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From dark chocolate brown colored, to blues, speckles, and perhaps the most captivating of all – green or olive egger!
The phrase βOlive Eggerβ 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.
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. Weβve 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 youβre 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.Β
Purchasing chicks from us not only beautifies your daily egg collecting basket, your purchase goes towards shifting the way the hatching industry is run.Β
Want to see images of our beautiful birds and eggs in action? Checkout our Instagram page.Β
πTrustπ
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.
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 ofΒ 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 wideΒ
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.