Educational Information

Chicken Breeds That Lay The Most Colorful Eggs

December 18, 2024 alchemist_farm Educational Information

Chicken Breeds That Lay the Most Colorful Eggs

When it comes to raising chickens, few things are as delightful as collecting eggs in a rainbow of colors. Beyond their aesthetic appeal, colorful eggs add a unique charm to your backyard flock and make every breakfast table conversation-worthy. At Alchemist Farm, we’re passionate about sustainable farming practices and raising chickens that bring joy to their caretakers. In this post, we’ll dive into some of the most beloved chicken breeds known for laying eggs in an array of stunning colors. Whether you’re looking for deep chocolate hues, mossy greens, or light-speckled greens, we’ve got you covered.

Black & Blue Marans: Dark Chocolate Eggs

Maran chickens, particularly the Black and Blue varieties, are celebrated for their rich, dark chocolate-colored eggs. These elegant birds not only produce some of the darkest eggs in the chicken world but also have calm temperaments, making them a great addition to any flock. They are medium-sized chickens with soft feathers and a proud stance. The Black Marans boast a shimmering black plumage with hints of green in sunlight, while the Blue Marans feature slate blue feathers. Ready to add these beauties to your flock?

Check out our French Black Copper Marans and Blue French Copper Marans – Alchemist Line.

Welsummers: Brown Speckled Eggs

Welsummers are a heritage breed known for their beautiful brown eggs adorned with speckles. These birds are hardy, friendly, and excellent foragers, making them a fantastic choice for free-range setups. Their striking golden-brown feathers, accented with black and yellow, give them a unique, rustic appearance. Known for their intelligence and adaptability, Welsummers thrive in diverse climates and environments.

Want to bring the charm of Welsummers to your backyard? Get your Heritage Welsummer chicks here.

Moss Eggers: Mossy Green Eggs

If you’re looking for a breed that produces eggs in shades reminiscent of a mossy forest, Moss Eggers is the way to go. These chickens are a hybrid breed carefully selected for their striking green egg color. Their unique egg colors make them a standout choice for any enthusiast. Moss Eggers often have a variety of feather colors, ranging from soft grays to deep earthy tones, adding visual appeal to your flock.

Excited about adding Moss Eggers to your flock? Grab your Moss Egger chicks here.

Olive Eggers: Olive-Colored Eggs

Olive Eggers are a hybrid breed resulting from the combination of blue and dark brown egg layers. As a result, their eggs come in various shades of olive green. These birds are hardy, friendly, and prolific layers—a must-have for any colorful eggbasket. Their plumage is equally diverse, often featuring a mix of blues, blacks, and browns, making them a visually striking addition to any backyard.

Start your olive egg journey today with our 1st Generation Olive Egger chicks.

Sage Eggers: Light Green Speckled Eggs

Sage Eggers adds a soft, whimsical touch to your egg basket with their light green eggs speckled with delicate patterns. These specialty egg-laying chickens are a must-have for anyone seeking something truly unique. Sage Eggers are known for their gentle and curious nature, making them an excellent choice for families with children. Their plumage often reflects earthy tones with subtle sage green or silver highlights.

Interested in Sage Eggers? Bring some whimsy to your backyard with our Sage Egger chicks.

Alchemist Blues and Azure Eggers: Greenish/Blueish Eggs

For those who appreciate shades of the sea, Alchemist Blues and Azure Eggers offer a stunning palette of greenish-blue eggs. These birds have been selectively bred at Alchemist Farm to produce consistent egg color while maintaining excellent health and productivity. Alchemist Blues have soft blue or lavender plumage, while Azure Eggers often feature rich golden highlights against a dark base, making them a visual delight.

Looking to enhance your flock? Explore our Alchemist Blue chicks or Azure Egger chicks today.

Double Silver Laced Barnevelders & Bantam Cochins: Cream with Pink Tints

Double Silver Laced Barnevelders and Bantam Cochins are the epitome of elegance. Their eggs often feature a creamy base with a delicate pink tint, making them a unique and desirable addition to your flock. These cream eggs with pink tint add charm to any egg basket. Double Silver Laced Barnevelders are renowned for their intricate lace-like feather patterns, while Bantam Cochins are cherished for their fluffy, rounded appearance and friendly demeanor.

