If I *hypothetically* wanted to get some coloured egg layers which ones should I get?

[dekel18042]

So hosting the natural egg contest has made me want to get some coloured egg layers. I might or I might not. Once I rehome my last 2 roos I'll have space to get up to 3 more chickens (I'll probably only get 2 though). If I did get some I'm not sure what I would get that lays eggs other than white/beige.

Must:

• Be a small breed (I have bantams)
• Non-aggressive (My chickens are pets)
• Be easy to find
• Lay any egg colour except for white/beige

I'll add options onto the poll

Just curious, You said it must be a small breed, Why? Because you like small breeds? Since I can't decide which is my favorite breed my flock consists of everything from small English game bantams all the way up to orpingtons, and in the past I have had Jersey giants with bantams. I Have no problems. And they all get along with each other.
I have and have had Welsummers, Crested cream legbars (a blah breed and highly overrated as far as I am concerned. They all laid round green eggs.), EE's, and Ameraucanas in with my bantams. My bluest eggs came from some of my own breeding. An Ameraucana rooster with California grey hens. Also Prairie Blue Bell eggers lay beautiful blue eggs and are the smallest of my large fowl hens. Barely bigger than my bantam cochin hens.

 

[Vicker]

Ameraucana's don't get all that large. Nice blue eggs.

 

[Iluveggers]

Ameraucana's don't get all that large. Nice blue eggs.

Depends on the breeder. The one I was talking to had quite large Ameraucanas! But there are bantie Ameraucanas!

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Just curious, You said it must be a small breed, Why? Because you like small breeds?

I have bantams

 

[Silkie Princess]

I voted EE

 

[Florida Backyard Chickens]

Not one of your options, but I love my ameracaunas!

 

[PippinTheChicken]

Not one of your options, but I love my ameracaunas!

I love them, but I can't get them here

 

[Silkie Princess]

I love them, but I can't get them here

What about rumpless Araucanas? They come in bantam version too

 

[Chickstarrs]

Like you, I wanted to add some colour to my egg basket, mainly blue. I purchased two female cream legbar chicks aged 3 weeks. They were very nice looking chicks, however I never saw an egg from them. They both died from Marek's disease before ever laying an egg. Not only was I upset that I lost them but now I had Marek's disease forever in my flock. The woman seemed to be a reputable chicken breeder, however, seemed to know nothing about Marek's when I spoke with her afterwards. I did some reading and seems that Legbars are more susceptible to Marek's than other breeds. No more legbars for me, unfortunately.

This year I purchased 5 EE and 5 Welsummer day-old pullets from a reputable hatchery. I lost 1 EE who was laying blue eggs. 2 of the EE's do not look like EE's and lay beige eggs (still pretty birds though). My Welsummers are doing well. Very chatty. One likes to stand right in front me on the poop boards and chatter away while I am trying to clean them. I have to keep moving her out of the way. They lay dark redish brown eggs. Some are spotted some are not.
Here is one of my Welsummers

The dark eggs are the Welsummers. One has no spots. The light brown egg is from Wyandottes, the cream eggs are from the ones that don't look like EE's and the rest are from the EE's.

Sorry for my lengthy post. Hope it helps in some way.

 

[SnowKnitty]

So hosting the natural egg contest has made me want to get some coloured egg layers. I might or I might not. Once I rehome my last 2 roos I'll have space to get up to 3 more chickens (I'll probably only get 2 though). If I did get some I'm not sure what I would get that lays eggs other than white/beige.

Must:

• Be a small breed (I have bantams)
• Non-aggressive (My chickens are pets)
• Be easy to find
• Lay any egg colour except for white/beige

I'll add options onto the poll

I have had cream legbars for years and love them enough to even keep CL roos. (Keeping a roo... that's true love of a breed! LOL) They are layers so they are a smaller chicken. Mine have all been quite docile and, even though they are not pets, some of them walk right up to me. Egg color varies just a bit from hen to hen with most in the green color spectrum and a few having some blue hues mixed in. Egg production is pretty reasonable, especially when you consider that they eat quite a bit less than dual purpose hens like my pig, er, I mean my Barred Rock hen. For the extra egg a week, I'm estimating she eats double what the CLs eat.
I also want to suggest you look into a hen called a Green Queen. I currently have two of them and they also lay pretty green eggs. Both of them are small hens and one of them is downright scrawny. They are not as friendly as my CLs but they are very pretty and do not show aggression toward other hens. Perhaps more interaction would go a long way toward socializing them if you want pets.