Today I’m sharing 5 backyard chickens for creating a unique coloured egg basket.
I love to find joy in the simple things of life. Adding different breeds of chickens to our homestead has definitely made collecting eggs more fun!
Plymouth Rock
Did you know that the Barred Plymouth Rock almost went extinct? People were so excitedly cross breeding them they almost forgot to maintain the original breed! They are grey barred in color and lay light brown eggs. Plymouth Rocks are definitely unique looking but we find ours has a bossy demeanor. She lays roughly 200 eggs per year.
Midnight Majesty Maran
The majesty maran is definitely a beauty to behold with dark feathers that shine greenish. I think that this breed has a quiet temperament but is easily pushed around by our other chickens. They lay a dark brown egg and are very similar to the Copper Maran breed in that they are very calm. These would be great backyard chickens to have around if you have little children. They lay significantly less eggs than other breeds; you can expect 250 eggs per year from this breed.
Azure Blue
This is our second most faithful layer and she lays blue eggs! The stats say the Azure Blue lays 295 eggs per year but I think we are getting more from ours. She is a pure white colour and is a calm tempered bird, but very fast. She is more petite than our other layers.
Isa Brown
This is our top performing layer hands down, laying between 305-315 eggs per year. They are a reddish brown colour and don’t require much supplemental feed if you’re free ranging. These were the first breed of backyard chickens we started with and have enjoyed their brown eggs for almost a decade!
Copper Maran
This chicken got its name from the copper feathers around their neck. This breed is very closely related to the Midnight Majesty Maran and also lays a deep brown egg. Marans lay less eggs per year than the Isa Brown and even the Azure Blue. You can expect 250 eggs per year from this breed.
Olive Egger
This past spring my plan was to add some green layers to our homestead so we purchased what we thought to be twelve fertilized Olive Egger hatching eggs. Well of the twelve less than half were fertilized and of those five most hatched out as Copper Maran chicks. An Olive Egger is a cross breed between a brown egg layer (maran) and a blue egg layer (Americauna or Azure Blue). So it’s not surprising that the chicks were marans. Hopefully we do get at least one Olive Egger hen out of the batch because I would really like to have a green egg layer.
5 Chicken Breeds that lay blue coloured eggs:
- Ameraucauna
- Cream Legbar
- Whiting True Blue
- Azure Blue
- Easter Egger* eggs can range in colour from blue to green
4 Chicken Breeds that lay green coloured eggs:
- Olive Eggers
- Silverudd Isbar
- Emerald Olive
- Easter Eggers
7 Chicken Breeds that lay brown coloured eggs:
- Isa Brown
- Barred Plymouth Rock
- Marans
- Brahma
- Wellsummer
- Rhode Island Red
- Wyandotte
Four Chicken Breeds that lay white coloured eggs:
- White Leghorn
- Polish
- Ancona
- Egyptian Fayoumis
Save it for Later
Meet the Chickens
Our Favourite Chicken Supplies:
- Gallagher Poultry Electric Netting
- Chicken Waterer Nipples
- Chicken Feeder
- Heated Chicken Waterer
- Egg Basket – small
- Large Egg Basket
- Chick Incubator
- Chick Mason Jar Waterer
- Chicken Feeder
Check out our post on how to hatch chicks in an incubator
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