What are celadon quail eggs, and why are blue eggs one of the most misunderstood topics in the quail world?

In this episode of the Poultry Nerds Podcast, we break down the celadon gene, explain how true blue eggs are formed, and clear up common myths surrounding celadon quail breeding. From genetics and egg shell pigmentation to breeding mistakes and record-keeping challenges, this episode delivers real education without the fluff.

We discuss:

• What the celadon gene actually does
• Why blue eggs are blue all the way through
• The difference between true blue lines and random blue eggs
• Why celadons are NOT harder to hatch
• The importance of proper egg selection
• How recessive genetics impact celadon breeding
• Why plumage color does NOT indicate celadon genetics
• Why older hens lay lighter blue eggs
• Common social media myths about blue eggs and celadons

We also explain why many people unknowingly sell celadon carriers instead of true celadons, and how improper breeding can ruin a celadon program.

This episode is part of our Quail Mania countdown, leading up to one of the biggest quail education events of the year.

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Whether you’re new to quail or working toward a true blue celadon line, this episode will help you understand the science, genetics, and practical realities behind celadon quail eggs.

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Transcript

Carey: 0:39

Oh yes it did. I did it. Did we have been tooling with new logos that look cool and better show y'all who we are and y'all just got to witness. An aha moment today. I did not know you hit record. I, you know, sometimes you like you have to hit the button and then hit it again and you never know if it's gonna do it right then, or wait a few minutes. So yeah. So today we're gonna talk about something really cool, really mysterious to some folks, but we're gonna talk about Setons. And then if you're Blue eggs, if you're listening to us on the day we release it or close by, we are doing six weeks of quail to build up to quail mania. Yep. And if you're listening to us in the future, well hello. And Quail Mania is still on the website, so you can find us there. Um, so we did not have anybody to talk about Celadon this year on Quail Mania, so I was like, well, okay, we'll just do it on one of the shows leading up to. The actual event, like preemptive? Well, I mean, if you really look at it when you, when you're talking about celadons, there's lots of people that say they have celadons, but they're white, they're not blue, or they're not always blue or whatever. So, you know, there's what, like less than 10 serious breeders. Probably maybe one or two over. I'm not gonna, yeah, I'm, I'm not gonna number'em because I don't know an exact number. But there's not a crap load, we'll say that's a southern vernacular term that we use. Uh, there's not a, there's not a crap load of them. I'll say that. That's the nice way of saying it. Yeah. So this is actually a slideshow I had put together for something else that I was working on. So we are going to kind of work through it for our purposes here. Um, we're recycling slideshows. Yeah. I mean, I. I've been working with Celadons for about a year, and I'm still learning about'em. Um, I do know that once you hatch out a celadon and you know it's, they're from celadon eggs, those blue eggs should go in the hatching basket by themselves. And never ever, ever touch a different egg. Okay. So you just made a common mistake. Just because it's a blue egg doesn't mean it's a true blue celadon. Okay, I get that. But you know what I mean? Okay. Well, you, you got your, once you got, once you got your true blues, you, you, I wouldn't even, you know, everybody says they need fresh blood. I would not even consider that. Because one bird, that's not true. Blue screws up the whole thing. If you did get new blood, then it would need to be from another trioli line. Um, and that could be fun. Hmm, interesting. Um, so on this slide is just simply, why would you even want a sidon egg? And that's just to add some color to your egg basket. It doesn't taste any different. It's not nutritionally any different. It's just literally a blue egg. Um, doesn't necessarily do anything for me, just being honest, but people like them. That's'cause you're colorblind and can't see it. Okay. If we're gonna put that out there, it might mean more to me. If I could see it, I can. They all look white to me. Um, well, I mean, you can, you can see blue, but like I, I've seen it at your, I can't see blue at your barn, um, in your barn. Those OD on eggs look a lot like others unless you take'em outside. Yeah, I still can't see'em though. I don't know. So the history of the Sidon gene, we're just gonna touch on that. It was found in 1973 in a, in a Japanese lab, and they studied it. They named it celadon. They gave it the code, capital C little E. It is a recessive gene. Um, it is. Okay, so it's not like a genetic thing that turns a switch and makes blue eggshells. Right? What it actually does is