Bring home these beauties today with our Bantam Cochins or Double Silver Laced Barnevelders.

Alchemist Eggers: A Rainbow of Colors

Alchemist Eggers, or Easter Eggers, is perhaps the most versatile for egg colors. These birds can lay eggs in shades ranging from blue and green to pink and even lavender. At Alchemist Farm, we take pride in breeding these chickens to produce an array of fun and unexpected egg colors, making them true rainbow egg layers. Alchemist Eggers often exhibit a delightful variety of feather patterns and colors, from soft pastels to bold contrasts, reflecting their mixed heritage.

Ready to add some magic to your flock? Check out our Alchemist Eggers here.

Why Choose Us for Your Colorful Egg-Laying Chickens?

At Alchemist Farm, we prioritize ethical breeding practices, sustainability, and the health of our chickens. Unlike larger-scale hatcheries, we focus on creating bonds between farmers and their flocks, ensuring that every bird is raised with care and love. Our breeds are selected for their stunning egg colors and hardiness, temperament, and suitability for various climates. We’re proud to offer the best quality chicks for your backyard flock.

Whether you’re a seasoned chicken keeper or a beginner looking to start your flock, these colorful egg-laying breeds are sure to bring joy and beauty to your homestead. Explore our offerings at Alchemist Farm and discover the magic of raising chickens that lay eggs in a rainbow of colors.

Ready to start your journey? Visit Alchemist Farm today and bring home the chickens of your dreams!

Ordering Baby Chicks online

April 8, 2023 alchemist_farm Educational Information

How to Order Chicks Online

Ordering chicks online is a great way to get the breed of chicken you want, when you want it. Skip the line at your local feed store with this method of bringing new chickens into your life. With a little research you can end up with an incredible flock that you will enjoy for years to come. There are many reputable hatcheries (like us!) that ship chicks across the country, and with a little planning, you can have your new chicks arrive healthy and happy. It is important to make sure you know what kind of practices you are supporting when you select what hatchery you would like to order from. We are a no kill humane hatchery meaning that none of the male chicks are killed upon hatch as they are at large scale hatcheries. If that is something that is important to you it is good to do your homework before purchasing at hatcheries other than ours!

Here are a few things to keep in mind when ordering chicks online:

Choose a reputable hatchery that aligns with your values. The power of your dollar is huge, support folks who are treating animals and the planet right! There are many hatcheries out there, so it’s important to do your research and choose one that has a good reputation. Read online reviews and talk to other chicken keepers to get recommendations.
Order your chicks early. Chicks are in high demand, so it’s important to order them early, especially if you have your heart set on a particular breed. Many hatcheries have a waiting list, so it’s best to order as soon as you know you’re ready for chicks. We offer chicks from February through October each year so you have a nice long window of opportunity to order though us.
Provide a warm, safe place for your chicks to arrive. We recommend reading this guide to get you started. When your chicks arrive, they’ll need a warm, safe place to stay. A brooder is a great option for this. You can either buy a brooder or make your own. Just make sure it’s big enough for your chicks to move around comfortably and that it has a heat lamp to keep them warm.
Feed your chicks a high-quality chick starter feed. Chicks need a lot of protein to grow and develop properly. Make sure you feed them a high-quality chick starter feed that is formulated for their age.
Keep your chicks clean and dry. Chicks are susceptible to disease, so it’s important to keep them clean and dry. Change their bedding regularly and make sure they have access to fresh water at all times.
Socialize your chicks. Chicks are social creatures, so it’s important to socialize them from a young age. This will help them become friendly and comfortable around people.

With a little planning and care, ordering chicks online can be a great way to add to your flock. Just be sure to do your research and choose a reputable hatchery. And most importantly, have fun!

Need some help with your supplies to get yourself started? This amazon list has you covered from the time your baby chicks first arrive all the way up to their senior years.

