Silver Americanas come in a wide variety of colors, but all of the patterns have a notable silver coloration to the feathers and undertone of the bird. I have Americanas mostly for their beautiful blue eggs. While they can be used as a dual purpose bird, I find the Barred Rocks and Marans to have higher quality meat than the Americanas.

My current rooster “Captain” is a farm favorite and the star in several stories and videos about chickens on Rose Hill Farm. He is my daughter’s rooster and has an incredible affection for her. He would happily sit in her lap all day if she let him, and he likes to have his feathers stroked.

Our silver hens show a wide variety of colors including grey, white and brown, all with silver undertones. We do have a few black hens and they do not show the silver markings, but throw chicks that have those markings.

The hens currently lay blue and green eggs, with a few of the hens in the flock laying olive as a result of mixed heritage. Thus it is possible to have a hen that looks like a full Americana, but which lays olive eggs and therefore it must be a cross.

It is fun to create designer egg colors by crossing Americanas (light blue or green eggs) to brown egg laying roosters to achieve pullets that lay olive eggs. Americana (blue) to Barred Rock (light brown) results in a pullet that lays a light olive egg. Americana (blue) to Marans (dark brown) results in a pullet that lays a dark olive egg. One of my breeding goals was to create a rainbow of eggs for my basket, and adding the olives into the mix is simply delightful.