Green eggs explained?

Press, 4 June 1988, Page 8

Green eggs explained?

PA Dunedin While white hens lay white eggs, and brown hens lay brown, it is the silver rooster who starts the green eggs ... Mrs Gail Williams, who owns a poultry farm on Taieri Plain near Dunedin, has suggested an answer to the appearances of green eggs from hens belonging to a Dunedin family.

The answer lies with the araucana hen, which lays green eggs and comes originally from South America. “If the owners of the hens laying green eggs followed their hen’s parentage back, there would be araucana there somewhere,” Mrs Williams said. x “The first araucana eggs were brought into

this area by Mr Robin Gordon, who used to live on the Taieri.” Mr Gordon now lives in Manakau, near Levin. "I brought fertilised araucana eggs over from South America in a set of china teacups many years ago,” Mr Gordon said.

The Americans call the araucana “Easter egg chicks” because of the colourful shades of their egg shells. They range from olive green, blueygreen to pink and soft reds.

Why have the local hens begun laying eggs only recently? “The hens have probably just started to lay,” Mrs Gordon said. “Hens do hot begin to lay eggs until they are about five months old, which may explain their sudden appearance.”