggs in a row — First eggs laid by a Whiting True Blue pullet we bred by crossing our brightest blue layers. These are the most vibrant blue eggs I have seen in real life.

3 purebred whiting true blue eggs — Vibrant blue Whiting True Blue **pullet** eggs next to an egg from a Whiting True Blue hen who has been laying for 11 months straight (July 2020 – June 2021). This shade variation is to be expected as first eggs tend to be deeper blue and lighten as the season progresses.

3 Prairie Bluebell Egger blue eggs on white wood — Prairie Bluebell eggs tend to be a nice shade of brilliant light blue.

Different Breeds Lay a Variety of Egg Shade Ranges

My first three Easter Eggers all came from the same hatchery and were born on the same day. One laid a gorgeous, pale blue sea glass colored egg. One laid a green egg. The last laid a peachy colored light brown egg with brown speckles. All three had green-gray legs but my gray feathered Easter Egger that lays the peach eggs has a larger comb that looks like a pea/rose comb cross. (That was my first clue she might not be carrying the blue egg gene and instead seems to be carrying white and brown egg genes.)

Americana eggs blue, green speckled peach — These eggs were laid by Americanas purchased directly from Hoover’s Hatchery. Click the image to view a list of which hatcheries are offering the best colored egg laying chicks this year!

A Rainbow of Green Shades

F1 olive egger eggs compared to green easter egger and other green toned eggs in a row — Green eggs from various hens show the wide range of shades you can attain from selective breeding.

Green eggs are beautiful, especially when you have a rainbow of earthy, herbal shades in one carton. Crossing vibrant blue layer roosters, such as Whiting True Blue, with cream laying Americanas can produce brighter green eggs, such as our Bright Layers. Hens that lay eggs with a heavy bloom can produce grayish eggs (green + heavy bloom) or lavender eggs (light brown + heavy bloom).

Rarest of all are olive eggs with a heavy bloom, which are fully gray in real life; the dark green underneath masked completely by the whitish overlaid bloom.

a divided tray with 9 cells holding 3 eggs each all in different colors laid by different breeds

a divided tray with 9 cells holding 3 eggs each all in different colors laid by different breeds, with each sell labeled

Olive Eggers: A Rainbow of Paint Paltte Tones

Olive eggers are produced by breeding a blue egg layer with a dark brown egg layer. Each hen will lay a different shade of green or olive. The deepest olive eggs are bred using French Copper Marans who hatch from the darkest chocolate eggs possible.

speckled sea foam olive egger egg next to a blue and green egg — The extra heavy deposit of bloom on the top end of the speckled seafoam egg helps to illustrate what is going on with this egg color. The bloom is so lightly tinted that it only serves to deepen the blue-green shade. This hen has two copies of the Whiting True Blue egg genes which give her shells such a rich blue undertone. She is technically an Easter Egger produced from Olive Egger breeding techniques.

Speckled Seafoam layers happen when a hen receives two copies of the blue egg gene in addition to genes for a lightly tinted bloom that is deposited over the shell. The resulting egg is not pure blue but neither is it clearly green. It is something in between.

prairie bluebell olive egger, speckled olive egger, easter egger olive egger eggs in a row — A Back Cross 1 is made by breeding an olive egger hen to a dark egg rooster, such as a Black Copper Marans. This is done to darken the olive shade and potentially increase speckling. Use Marans from heavy speckled lines if you want those pretty speckled eggs!

Prairie Bluebell Egger olive egger hybrid eggs

a trio of F1 olive eggs — First generation (F1) eggs are the result of blue and dark brown laying breeds being crossed. Click the image to learn how to breed olive eggers.