Happy chicken keeping!

How An Eggshell is Formed Inside Of A Chicken

February 10, 2023 alchemist_farm Educational Information

Fun Friday Fact
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We would love to start a new # entitled #AlchemistFarmFridayFact on our social media platforms of Instagram and Facebook if you have a nitty gritty question about chicken keeping, tag us and use the tag so we can see you. We will fold your question into our weekly Friday learning series!
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For this week: we are discussing how an eggshell itself is formed inside of a chicken.
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The formation of an eggshell inside a chicken takes about 20 hours. The process of egg formation, from the time of ovulation to the time the egg is laid, typically takes about 24 to 26 hours. The majority of this time is spent forming the egg white, yolk, and membrane, with the formation of the shell occurring in the final stages of egg formation.
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Once the egg reaches the isthmus, the next part of the oviduct, a gland called the uterus gland coats the egg with a thin layer of calcium carbonate, which will become the eggshell. This is where those cool colors come in! The egg continues to move through the oviduct and is eventually laid about 24 hours after ovulation. The exact time it takes for an eggshell to form may vary slightly based on the age and overall health of the chicken.
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Shown here is a basket of lovely shades that I think are a meeting of the land and sea. The greens remind me of our forests, the blues our ocean and the gentle creams are the clouds above at sunset.
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Dark greens: Moss Eggers
Light greens: Sage Eggers
Blues: Azure Eggers
Creams: Double Silver Laced Barnevelders.
Basket: Franchesca’s Easter Basket from when she was a wee lass!
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What do you see in these blends of color?
#alchemistfarm #AlchemistFarmFridayFact
#learnsomethingnew
#chickenhatchery

Chickens in our Everyday Language

November 16, 2022 alchemist_farm Education, Educational Information, Farm News

Our Language

Some may think that a chickens behavior is simplistic and nothing like her own. Step back for a minute and look at all of the interesting phrases we have in our English language derived from a chickens behavior and from our interactions with them.

We don’t count our chickens before they are hatched, we certainly don’t want to put all of her eggs in one basket. We like to hatch out ideas, we can be cocky or we can chicken out, if we are worried we find ourselves walking on eggshells. Feeling frazzled? Perhaps you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off! If we are feeling stifled we want a chance to spread our wings and we definitely don’t like being cooped up!

Perhaps we are far similar than we realize.

Pictured here is the gorgeous feathering of one of our French Black Copper Marans Roosters. Presales for this breed and many others are open on our website for 2023!

Olive Egger Chickens

October 13, 2022 alchemist_farm Education, Educational Information

Did you know that chickens can lay all sorts of interesting colors of eggs? A chicken’s ability to lay colored eggs extends far beyond the white and tan eggs most of us have seen in the grocery store! Today we’ll cover a specific type, Olive Egger.

From dark chocolate brown colored, to blues, speckles, and perhaps the most captivating of all – green or olive egger!

The phrase “Olive Egger” refers to a chicken that lays green colored eggs. This can be achieved by combining two breeds of chickens, one that carries a blue egg laying gene, and another that carries a brown egg laying gene. Put those two together and ta da you have beautiful green eggs! This first generation of a blue gene and a brown egg gene put together is called a first generation Olive Egger or F1.

Now here comes the interesting part, say you ordered a box of olive egger chicks, some turned out to be females and some turned out to be males and you think “hey I want more of this color of egg in my life!” So you put a male and female together and raise up their chicks. You will be surprised when the females from that cross are only laying green eggs 50% of the time. This is because the green egg gene is not stabilized.

It takes years of selective breeding to be able to stabilize that beautiful green color and expand upon it. Here at Alchemist Farm, we have created the beautiful Moss Eggers. We’ve been working on these birds for the past 10 years and they are a F16 if you can believe it! Each year we select the most interesting colored green eggs to hatch for future generations and stabilize that lovely green color that we all look for in our daily egg collecting baskets. The result of our careful selection has yielded birds that are laying green eggs with all sorts of interesting patterns on top, these patterns can be speckled and sometimes an interesting bloom. What is a bloom? A bloom is the protective coating a hen puts over her egg as it is in the final stage of being laid, this protects the eggs from bacteria entering. Sometimes this bloom can be very thick and in the case of our Moss Eggers, creates the illusion of eggs looking silver. Some of our hens lay multi-colored eggs where there is both green, blue and silver on a single laid egg. Nature is incredible!

