Colorful Characters
PENN TWP — Colored eggs? For some Butler County chicken farmers, they're no big deal. For them, every day is Easter.
Krista Kuhl of Mars and Rich Morgan, the manager of Lambert's Tack & Feed Supply and superintendent of poultry at the Big Butler Fair and a state Department of Agriculture-certified poultry technician, raise Ameraucana chickens, whose eggs naturally come in white, tan, pink, green and blueish-green shades, depending on what they've been fed.
“They are considered a tinted egg and can be blue, blueish-green or light brown,” said Morgan. “The more grass they get, the darker the green. The less grass and more scratch feed (oats, millet and corn), the lighter the green.”
The ability to lay colored eggs is “just bred into the chicken,” said Morgan.
“A lot of people make the mistake of calling the Ameraucana the Easter Egg chicken,” he said, when they really mean the Araucana breed of chicken.
“The Ameraucana has a tail and doesn't have what they call tufts right by the earlobe,” said Morgan. “The Araucana hasn't got a tail, and it has tufts, little feathers that curl around the ear and eye.”
If you don't have access to Ameraucana eggs and are having a hard time dying white eggs, said Morgan, it might be because the egg is too fresh.
He said you cannot dye a freshly laid egg because the pores on the shell are still closed.
He added it could take up to 15 days for the pores to open making an egg ready to dye.
But Kuhl said you can speed up Mother Nature a bit.
“All you have to do is wash them in warm vinegar and they are ready to go,” said Kuhl.
But no amount of vinegar wash will allow you to dye a green Ameraucana chicken egg, said Morgan.
“You can't dye the green eggs, the color won't form. We've tried it many times,” he said.Morgan said he raises about 50 chickens for shows at his home in Worthington. Ten of his flock are Ameraucana in both the large size and bantam varieties.Bantams range in weight from a half pound to four pounds, a large or regular chicken can weigh from four to 12 pounds.As for the Ameraucana chicken, Morgan said, “It's become a popular breed in the area in the last five years. People see the green eggs and they tend to shy away.”“But it's the same way as white eggs and brown eggs, they don't taste any different,” said Morgan, adding neither do green eggs.In fact he said, with no fillers, no antibiotics and all natural feeds, eggs all taste the same, no matter what the color.And all eggs have the same nutritional value, no matter the color, said Morgan. He said there's no validity to the belief that brown eggs are somehow healthier for you than white ones.Morgan said, in general, chickens themselves can give an indication as to what color eggs they will produce.Their earlobes give them away. The chicken earlobe is directly under its ear. The ear itself is hidden under feathers, but the earlobe is very visible.“If the earlobes are red, it means the chicken is going to lay a brown egg. White earlobes mean a white egg,” said Morgan.“With the Ameraucana chicken,” said Morgan. “The outer part of the ear is red and the inner part is white and that means they are going to lay a colored egg.”He added that a chicken can lay an egg every 14 hours. “How often they summer, more eggs are produced.”
He added that chickens kept under artificial lighting will produce more eggs.But Kuhl warned chickens kept under those conditions will burn out from egg producing sooner rather than later.Ameraucanas are good for more than just their colored eggs. They also make good eating.A retired elementary school physical education teacher, Kuhl raises 68 chickens with her husband, Edward, including two Ameraucanas.Kuhl said she raises chickens “for eggs, food and entertainment.”“I do the whole process, I bought the chicks, I raised the chicks, I select and keep and sell the eggs. I don't show them, Richard's the expert on that,” she said.Kuhl said some chickens can be treated like pets.“I have one that likes to be carried around. You can carry it around like a purse,” Kuhl said.But some of Kuhl's chickens are destined to be carried to the dinner table.“The Ameraucana is an egg-laying bird,” she said. “They go to the table when their egg production drops off at around two years.”Kuhl said, “They are more of a fryer or a stewing chicken, not a roaster or anything.”Morgan and Kuhl said the number of people in Butler County keeping chickens of all varieties has been growing in recent years, and it's not because people are keeping their grown-up Easter chicks.
“They're easy to keep,” said Kuhl. “I would like to stress chickens need clean bedding, access to water 24/7 and good food that is balanced nutritionally, not just table scraps.”“You put the chickens out in the garden after it's plowed over and it will do wonders for the garden,” said Kuhl touting the benefits of chicken droppings.Morgan keeps the chickens he raises for show in cages, while Kuhl keeps her flock in a chicken coop and a run.“They are fairly easy to take care of,” she continued. “There is a daily reward. There's nothing like fresh chicken to cook.”Morgan said he expects Lambert Feed will sell 300 chicks this spring.A fertile egg takes about two days to hatch, said Morgan, and a chick will grow into an adult in about 12 to 16 weeks.An adult chicken can live up to 15 years, he added.“It's a nice hobby for little kids,” Kuhl said, “because they are not intimidated by the size of the animal. By raising chickens, they can learn animal husbandry, discipline and how to do chores.”