Purebred whiting true blue eggs crossed with welsummer purebreds to create speckled olive eggs — We crossed a Whiting True Blue rooster with Cinnamon, our Welsummer hen who lays erratically speckled eggs, to produce speckled F1 olive eggers who have speckling appear in the first generation. (Whiting True Blue roosters genes allow speckling inherited from the mother to show through, making them a fantastic choice for olive egger breeding!)

speckled olive eggs in a brown wicker basket with blue and peach eggs

a ring of speckled olive eggs on white wood bred by mating whiting true blue roosters to welsummer hens

a row of 5 speckled olive eggs labeled with the specific cross that created each one — I used two different Welsummer hens – one with a light background and one with a darker background – to breed the two Whiting x Welsummer layers shown here. The Marans Roo x Whiting Hen F1 cross produced the egg in the center. All of these are F1 Olive Eggers. (The speckled light green layer has been laying the longest so her eggs have lightened to more of an Easter Egger shade.)

a ring of speckled olive eggs labeled with the specific chicken breed cross that created each one — These F1 Olive eggs were made by crossing a Whiting True Blue rooster with a Welsummer hen to produce the speckled olive eggs. A Blue Copper Marans rooster (#5 shade) was crossed with Whiting True Blue hens to produce the F1 Olive Eggs with rich olive tones and medium blooms.

11 different colored speckled eggs on white wood — The solid colored olive eggs (one with a bloom) are Whiting True Blue Hens x Marans Roo (F1). Speckled olive eggers, 2 speckled light green and 1 speckled olive, are Welsummer Hens x Whiting True Blue roo (F1) but came from two different Welsummer hen mothers, one with a light background color and one with a darker background color. The two Jade Green eggs, which are marked, are laid by the same F2 Olive Egger hen from Sky Girl Farm (purchased as hatching eggs) and is 100% her breeding work. Two Welsummer eggs laid by different hens purchased from Hoover’s Hatchery are also shown.

9 purebred Welsummer speckled eggs on white wood, all with different speckling patterns — Welsummer eggs. These are all laid by hens from Hoover’s Hatchery. The background color and speckling can vary in beautifully unique ways!

a white wood egg holder holding a dozen different colored speckled chicken eggs — This mix of all speckled eggs took a few years of breeding work. (The jade green colored eggs at both ends are laid by a hen bred by Sky Girl Farm that I purchased as hatching eggs.) The 7 various shades of olive eggs were made by crossing a Whiting True Blue Roo x Welsummer Hens -or- a Blue Marans Roo x Whiting True Blue Hens. Speckling on the olive eggs came from the Welsummer & Marans lines. The speckled brown eggs were laid by Welsummer hens all purchased from Hoover’s Hatchery.

an egg carton stamp sitting in a wooden tiered tray surrounded by speckled eggs from several different breeds and hybrids, all labeled — The Black Copper Marans egg with the khaki speckles is a unique “mis-fire” egg where the dark speckles seemed to rub off while being laid. The same hen laid the darker egg shown below, also labeled Black Copper Marans.

Click the image to see more speckled olive egger pictures bred using Welsummers!

a row of different olive egger eggs, each labeled — This is a row of Olive Eggers showing what type of hen laid each egg. F2 means the hen is a second generation Olive Egger Roo x Olive Egger Hen cross. F3 means the hen is a third generation coming from an F2 OE Roo x F2 OE Hen cross. BC1 stands for Back-Cross 1, which means the hen was back-bred to a Copper Marans rooster.

The three brown eggs on the right are laid by hens who hatched from olive green eggs but did not inherit the blue egg gene and do not lay olive eggs themselves. Click the image to see even more labeled pics from this hybrid!

Every Breed and Each Individual is Different

Within a breed you can have each hen lay a different shade of brown egg. As I have collected some eggs for incubating and hatching, I’ve noticed my three Buff Orpingtons all lay eggs that are slightly different in shade. It is subtle but present. The same happens among my purebred Blue Marans hens.

blue copper marans dark chocolate brown eggs — Blue Copper Marans hens from the same hatch can lay varying shades of chocolate, as shown here.

The Egg Colors Do Not Change

A hen that lays a green egg will always lay a green egg. All of the colors in my egg basket come from having that many different individual hens. The only exception to this rule is that first eggs can be lighter in color and then darken over the next couple of lays (many dual purpose brown layers). Dark brown layers tend to lay first eggs darker in color which lighten as the hen continues laying (Marans and some colored egg layers).

barred rock eggs — Brown laying hens can lay a very light or stunningly dark first egg. You never know what you will get!

but sometimes The Egg Colors Do Actually Change!

