Blue Eggs

We have had a surplus of blue eggs on the Farm this week.  Unfortunately no robins' eggs yet - spring isn't quite here but instead we have blue eggs from our Ameraucana hens and from Kate, our half blind Indian Runner Duck.

Blue egg.

Different breeds of chickens lay different coloured eggs.  When we purchased our one day old chicks in the spring of 2011, I made sure to choose poultry varieties that lay uniquely coloured eggs.  No boring white eggs here at Gael Glen Farm!

One of the breeds of chicken we keep here on the Farm is Ameraucana chickens, sometimes called Easter Egg chickens, which hail originally from South America.  Our Ameraucana hens are straw coloured, easily identifiable by their ear muffs and beards in the facial area and, as I'm sure you've already guessed, lay eggs with slightly blue-coloured shells.

Ameraucana hen.

Kate the Indian Runner Duck.

 Female Indian Runner Ducks also lay eggs with a blueish shell.  Our duck, Kate, is a finicky layer.  She lays every day for a few weeks, then stops, then starts again.  She hasn't laid an egg since the summer time but, low and behold, she started laying eggs again two days ago.  Kate's eggs are distinguishable from the blue chicken eggs because they are a slightly different shape - more cylindrical then egg shaped - and their shell has a smoother, almost satiny, feel compared to a hen's egg.  Another clue is that Kate does not lay her eggs in the nests, she always lays on the floor of the coop, usually in the same spot each day.

Kate's egg laying spot on the floor of the coop.

Duck egg (left) vs. Chicken egg (right).

Duck and chicken eggs are slightly different inside the shell too; though if you were fed a duck egg and weren't told that was what you were eating, I bet you wouldn't pick up on the difference.  Duck eggs have a larger yolk than chicken eggs and less, though thicker, egg white.  Duck yolks are also creamier than chicken yolks.  My Mom loves to use duck eggs when making soft boiled eggs for breakfast since there is so much delicious yolk to dip her toast into.

Duck egg (bottom) vs. Chicken egg (top).

We're glad Kate has decided to start laying eggs again.  We're not sure exactly why (I think it might be the increasing amounts of day light) but we won't look a gift horse in the mouth, or a blind duck in the hoo ha, as it were!