turns a switch and changes how the liver cleans blood, which causes the biver. I hope I say that right. I'm always scared I'm gonna say it wrong, but I don't never heard it, so I don't know if I'm saying it wrong, right? Billy Verdin is blue. And it just moves it to the eggshell gland girl. It's a Billy Verden pigment. Billy Verden. We're just gonna go with that Southern vernacular. That's what you said. So a sellon eggshell is blew through and through because that pigment was put on. Infused in the egg shell gland versus the brown spots which are painted on. You can wash them off. Actually, you cannot wash the blue off. It is blue is blue, which is, you know, a lot of our listeners have probably heard people say something about. Like how the young eggs, or if a bird doesn't really have all the nutrition it needs, the eggs just kind of come out just like a, a bland color. And we say, oh, the, the printer must have been outta ink. Mm-hmm. That's why, because it, it, it literally is like put on there like that. So if a bird is sidon, you can't. See it from the outside. It is a genetic makeup and it either is or isn't. It's, it can't float back and forth between the two, so it is recessive gene. If you want to do celadons, you do have to have a. Crude working relationship with genetics, like high school level genetics. So recessive means it has to have two copies to, to work, right? Yeah. Um, so only a homozygous, which means two copies can lay blue eggs. So if a hen is laying blue eggs, she's cell it on B. Problem comes in with boys don't lay eggs. So you have to test breed them to confirm if they're OD on or not, and that's where people. Lose interest. It's too hard. It's too hard to track. Oh, oh, how what? Who loses interest in hatching a crap ton of chicks. Oh, it's not that. It's the record keeping if you're trying to, well, I mean, tracking them is not always that fun. Now, if you're already true blue, then that's different. But if you're trying to make true blue, you have to have. Records and know what you're doing and who you testing. You do a lot of mating. Yes. And it can be API A, we'll just say it that major Pi. Okay. You. So if you, if you sourced yours from somebody that is reputable and there's our true blue, then you know when you're, when you're doing your breeding and you're having your fun, you're just hatching. For confirmation and for fun to improve what you have. Mm-hmm. But if you're trying to start, then that's gonna be a big problem. Yes. You, it is a, it is gonna be a lot of record keeping, so if you occasionally. Hatch Burge that lay blue eggs, then you have more than likely a sellon carrier in your voice, and he is throwing. So, and you have a sellon carrier in your girls, and then eventually the two are mating and you're getting a sellon occasionally. It's not gonna be consistent unless you can find them. And yeah, it's celadons are kind of a pain. I'm, I'm not gonna sugarcoat that. Like I've had them for three years and I'm pretty well over them at this point. Um, so true blue. Refers to the line, not to the egg. So my line is true blue. Okay? I can without a doubt send blue egg, blue eggs out to my customers and I know that they will get birds that lay blue 100% of the time. Yep. Now, if I take. Joe Blow off of eBay, who is selling blue eggs? He may have them paired with a non sellon rooster, so while you receive blue eggs, their offspring could would only be carriers because the rooster is not sellon. And you, and I'm just gonna say that that holds true to just about anything you get off of eBay. You know, I'm not saying everything stinks, right, but when it sadly, we're in a day where there's a lot of scamming around poultry and so, you know, you gotta, you gotta do your homework before you purchase that kind of stuff and make sure you're buying from somebody that's legit. If you know that you want sell it on eggs, this is going to be one of the times where I tell you that patience is warranted to find the correct breeder and know who you're buying from. Mm-hmm. Um, if you only want some color in your egg basket, then order a hinge choice and sell'em to throw some synanon in there and you will occasionally get blue eggs. So. It is what it is. Um, now let's talk about the interior. We see this a lot on social media. The inside of an eggshell, um, can sometimes look blue in certain lights. That carries a lot of myths on social media. Mm-hmm. That has nothing to do with the sidon gene. So an eggshell is made up of minerals. Right. Calcium. Yep. All kinds of things. And. Those minerals, refract light, and some of them will refract light in a blue tent, and that is what you are seeing. Not different from the sky or. It's just a refraction of light as zero to do with celadon. You cannot look at a bird's coloring, it's plumage color and tell if it's celadon or not. Um. I don't, I can't even think of some of the other myths. You can't tell by looking at an egg if it's a sellon carrier and it won't change and lay blue one day and speckled the next day or spotted the next day. Now you get