Strangely enough, some blue layers can actually lay a blue-green tinted egg at first. The biliverdin her body produces (that turns egg shells blue) is actually aqua green in color and is at it’s richest as her body first begins to ovulate. This rich biliverdin is what can cause a bluey-green first eggs. It seems to fade by egg number ten to a classic powder blue. It can be upsetting to have a guaranteed “blue” laying hen start laying light green eggs. Six times I have had this happen – both with Prairie Bluebell Eggers and Whiting True Blues – and all six times the hen will clear and begin laying bright blue eggs. (I now actively try to breed for that vibrant turquoise bluey green color some blue egg layers initially lay but it is tricky to achieve!)

Seasonal Egg Color Variations

In the spring months hens will lay darker or more vibrant eggs which lighten considerably in the heat of summer. Speckles seem to be most prominent in the fall as the weather cools for reasons I do not understand. Occasionally faint speckles will re-appear throughout the year after the hen has had a skip day and then resumes laying. Speckling occurs when the egg turns more slowly in the shell gland but I’m not sure how temperatures affect it.

Speckled seafoam egg — This speckled seafoam egg was laid in September 2020.

And Sometimes You Get a Wonderfully Weird Layer!

Every once in a while you’ll get a really special hen that lays a very unique, unexpected egg. Whether from a hatchery or a breeder, she is sure to add interest to your egg carton!

6 Welsummer eggs on a white tray with a light brown background and rusty red speckling that is erratic and polka dotted — It doesn’t seem like these all came from the same hen but our one and only Cinnamon – a Welsummer with genetic pigmentation issues – laid all of these eggs over the course of a week.

Cinnamon’s polka dotted eggs next to more standard (but nicely speckled) Welsummer eggs.

Chicken Egg Colors By Breed: Helpful Infographics

Chicken egg colors by breed infographic for white, cream, brown and chocolate eggs

Chicken egg colors by breed infographic for blue, green, olive, and unusual colored eggs — Olive Eggers who do not inherit a blue egg gene tend to lay very unique dark and/or speckled eggs. These hens are sometimes called Khaki Eggers and usually have a straight comb, not a pea comb like their olive laying sisters.

If you want chicks guaranteed to lay a certain Egg color

Click the image to view a list (with pictures!) of which hatcheries offer the best and most beautiful colored egg layer chicks!

You Might Also Enjoy Reading:

Pin for Later:

Comments

Alexis says

January 2, 2022 at 12:57 am

I’ve been trying to find a speckled green egg picture like the ones you have! I have a wellsummer whose parents must have accidentally crossed pastures because she lays a dark green speckled egg. Do your green speckled layers look like a wellsummer or do they look crossed? I had no idea until she laid her first few eggs that they wouldn’t be that iconic speckled brown. Thanks for sharing!

- Tay Silver says
  
  January 3, 2022 at 2:32 pm
  
  Hi Alexis! A couple of my Welsummer cross hens who lay green speckled eggs DO look like Welsummers (except I used a bearded Whiting True Blue roo so many of them have beards). I would not be surprised at all by a hen who is very Welsummer-looking but lays a speckled green egg!
  
Lycee says

March 13, 2022 at 1:56 am

This is hands down the best article I have read on chickens eggs thus far! Thank you for the wealth of info

- Gale says
  
  March 5, 2024 at 11:00 am
  
  Think I have about 85% of those same eggs? I have 55 hens so far and only have two of the same breeds. You have some that I would like to add to my collection too!
  Thing I been curious about is if the eggs shell colors will be different when you get mixed breed chickens? I have had numerous roosters over the last 5 years and of course they matter with all the hens. I’m always waiting for a weird color egg to show up? 😂
  
Bobby says

May 31, 2024 at 3:17 pm

What a wealth of knowledge. Thank you for taking the time to make this article!

sadam hussain says

November 15, 2024 at 5:22 am

awesome and in depth