6 Exciting New Colored Egg Layers To Add To Your Flock in 2023

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Are you looking for something new and exciting to add to your flock in 2023? If so, then take a look at these six colored egg layers! Laying eggs in shades of deep blues to bright greens, these hens are sure to provide you with some of the prettiest colored eggs around!

Why Add Colored Egg Layers To Your Flock?

Adding colored egg layers to your flock can add a unique and interesting flair to your egg basket. If you sell eggs, selling beautiful, colorful, Instagram-friendly rainbow eggs is an invaluable marketing tool. Many small farms can’t compete with industrial agriculture’s low prices, they have to market themselves in a way that sets them apart, colored eggs can do just that. In addition to the aesthetic appeal, they can also offer a local food experience no grocery store can match!

What Is A Hybrid Chicken?

All of the chickens on this list are hybrids. Hybrid chickens are a combination of two or more different breeds of chicken, which can produce eggs with unique and interesting colors. These chickens may have better egg production, and grow faster than standard breeds. Hybrids do not breed true, meaning that the offspring of hybrids may not have the same traits as the parents.

6 Exciting New Hybrid Colored Egg Layers

I have created a list of some of the newer hybrid chickens, that I feel could be great additions to your flock in 2023. Some of the chickens aren’t technically “new” this year, but the availability by large hatcheries has made these specialty breeds more accessible to everyday backyard chicken keepers.

Prairie Bluebell Egger™

If you are looking for an active bird that will lay an incredible amount of blue eggs throughout the year the Prairie Bluebell Egger might be a great addition to your flock!

The Prairie Bluebell from Hoover’s hatchery is the perfect colored egg layer for free-ranging backyard flocks. Recently developed by the well-known Hoover Hatchery in January 2019, this hybrid was designed to lay a large quantity of beautiful blue eggs. A Prairie Bluebell is created by crossing an Araucana (which lays blue eggs) with a White Leghorn chicken with the hopes that the best traits of each chicken would be realized in their offspring.

They are lightweight birds who are going to convert food more efficiently, as they do not eat as much as larger breeds. Plumage color varies considerably among individuals, so you can count on having a great variety of beautiful color patterns. Prairie Bluebell Eggers are tolerant to both the heat and cold, but they are not built for extreme temperatures.

Whiting True Blue

If you are interested in breeding chickens for egg color, the Whiting True Blues are a must-have for your flock.

Created by Poultry geneticist, Doctor Tom Whiting who decided to try his hand at breeding roosters with longer hackle feathers better for fly fishing tying. While he was at it, he also decided to breed a blue laying chicken that came in every feather color pattern possible, including barred with barred beards! His result was the Whiting True Blue breed, which will breed true for the blue egg color but always give a glorious range of feather colors.

Whitings began as a cross between heavily laying leghorns and deep blue laying Araucanas. This cross produced a powder blue layer (similar to Prairie Bluebells). From there Doctor Whiting bred the hatch mates to each other until all offspring carried two copies of the blue egg gene.

The eggs can be stunningly vibrant blue. The contrast is very pronounced when you place the whiting true blue eggs next to green and dark brown eggs in a carton!

If you want to move towards a self-sustaining flock and have a supply of colored egg layers, a adding a Whiting True Blue Rooster to your flock will produce an abundance of blue, green and olive laying offspring when crossed with various breeds of hens.

Whiting True Green

A variation of the Whiting True Blue mentioned above, Whiting True Green hen is great for anyone looking for a bird who will lay gorgeous green eggs. Whiting True Green are sure to make a fun addition to your farm! This breed was also created by Dr Whiting, and like the True Blues can produce huge numbers of eggs in an incredible color.

True Green Hens are reddish to chestnut colored and are on the smaller side. Averaging around 4 lbs these birds have a great feed to egg conversion.

Both the Whiting True Blue and Whiting True Green are only available through Murray McMurray Hatchery, and sell out quickly. If you want to add either of these breeds to your flock make sure to place your spring order shortly after the new year!

Steele Egger

Lisa Steele from the popular Fresh Eggs Daily blog and Meyer Hatchery have created a hybrid breed of chicken called the Steel Egger.

Created to the specifications of Lisa Steele, this hybrid was bred to create beautiful blue or splash hens that lay plenty of blue and green eggs. This designer chicken may have a beard and crest to top off her beautiful blue or splash plumage. This one-of-a-kind chicken is exclusive to Meyer Hatchery.

Fibro Easter Egger

The Fibro Easter Egger is a new and exciting designer chicken that gets it’s unique look from hyper melanin or hyperpigmentation, and have striking dark feathering, skin, and features.

Fibro Easter Egger have been bred by specialty chicken breeders for a while now, but Meyer hatchery is the first hatchery offering Fibro Easter Eggers 2023.

Fibro Easter Eggers are a hybrid chicken that are created when a Ayam Cemani chicken is crossed with a blue egg layer. Just like normal Easter eggers they lay colorful eggs which can help you create the on trend rainbow dozen of eggs. Their feathers can be irridescent black or a variety of darkened shades. Like standard easter eggers they can display a variety of combs. The comb is always the first thing that gets peoples attention as it can vary from black to mulberry, a drastic difference than the typical rooster red comb. Fibromelanistic chickens are viewed as magical in the Asian countries where the gene originated from.

Fibro Melanistic is a genetic mutation that causes the chicken to have increased melanin. Which means every fiber of their body is melanistic (black); bones, muscle, organs, and skin. The amount of black feathers with Fibro Easter Eggers will differ as will secondary colors but the skin, legs, and lobes will all be tinted black.

On average, these birds will lay 4-5 eggs per week. The color of the eggshells can be anything from olive green to turquoise blue, but occasionally they are rose or brown. The eggs of generational offspring can be any color from green, blue-green, white, or pale blue with white speckling.

Wheaten Easter Egger

Add a splash of color to your flock and your egg basket with the new Wheaten Olive Egger! This fourth-generation hybrid will consistently lay beautiful, medium to large olive eggs while sporting a lovely wheaten feather color pattern.

These beauties also pass on their feather attributes over multiple generations, should you decide to keep male and female Wheaten Olive Eggers together. Males will show some beautiful black feathering beginning around 6 weeks old and females will be mostly cream and brown.

These birds are on the smaller size and also have a great feed to egg conversion rate. They are a cold-hardy cross that have straight or pea combs and may or may not have feathered legs. You can find day old Wheaten Olive Eggers at Meyer Hatchery

Adding colored egg layers to your farm is both exciting and rewarding. So why not give one of these interesting birds a try in 2023? You won’t be disappointed!