what you get on that. Now I select for solid blue eggs. I do like them like that. Um. Celadons can come with raised speckles. That is perfectly fine. That's still celadon. Um, you can scratch them off with your thumbnail. Um, that is still celadon and you can select for speckles. I mean, it's just a personal preference. I personally don't like the speckles. I do keep some because people like them, but if I were just doing it just for me, it would not have speckles. Yeah, I like that. Nice, smooth look to them. Okay, so the Synanon gene is a technically a gene that changes the biver out of the blood into the eggshell gland. It really has nothing to do with. It's so, I mean, we're, we're basically playing with a jacked up liver. Yes. It's a liver gene, not an eggshell gene. I mean Yeah, just to get technical. So the blue comes from the Billy Verdin. Mm-hmm. And the brown comes from, Ooh, say that word. I know. Billy Verdin. No, the other one. The brown comes from Protoporphyrin. Porta Porphyrin. Yeah. Now say that proto three times real fast. Proto Porphyrin. Mm-hmm. So it is actually painted on at the end of the egg cycle right before the bloom so it can, it is actually still damp when the egg is laid. And if you can grab it fast enough, you can put your thumbprint in it. That's how damp it still is. So it is spray painted on. I don't know if that would be really cool or really weird. Well, fun fact, and have your. On an egg. It's kind of cool. Yeah, but fun fact, if you. Spoil your quail eggs. Mm-hmm. And then put them in a vinegar solution. It will cause the eggshell to disintegrate and all the spots will float to the top. It's kind of, it's kinda of those nerdy things. So like, you know, making pickled eggs. Yes. You don't have to peel'em, you just bowl'em. Put, go ahead and put'em in the vinegar. Wait a while and. Scoop the dots off. I personally don't like to do it. It still leaves the membrane, so you still gotta pinch the membrane off, but it's fine if you're gonna pickle. It's fine if you're gonna pickle'em, but I wouldn't do it if you were just gonna try to eat them like that because they will have a slight arye taste. But it's kind of neat to watch the spots float to the top and it doesn't take very long. A couple hours at the most. That's cool. Different things. Things you never knew, thought you would need to know for 100, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay, so back to the eggshell Blue is part of the eggshell Brown is a paint job, and the inside of the eggshell is just light refraction. Plumage, it comes in lots of colors. Um, for the longest time, this the, because the Japanese did it, they put it on eb, so all of the birds were Rosetta or Tibetan or tuxedo, and. Um, that's how they stayed for forever and a day, but now people are starting to put them on other colors. Um, one, well, they have lots of different colors and I think Aaron, once they got here, feather sexal. When once those things got here, we were like. Okay, this is cool, but like, let's see what else we can do because mm-hmm. You know, everybody that has quail probably started. Because they like to do science projects with chickens because it goes really fast. Yes, okay. But yeah, so sell it on selection. Now this is another myth that we're gonna find on social media quite a bit, that celadon are harder to hatch. That is in fact. Not true. No. Um, when you select eggs for hatching, they should be appropriately sized. Um, nice. Even coloring, not bands of blue or clusters of the speckles at the point, but, and they should be shiny. They should have a nice bloom on them. Monochromatic the blue circles. Shell firmness. You want to select four? Solid eggs. You don't wanna be able to put your thumb through them. Um, yeah. If you pick it up, like when you're picking them up, if you hear it crack, feed it to your pigs or throw it in a garbage or something, you definitely don't. But this goes for any bird. Mm-hmm. Not just celadons, but specifically celadons.'cause remember, this is essentially an eggshell deformity if you ask my opinion, that we've exasperated to make into something. So we have to keep that in mind. So no weak shells, no dull shells, no multi blue shells, and the pointy end should be correct with the, sometimes they put all the speckles on the pointy end. The hees. I don't know why that happens. You don't want that. You want everything to look like a proper egg, feel good in your hand and not be mishy, um, because those won't hatch. And that could be, well, that is what I think people are doing and then saying they're harder to hatch. So it goes back to egg selection is, well, there's the problem. That's one of the issues with that is because it's like, it's so hard to find good quality, true blues. And when you do, you hatch everything you can, which, well, they just won't hatch the, the bad eggs of these won't, won't grow. Yeah. They, they won't. So you, there's no point in putting'em in there, but this goes for selection for anything. Um, if you're breeding celadons or you're breeding turkeys, it does