Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
should have deep, full abdomens. Eggs come in different colors but taste the same, and a hen
always will lay the same color egg. If you are a novice owner and would like to get chickens
primarily for eggs, you will need only about four birds to get started, which will give you 20
to 28 eggs per week.
Araucana
Not only is this bird a good layer, but also the eggs she produces are blue-green or turquoise.
Some varieties of this chicken also lay pink eggs or brown eggs with pink hues. These eggs
are perfect for Easter decorating, gifts for neighbors, or just to add some variety in your egg
basket. The chickens come in partridge (black stripes that meet at the middle of the feather
then move outward), silver-blue partridge, yellow partridge, fawn, wheaten (creamy tans),
white, black, and lavender.
The roosters of this breed weigh about 5 pounds, and hens weigh about 4 pounds. Bantams of
the breed weigh 28 ounces for a male and 26 ounces for a female. Araucanas can be tailed or
rumpless,
meaning without a tail. They have a pea comb that is low to the head with three
ridges, and they have a clean leg without any feathers. A unique feature of these birds is the
tufts of feathers they have by their ears.
Araucanas are a good choice for novice bird owners because they have high energy, but it is
okay to pen them. Their home should offer fresh green grass every day, so a mobile coop or
allowing them to roam freely might be best. They will provide you with about 200 eggs per
year.
Cream Legbar
The Legbar breed of chicken has three varieties: gold, silver, and cream. The gold and silver
varieties are a type of Leghorn and lay cream-colored or white eggs. The Cream Legbar,
though, is an
autosexing
, blue egg layer, which means you can tell the sex of the chick by the
color of its feathers. Cream Legbars are very popular for their egg laying abilities. They lay
green and blue eggs.
This breed is a mix of Barred Rock, Brown Leghorn, and Araucana breeds. Through much tri-
al and many generations of mating, the Cream Legbar was developed. The process began in
the 1930s. If you were to cross your own chickens of the aforementioned breeds, you mostly
will not have the same result. Through the generations of breeding, the ideal hybrid was deve-
loped with the dominant genes presiding to ensure colorful eggs.
