The best-known chickens that lay blue eggs are Araucana, Ameraucana, Cream Legbar, and mixed “Easter Egger” types, though there are many more specialized and hybrid lines as well.

Quick Scoop: Blue-Egg Chickens

If you’ve ever seen a carton of pale sky-blue or turquoise eggs and wondered which hen made that happen, you’re basically asking about a special genetic quirk, not a single “magic” breed.

The Core Blue-Egg Breeds

These are the classic names you’ll see in backyard chicken forums and blogs when people ask what kind of chicken lays blue eggs :

  • Araucana – Famous Chilean breed where the blue-egg gene likely originated; often tufted, sometimes rumpless, lays eggs from light sky blue to deeper blue.
  • Ameraucana – Developed in the U.S. from Araucana lines, with a beard and “muffs,” usually calm birds that lay light blue to blue-green eggs.
  • Cream Legbar – An autosexing British breed; hens lay consistent blue eggs and are popular in colorful-egg backyard flocks.
  • Easter Egger – Not a strict breed but a mixed type carrying the blue-egg gene; they can lay blue, green, or sometimes brownish eggs depending on the cross.

In forum-style discussions, people often describe their “EEs” (Easter Eggers) as the surprise artists of the coop: one hen lays robin-egg blue, another gives mint green, and a sibling might lay tan, all from the same batch of chicks.

More Breeds and Hybrids That Can Lay Blue Eggs

As blue eggs became trendy for backyard keepers and small farms, hatcheries and breeders started creating more hybrids that reliably produce blue shells.

Some examples often listed:

  1. Prairie Bluebell (or Prairie Bluebell Egger) – A hybrid from Araucana and White Leghorn lines; bred for both high production and bright blue eggs.
  1. Whiting True Blue – Created by a poultry geneticist (also a fly-fishing enthusiast) to combine good feathers and steady blue-egg laying.
  1. Super Blue / Bountiful Blue – A hatchery hybrid selected specifically for strong blue shell color and solid laying numbers.
  1. Other rarer lines – Lists from hobby sites and blogs mention additional blue-egg breeds and mixes, including some bantam (miniature) versions of Ameraucana and Easter Egger types that lay small blue eggs.

Different sources now count anywhere from about 8 up to more than 20 recognized breeds and hybrids worldwide that can lay blue eggs, depending on whether you include every designer hybrid and regional line.

Why Are the Eggs Blue?

  • The shell color comes from a pigment called oocyanin, linked to a specific gene that deposits blue pigment through the entire shell thickness, so the inside of the shell looks bluish too.
  • By contrast, brown egg pigment sits mostly on the outside; if you chip it, the interior looks white.
  • When blue-egg genes are crossed with brown-egg lines, you often get olive or green eggs (hence hybrids like Olive Eggers).

A common backyard example: cross an Ameraucana (blue) with a Marans (dark brown) and you can get an Olive Egger hen, whose eggs range from olive green to mottled, sometimes with a faint blue undertone.

Current Backyard and Forum Buzz

In recent years, especially as backyard chickens have become more popular, blue eggs are treated as a kind of status symbol or aesthetic upgrade for the egg basket.

  • Social posts often show mixed cartons with white, brown, blue, and green eggs as a “rainbow dozen.”
  • Breeds like Ameraucana, Cream Legbar, and Easter Egger are consistently recommended to beginners wanting reliable blue eggs without extremely rare or delicate birds.
  • Some updated lists as of 2024–2025 track 11–26 blue-egg breeds and hybrids globally, reflecting how many new commercial lines have hit the hobby market.

TL;DR

  • If you just want the one-line answer to what kind of chicken lays blue eggs :
    • Araucana, Ameraucana, Cream Legbar, and Easter Egger are the main names you’ll see.
  • If you want lots of blue eggs plus variety, modern hybrids like Prairie Bluebell, Whiting True Blue, or Bountiful Blue are also popular choices.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.