Sapphire Gem Egg Production: How Many Eggs Per Year?

Use the egg production calculator to model your specific flock.

Production ranges

The Normal row is the most realistic starting point for planning. It assumes a healthy first or second year hen from the confirmed Hoover SKU, on layer feed with natural daylight. About five to six extra-large eggs a week at peak — closer to five and a half across the year — is the honest planning figure. This is the same production-hybrid class as a Golden Comet, ISA Brown, or Black Star, not a heritage dual-purpose hen.

No institution publishes an annual egg figure for Sapphire Gem. She is a trademarked hatchery SKU, not a breed. We checked and found no Livestock Conservancy breed page, no row in the Conservancy’s Heritage Chicken Breed Comparison Chart (2026) (full-text extract), no Conservation Priority List entry, no APA recognition (Flockjourney states she is not accepted; there is no Cackle “APA: No” field because Cackle does not sell her), no Rare Breeds Survival Trust page, no Poultry Club of Great Britain page, no Oklahoma State breed page, and no Sapphire Gem entry in Skinner’s Chicken Breeds and Varieties (A2880). The contrast that makes this guide unusual: the believed parents are Plymouth Rock variants, and Plymouth Rock has a Conservancy page, a chart row, and CPL history — while this SKU has nothing. The Low / Normal / High band on this page is ours plus hatchery and retailer guidance. Authority here comes from documented sex-link genetics and from disclosed commercial products, not from a breed standard.

This site is not giving Sapphire Gem a breed page. Filling a breeds.json row would mean inventing four fields with no source at all — category, both weights, and broody — which is exactly what this audit exists to remove. There is no inclusion rule that would admit Sapphire Gem while keeping out Hoover’s Sapphire Olive Egger™ (already documented on the Olive Egger guide), Cinnamon Queen, Red Star, or Sapphire Sky. Our breed list holds breeds and generic hybrid classes. Sapphire Gem is a trademarked single-hatchery SKU. With no map entry, the Breed Profile card and inline note on this guide simply do not render — no reader hits a 404.

The eggs are brown, not blue. The sapphire name and the blue-lavender feathers fool a lot of buyers. Hoover’s product page prints extra-large brown eggs. She is a different bird from Sapphire Sky (olive or light brown) and from Meyer’s Sapphire Jewel (blue, with a chance of brown).

What arrives in the box — one SKU, several lookalikes

Sapphire Gem identity is decided before the formula. Like Olive Egger and Black Star, this section decides what the box actually contains — and that decides whether 280 is even the right planning number.

Sapphire Gem® is Hoover’s trademarked SKU, not a shared trade name and not a breed. We found no other US hatchery listing Sapphire Gem as its own product. Tractor Supply’s breed guide treats the name as a bird they sell; that is a retailer page, not a second hatchery SKU. Flockjourney — Hoover’s education brand — states the name is trademarked by Hoover’s Hatchery.

Hoover’s own product page calls her a “Czech breed” close to the Old Andalusians and prints grey to light grey plumage, which the chicken industry calls blue or lavender. It does not name parents, does not call her a sex-link, and does not print a first-lay age. The genetics and the “does not breed true” claim live on Flockjourney, not on the SKU page. Do not treat that as a Cackle-style disclosed pedigree.

Mile Four’s search returns 0 results for “sapphire gem.” Townline’s search returns none for the Gem name — they sell Sky. Meyer’s nearest “Sapphire” SKU is Jewel. McMurray’s 2020 introductions were Blue Sapphire Rock (blue plumage, brown eggs, some barring on males) and White Sapphire (crested, blue eggs) — different products, not Hoover’s trademark.

Cinnamon Queen and Red Star are red sex-links, a sister class to Black Star, not this SKU. They are named here so the inclusion rule is visible: if Gem had a breed page, those would too.

How the sex-link works

Hoover’s SKU page does not call her a sex-link. Flockjourney does: Sapphire Gems are sex-linked; females hatch solid blue-grey, often with a faint necklace of lighter spots; males show a white head spot and some barring. Adult hens about 6 to 7 lb in that article’s prose.

The mechanism that makes a white head spot and barring on males is documented even though Hoover will not print the parental direction. From Poultry Extension — Sex-Linked Traits in Poultry (Jacquie Jacob, University of Kentucky) and the companion Sexing Day-Old Chicks article:

The barring gene B sits on the Z chromosome. Hens are ZW and cocks are ZZ, so the hen determines the sex of the chick. A colour sex-link that uses barring must run non-barred male × barred female. Reverse it and you do not get a sex-link. Males inherit the mother’s barring and hatch with a white head spot; females stay solid.

Flockjourney says the Gem is believed to come from Blue and Barred Plymouth Rock stock. That is a stock claim, not a disclosed sire × dam on the SKU page. We do not invent the direction. What we can say: if the hatchery colour-sort is the barring sex-link Flockjourney describes, the cross has to run in the required direction, and — Jacob, stated directly — the offspring of a sex-linked cross cannot themselves be used in a second sex-linked cross. Breeding two Sapphire Gems together loses both the day-old colour sexing and the uniform production. Order first-generation chicks from Hoover’s SKU, or you do not have the product this page is about.

Poultry Extension — Selecting a Chicken Breed treats sex-linked crosses as birds “bred for egg production” and available at most US hatcheries. The black and red sex-link recipes on that page are Rock Red and Golden Comet / Cinnamon Queen — not Sapphire Gem. Cite it for the class, not for this SKU’s annual count.

By year, month, week, and day

A hen lays one egg every 24 to 26 hours at full production and skips days, so the daily average never reaches 1.0. For a backyard Sapphire Gem, plan on five to six extra-large eggs a week at peak — a little more in spring and summer, a little less through the shortest days of winter.