not matter. Anything that you select for is what you're breeding forward. Mm-hmm. So if you select weak shells and deformities, then that's what you're breeding. Um, yeah. Don't compl, don't complain about where you got your eggs from. If you continue the cycle. Correct. CU cuing is part of breeding. So selection. Mm-hmm. So as far as hatching them, you select accordingly. You put them in the incubator accordingly. Uh, they still the same, same humidity, same temperature, same amount of days. Uh, and, and move on with your life. And in that picture, the one on the right with the splotch on the pointy end. That's the one I'm talking about. Don't, that won't hatch. So eat that one. You see it? Yeah. I, okay. Mm-hmm. So my final notes were to keep good records if you're trying to create a true blue line. They are a high coal line. You're cuing for egg selection. You're cuing for bird size, you're cuing for color if you're trying to breed a certain color bird. Um, so you're going to cu a lot with these birds. And as the, as the. Hen ages, the eggs get lighter. So she may lay Robin's, Robin's egg blue when she first starts, but by the time she ages out, there'll be like a grayish white. So. My last note, they can be aggravating and rewarding all at the same time. Yeah, yeah. Um, I mean, I, I think they're cool. It's different. It's neat to look at, but at the end of the day, I still like meat and eggs. That's just me. But they're cool, you know, I mean, they're still, Hey, I'm sorry. Genetically, your liver's messed up, but it's not gonna affect how you taste. Mm-hmm. How you look or anything else. Mm-hmm. You're just gonna gimme a blue egg. Right. They're still edible. They can still be bred to jumbo size. Um, they're just lay a blue egg. I, I'm, I mean. I personally don't see the appeal, but I understand people do. But once you have, the only thing I can say is once you have a true blue line, if, if they are all, say Rosetta or Tibetan on that e extended brown, then I personally, and I don't, in my barn, I don't keep those colors non sell on. That way. I know. Oh yeah. One gets out. You get em mixed. Yeah. I mean, it messes up. You're messed up. You gotta start all over if you're responsible. I just don't keep them. I don't have those colors in non sellon, and it just makes it easier. If one decides to fly from one brooder to the next, then I can just, I can just look at it because in my barn, that color is sellon. And so that's what we talk about, even though plumage does not denote celadon in my barn. I know that Rosetta or Tibetan is celadon because those are the only colors that my celadons come in. Does that make sense? Yep. Okay. So that's how, I guess when people say they know that that's Sellon, that would be the only case. You can't look at somebody else's birds and say, well. I have a white sellon, so therefore your white bird must be sellon. You can't do that. Yeah, that definitely don't work. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I mean, it would be cool if you did, but mm-hmm. Yeah. No, no. You can't see the wizard. There's a lot of stuff that would be cool if you could just look and know. Yep. So these pictures were taken, taken from a photographer customer of mine, and she did such a fantastic job. I used them for my pictures. Um, I sent her, sell it on eggs and she hatched them out. But then she took the pictures from me for me and sent them to me. So you can kind of see there, some of them are blue and then some of them are getting lighter, and those are from older hens. So if you receive an order of celadons, not necessarily from me, but from anybody, and the eggs may be a little whitish, that just means it's from an older hen. It doesn't have anything. It. It won't. Yeah. You're, you're still gonna get celadons when you hatch those things out, correct? Exactly. So it just means that she was ready to retire. She's getting there. She's getting close. Yeah. So, all right, so another week closer to Quail Mania. You can still get your tickets, you can still join for free. Um, go to quail mania.com. We'll have 15 different videos from different speakers about. Different topics from beginner level to business level. Yep. I'm excited. We're getting close. I'm excited and nervous.'cause I don't know, I just get nervous about stuff. Like after it starts off I'm gonna be like, oh yeah, this is nice. But up until, like, up until that moment, you know, it's, it's just the what if in me, I guess. I dunno. We have lots of cool giveaways in between each speaker. Oh yes. Tons of free eggs. Yes, yes. And we have a live chat. We'll be going on and I'll be announcing the winners in between each speaker and, um, gosh, it's just a lot. So if there's ever anything you ever wanted to know about quail, whether you wanna raise'em or not, doesn't matter to us. Come learn something new. And hey, if you don't know if you wanna raise'em or not. Sign up for the free, you'll learn a lot about'em. Make the decision. Mm-hmm. Yep. Oh yeah. All right. Well, we'll see you next week. All right. We'll be here. All right.