Guess What? Chicken butt!

Like all God's creations, chickens come in many shapes, colours and sizes. Some chickens have extremely long tail feathers, and some are partly featherless. Look at these somewhat unusual chicken breeds. Which are your favourites?

Below, find out how to use real food to dye your eggs different colours. I would love to see what you have come up with. Send pictures of your dyed eggs to donamarie.lukie@eics.ab.ca

Frizzle Chicken

This chicken breed looks like it has a bad hair-do, but it's feathers are curling away from it's body instead of lying flat.

Polish Chicken

The Polish chicken is one of Mrs. Lukie's favourites! You can tell a Polish chicken because they have long feathers on their head that stand up like a fancy hair-do.

Silkie

Another one of Mrs. Lukie's favourites, the Silkie has feathers that looks more like hair. They also have feathers all the way down their legs and on their feet.

Buff-neck Chicken

The Buff-neck, Transylvania Naked-neck, or Turken chicken has no feathers on it's neck. Even the chicks are featherless on the neck. This is not a turkey, but it sure looks like one!

Blue Orpington

This is a very large and gentle chicken. They are unique for their completely blueish-gray feathers. The chicks are a grayish-white colour when just hatched.

Easter Eggers

These chickens lay different coloured eggs. Their eggs can be light shades of green, blue, pink, brown. Whatever colour they start to lay, they lay that colour of egg for the rest of their life. The chickens all look different, and are not the same colouring.

Barred Rock or Plymouth Rock

This is a common and very old breed of bird. It is one of the oldest breed of chickens in North America. It is a breed that lays many eggs and handles Canadian winters very well.

Light Sussex

This Light Sussex breed is one of the oldest breed of chickens that exist today. It is good for both laying eggs and eating, but is a little bit shy. It lays a light brown egg.

New Hampshire Red

New Hampshire Red is a breed that comes from New Hampshire, USA. They are a common backyard bird and can sometimes be kept as pets. Their eggs are brown.

Bantam Chicken

The Bantam chicken is a breed that is quite small (the black chicken is a regular sized Silkie). Bantams have eggs that are quite a bit smaller than a regular egg, and their chicks are quite tiny, too. Mrs. Lukie will be trying to hatch some Bantam chicks as well as average sized chicks.

Natural Easter Eggs!

Eggs can come in many different colours, depending on what kind of chicken you have. This picture shows what kind of chickens lay the different colours of eggs. Can you find any chickens that were mentioned above?

Making your own Easter eggs with food

Foods and spices can be used to make different dyes for eggs. Here is a list of instructions to dye eggs using foods found in a grocery store.

Instructions for dying

  1. Add a litre of water and 2 tbsp of vinegar to a medium pot.

  2. Bring it to a boil and add your dye ingredients (see on the right), and then simmer for 30 minutes. Let it cool completely.

  3. Strain your dye. Add the eggs and let soak in the dye for 30 minutes to a full day. Remove eggs and pat dry with a towel. Leaving the eggs in the dye for a longer time makes for a stronger colour.

Dye Ingredients

  1. Pink: 4 cups of chopped beets

  2. Deep yellow: 4 cups of yellow onion skins

  3. Light yellow: 3 tbsps of turmeric or curry powder

  4. Light blue: 3 cups of red or purple cabbage

  5. Dark blue: 4 cups of blueberries

  6. Jadeite green: 4 cups of red onion skins