I have a varity of chickens,Rhode Island,Aracana,Dominequer(what is the correct spelling?)Cochins,Wyndote,and Brahma Buff Bantaams. I am getting a greenish blue eggs with whitish speckles on them. IIs this a lack of something in their diet(they free range) or is it natural?

Q #2 Here in east texas they call the white chickens with black outlined feathers dominequer(whatever) I have also heard them called Plymouth rocks and in a catalog I saw them called white rocks. Are there subtle differences or are they all the same?

-- Darin L. Snodgrass (snod@texramp.net), January 25, 2000

Answers

My araucanas produced eggs like that once in a while. Don't know if it's true, but someone told me it's excess minerals. It came and went, never affected the egg quality, nor the chickens health. Sue

-- Sue Landress (Sulandherb@aol.com), January 25, 2000.

Darin, the greenish blue eggs are from the Aracanas. The speckles aren't a problem. You'll notice all sorts of large and small color variations in non-white eggs.

I wouldn't call the Plymouths or Dominiques white with black outlined feathers. To me those would be more like the lovely Silver Sebrights. A white rock should be just that, white. Going by the breed standards paintings, the Barred Plymouth rocks have narrower lines of black and white on their feathers, giving them a kind of op-art look. Dominiques are more mottled looking. They also have rose-combs.

There are also silver-laced Wyandottes. Most of their feathers are also white outlined in black rather than barred. They, too, have rose combs.

I wish I could find an old Murray McMurray catalog. They've got a lot of different breeds and would show more modern pictures of the breeds. As long as the chickens aren't being shown, you can call them whatever you want. What catalog were you looking in?

If it is important to you, I can type in more information from my poultry standards. But these are from 1938-40. A good catalog or two would probably be more helpful. I've ordered from Murray McMurray in years past and was generally happy with them. They've got a great catalog. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), January 25, 2000.

Murray Mc Murray has an online catalog with pictures of the different breeds. Dont remember the address but I ordered from it before. A good search engine could find it. I beleive they are Dominiques and the local name is Dominickker down here in Louisiana. They are grey with white tracings around the feathers. i beleive the plymoth rock and dominickker are two different birds but both called dominickkers down here.

-- brian r (brian3006@msn.com), January 26, 2000.

Murray McMurray

-- cinnamon (homesteader145@yahoo.com), January 27, 2000.

Darin, a Dominique or a Barred Plymouth Rock both have feathers that are striped cross-wise with black and white. They are two distinct breeds. The Dominique is a very old breed, dating back to Colonial times. The Barred Rock (and all other rocks) date back to the late 1800's. Dominiques are a lighter weight chicken about the same size as a Leghorn. Barred Rocks weigh more, up to about 10 lbs. for the males. Barred Rocks are bred from the Dominique and I think Javas. White rocks are solid white. There is a breed called Columbian Rocks that are mostly white with some feathers near the head and tail that are white with black edging (lacing). All rocks are good layers. There are several varietys of rocks, including barred, partridge, buff, silver laced (also have some black feathers), white, and columbian. There may be more than that. I see by your ISP provider that you live in the same area I do. I live in Camp County. I hope this has clarified the subject some.

-- A.C. Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), January 31, 2000.