hopingforchickens Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Hi All, One of my chickens has started to lay we got our first yesterday and another today, bless her however, when we got her we were told that she would lay 'a rich brown coloured egg' - she is an Amberlink. So far the eggs are 'normal' coloured. Is this usual? I don't want to give the poor love a hard time, but I was quite excited about different coloured eggs and so far they just look like smaller versions of a shop brought one (I know they will get bigger). Is it possible she's not an Amberlink? Here is Cornflake (the cream one at the front) and here is her first egg (yes I did take a picture of it!) also Cornflake is totally trashing the nest box when she's goes into lay. I put newspaper down with sawdust over the top and she kicks it all out and tears up the paper. The egg has always ended up outside of the nest box, not sure if it starts there or not Any opinions are welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I think most standard hybrids could lay any colour egg from tinted to mid brown, some like the 'pepperpot' type chooks can lay quite dark ones but to be honest its the luck of the draw and depends greatly on the strains used for the parent birds Chooks like newspaper so try just the woodshavings but they will lay quite happily on just the bare plastic if you keep getting problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicken bark Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 My amber star lays a light brown egg with some darker blotches on it. She is by far and away my best layer. Another of my hybrids wrecks the nest box too. She used to dig to China and was only happy when she'd got to the bottom of the box. She has calmed down a bit now though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjp Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 amber links are a rhode island cross so will lay a standard brown egg. I think they were developed for the free range market Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopingforchickens Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Thanks everyone, I'm guessing they won't evolve into darker brown then so should I just leave the nest box bare then, will the others mind when they start using it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Yep ... my amber link laid bog standard mid beige eggs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mercedes55 Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 We've got a Welsummer and were told she would lay dark brown eggs and most of the time it's hard to work out which egg is hers and which is from one of our ex batts, as although they are brown I wouldn't say they look like the eggs we had seen in pictures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopingforchickens Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 but yey for having eggs at all so it's not so bad, maybe Henrietta's will be speckley and LT's will be conker coloured,or maybe they will all be 'normal' and I should just be grateful for eggs at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 I have often noticed that the details for chickens say "they lay a dark brown egg" but there is never a photo of the eggs they do lay. I reckon that it today's world of easy photography if there is not a picture of the egg produced it means it doesn't lay a very good egg Ask to see the eggs they produce, or at least a photo of the best they "could" do All the best Sue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopingforchickens Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 Thanks, LOVE your eggs! Maybe I'll get some darker ones off LT...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 Thanks for the compliment - my girls are English Cuckoo Marans, and I have spent many years getting them to lay a sensible number of nice richly coloured eggs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..lay a little egg for me Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Our amber has just started to lay and so far her eggs have been white. She herself is all white but has red earlobes so I was expecting a brown egg. Perhaps they will darken or perhaps the colour is particularly variable for ambers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopingforchickens Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 well no egg at all today, so it serves me right for moaning about it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...