Silverudd's Blue — listed by the NPIP and sold for decades as the Isbar — is a Swedish green-egg layer created in the 1950s by Martin Silverudd, a monk who bred a series of productive, sex-linked farm chickens and named them after Nordic figures. Sweden renamed the breed in his honour in 2016. Hens lay a steady 150–200 mossy green eggs a year, sometimes speckled brown, from a small slate-blue, black or splash bird with a plain single comb and no crest, beard or muff — the thing that separates it from the other green-egg breeds. They are calm, hardy through a Scandinavian winter, and still genuinely uncommon outside a handful of US breeders.
Beginner friendly
Quiet breed
Good with kids
Cold hardy
Heat tolerant
Broody
Egg colorGreen
Egg production150–200 / year
TemperamentDocile
BroodinessOccasional
ClimateCold hardy, Heat tolerant
PurposeEggs
Weight
Hen5 lb
Rooster6 lb
How to spot it
CombSingle
Single comb, medium, upright
Earlobes
Red
Legs & feet
Clean slate-grey legs, four toes
Plumage
Blue is the common colour; black and splash also occur
Look for
A plain-headed slate-blue bird laying green eggs — no crest, beard or muff, which rules out Araucana, Ameraucana and Easter Egger
Single