If interesting egg colors are something you’re interested in bringing to your life, we are your people! We focus on gorgeous egg colors, strong egg laying ability, climate resilience to withstand strong heat and cold, sweet temperament, and we are the only humane chicken hatchery in the United States.

Purchasing chicks from us not only beautifies your daily egg collecting basket, your purchase goes towards shifting the way the hatching industry is run.

From the 100% compostable packaging of all of our chick shipments, to the massive solar array we erected to run our hatchery. From every single bird being free to roam on their own pastures to the thousands of male chicks who are not killed upon hatch here. From being single use plastic free on our farm to our zero waste practices. We are making ecological waves in all the right ways and your support makes it possible. We offer chicks for sale from February – September of each year, our lovely Moss Eggers are available along with 12 other unique and interesting breeds. We believe there is a chicken breed for everyone, come and see our offerings!

Want to see images of our beautiful birds and eggs in action? Checkout our Instagram page.

Trust

January 3, 2019 alchemist_farm Education, Educational Information, Uncategorized

💙Trust💙

We handle every single animal on our land. I can turn my back to any rooster, bend down in-front of and pick up one of their hens without fear of being attacked. Any of our birds can be flipped upside down, held comfortably on one arm, pet, adored and then respectfully released back into the field.

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Learning the language of animals is something that cannot be taught in a book, it is all field experience. A simple call or stance speaks volumes to me about a birds mood. Each breed has a temperamental theme and each bird within that breed has its own character. I had a gorgeous Marans cockerel last year that did not physically do anything to me but every time I went to feed the flock I could feel that he was thinking about chasing me off. I would stop my feeding, crouch down, look at him and throw the same energy back at him, he would casually strut away knowing his place but even that exchange was one I did not want to breed so let him go. Chickens and roosters in particular are quite emotionally loud if we listen. We start each breeding group with 10 boys and narrow it down to two or three whose personality we want to pass on to future generations.
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It is our hope that over the years we will be able to educate folks that roosters and chickens are safe to be around. There is no reason to keep a mean rooster in your life when there are plenty of good reliable ones that can step up to protect your flock.

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Pictured here is one of our Sage Egger roosters. Sage Eggers are one of the breeds we have available in our 2019 lineup of birds. He is a gorgeous boy with exceptional creole patterning on his saddle feathers. Fun fact, the saddle feathers on roosters are used for fly fishing.

The Egg Tooth

April 24, 2018 alchemist_farm Education, Educational Information

🐥Egg Tooth🐥

Did you know that as chicks form in the shell they create a special extra piece on the end of their beak called an egg tooth? This day old Ayam Cemani chick is modeling it perfectly.

The egg tooth helps them in the long journey out of the egg and falls off naturally after a few days time of hatching. If giving a baby chick to a broody hen it is best to give the chick when it is less than 3 days old. Looking for the egg tooth on a chick will be in indicator of that perfect age for mama hen/chick bonding.

The first time I saw a chick hatch out of an egg was a powerful experience. It is amazing how tight they are inside of the egg and how they are able to break out having no space to work with. Watching my first chick hatch changed my relationship to chickens, it gave me a new deep respect for how strong and versatile they are.

No matter what is going on in our lives, nature shows us that there is always a way forward – we may have to work for it, but it is there!

We have limited numbers of chicks of this beautiful and unique breed. If you would like to have some of these all black beauties strutting around your barnyard reach out! We ship nation wide

What Does A Chicken Hatching Look Like?

April 13, 2015 alchemist_farm Educational Information

Ever wondered what a chicken hatching out of an egg looks like? Here are some fun peck by peck shots of some chicks making their way out of their eggs after being in the incubator for 21 days.