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Chicken Egg Colors: Which Breeds Lay Colored Eggs?

Who needs Easter egg dye when many chicken breeds lay colored eggs! You may have coveted the gorgeous baskets full of blue, green, pink, and cream colored eggs in the past, but guess what? Those chicken egg colors could be coming out of your very own backyard, you just need to know which breeds lay colorful eggs!

Some chicken breeds lay green eggs, some lay blue eggs, and others lay more ordinary colors like white and brown. Famous chicken keepers like Martha Stewart helped to popularize raising chicken breeds that lay colorful eggs, and now it’s become quite desirable to produce a basket of colorful eggs from your own backyard.

A bowl full of different colored eggs.

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If you want to bring back a colorful egg basket every time you visit the nesting boxes, you should get a variety of hens, choosing one or more from each section below. Having a varied flock of mixed breeds is a surefire way to fill your Easter egg basket with naturally colorful eggs!

Chickens That Lay Brown Eggs

  • Australorp
  • Barred Plymouth Rock
  • Black Jersey Giant
  • Brahma
  • Buckeye
  • Chantecler
  • Cochin
  • Dominique
  • New Hampshire Red
  • Orpington
  • Plymouth Rock
  • Rhode Island Red
  • Speckled Sussex
  • Wyandotte
A carton full of brown eggs.

Chickens That Lay Dark Brown Eggs

  • Black Copper Marans
  • Golden Cuckoo Marans
  • Silver Cuckoo Marans
  • Welsummer

Chickens That Lay White Eggs

  • Ancona
  • Blue Andalusian
  • Brown Leghorn
  • California White
  • Polish
  • White Leghorn
White chicken eggs on straw.

Chickens That Lay Blue Eggs

  • Ameraucana
  • Blue Easter Egger
  • Cream Legbar
  • Super Blue Easter Egger

Chickens That Lay Green Eggs

  • Olive Egger
  • Easter Egger
  • Blue Favaucana

Chickens That Lay Cream Eggs

  • Silkie
  • Mille Fleur D’uccle
  • Salmon Faverolle
Blue-green chicken eggs.

As you can see, chicken eggs come in a wide variety of colors, and there are lots of breeds to choose from if you want an egg basket of colorful eggs!

It’s not always easy to find the chicken breeds from every section above, especially if mail ordering from a hatchery is not an option for you. If you only want to pick one chicken breed but are eager for colorful eggs, our breed choice is the Easter Egger.

Easter Eggers lay a variety of chicken egg colors, from cream, to pink, to every shade of blue and green. You just never know what you’re going to get with this fun breed! Adding a few Easter Eggers to your flock will be sure to get you lots of colorful farm fresh eggs! 

An Easter Egger chicken.

The reasons behind chicken breeds and egg color is really quite fascinating. If you’re itching for more information about chicken egg color and how it comes about, check out this post from our friends at 104 Homestead: The Anatomy of Chicken Egg Colors


Chicken Breed Guides


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Lori

Saturday 20th of March 2021

Am trying to start my easter basket hens this year currently have 5 leghorns(white eggs) but I am in South western Pa and am worried that some of the ones I would like may not be suited to the climate. Can anyone give me a general list/idea of chickens that would do well in my area?

Meredith

Wednesday 24th of March 2021

Hi there, this post should help you to find some good cold hardy chicken breeds. I agree that leghorns are not the best choice for your area, you're likely to get a lot of frostbite on their big combs. https://backyardchickenproject.com/cold-hardy-chicken-breeds/

Megan

Sunday 21st of April 2019

Just curious, what do you think would happen if you crossed a pink egg-laying Easter Egger with an Araucana? What color eggs would the offspring lay?

Linda Adkison-Gairing

Friday 8th of March 2019

Very interesting and informative. Thanks!

Jenn

Tuesday 24th of July 2018

I also get a pinkish brown from my golden sexlinks. But my favorite is my Black Copper Maran’s chocolate colored eggs.

Meredith

Friday 27th of July 2018

Those are my favorite too!