The formula

Scale to any flock size:

Weekly eggs = Number of hens × 6.0 × Age Factor × Season Factor

The baseline of 6.0 is a Sapphire Gem hen’s weekly output at peak, chosen so the season-weighted year matches Normal rather than overshooting it. Adjust it down with the factors below as the flock ages and the seasons change.

Example: 6 hens × 6.0 × 0.84 (Year 2) × 0.75 (winter, no light) = ~23 eggs per week.

Why 6.0 reconciles with Normal. Run a constant peak baseline through a Year-1 season mix — about six months at ×1.00, two fall months at ×0.90, and four winter months at ×0.75 with no supplemental light — and you get roughly 46.8 peak-equivalent weeks. 6.0 × 46.8 = 280.8, which rounds to the Normal figure of ~280. A baseline of 6.2 would imply about 290 for the year — Hoover’s SKU print, which this page uses as High, not as Normal. A baseline of 5.6 would imply about 262, which is the Low floor. The age and season multipliers above are our standard curve, applied across the site rather than measured on Sapphire Gems specifically. Treat the Year 3 to 5 multipliers as optimistic for this class — production hybrids wear out faster than the standard curve, which is the same caution the Golden Comet, ISA Brown, and Black Star guides already print. Use the egg production calculator to model your flock by age and season.

How production drops year over year

Production slides down gradually rather than stopping at a set age. The table applies the age factors to the Normal annual figure of ~280 eggs.

Peak productive life on this page is two to three years — that is the window the stats block means, not lifespan, and it matches Golden Comet, ISA Brown, and Black Star. Poultry Extension: commercial-type hens may give higher production initially, but other breeds tend to lay for more years. Meyer’s lifespan blog puts production layers such as Black Sex Link and Golden Buff at about 2–3 years in a commercial setting, with backyard flocks sometimes running longer when they get winter rest. That is class context, not a Sapphire Gem measurement. The Year 3–5 rows above are the standard site curve, not measured on this hybrid, and are likely optimistic once reproductive wear sets in after year two. A common approach is adding young pullets every other year, so peak layers are always carrying the flock.

Month by month (first-year hen)

No institutional climate profile exists for this SKU. Hoover prints cold and heat hardy; that is a hatchery mark, not a measured winter-layer study. The curve below is therefore ours: a modest winter daylight dip for a hardy production hybrid, without inventing a cold failure or a summer trough no source states. December and January are the floor. Hoover prints broodiness Occasionally, so spring is not carved by sitting spells.

The natural-light column sums to the Normal figure of 280; adding a 16-hour schedule takes it to 290, which is this page’s High and Hoover’s SKU print. If you do add light, start in early September before the days shorten, and aim for 14 to 16 total hours rather than leaving a bulb on overnight. A natural winter rest can be good for a hard-working hybrid’s long-term health.

What changes the number

The single biggest lever on a Sapphire Gem’s annual total is whether you actually bought the SKU, then age, daylight, and feed.

The commercial cluster — one trademark, several lookalikes

280 is ours, sitting 10 below Hoover’s 290. It is not a breeds.json figure; there is no row.

• Hoover’s 290 — the only hatchery Production field for this name. Our High. Hatchery optimism, treated the way Townline’s 300 is treated on the Black Star guide: named and used as High, not as Normal.
• Hoover’s Assorted Sapphires 260–290 — a mixed box that may include Splash or Olive Egger. The 260 floor is why Low is a mixed-Sapphire or off-type problem, not a tired hen. Olive eggs in that box are not Gem eggs.
• Tractor Supply 260–280 — retailer guide for the Gem name, not a second hatchery SKU. Our Normal is their ceiling. Their weekly line is garbled (“5 eggs/week)3-5 eggs/week)”). Their 4 lb / 5 lb weights contradict Hoover’s 6–7 lb and are not used.
• Sapphire Splash 290 large brown — sister trademark, still brown, not this SKU.
• Sapphire Olive Egger™ 290 XL olive — sister trademark, different shell. Already a named separate population on the Olive Egger guide.
• Sapphire Sky 250–260 olive or light brown — Townline and Myers. Similar grey look, tufted, different egg. Keep them apart.
• Meyer Sapphire Jewel 6+ / week, blue or brown — exclusive, not a Gem.

Body weight — cite Hoover, not a breed-page field

There is no breed-page weight field to cite. Hoover’s product page prints 6–7 lb. Flockjourney’s article prose matches 6–7 lb hens; its breed-card table says 5–6 lb — a split on Hoover’s own education property. We cite the product page. Tractor Supply’s 4/5 lb is named above and discarded.

Age at first lay — no hatchery field

Hoover’s SKU page does not print a first-egg age. Tractor Supply’s retailer guide says they typically begin laying at about six months. That is a retailer claim, not a measured window, and it sits later than most production-hybrid tiles. Our planning figure of about 20 to 24 weeks is labelled ours. Townline’s Sapphire Sky field of 22–24 weeks is a different bird and is not imported.

Daylight and winter laying

Hens need about 14 to 16 hours of light to lay at full rate. Expect a real winter dip on natural light. Hoover prints cold hardy; the month curve’s winter floor is modest rather than a collapse. If output drops sharply with no winter, molt, age, or SKU explanation, consult a licensed poultry veterinarian or your local extension service.

Feed protein

Keep layer feed at 16 to 18% protein with free-choice oyster shell for calcium. A hen near 280 extra-large eggs a year draws heavily on calcium; thin shells are an early sign to check the supply rather than the bird. Use the feed cost calculator to estimate what the flock will eat across the year.

Reproductive wear

The same high output that makes a production hybrid useful also puts more strain on the body after year two — egg binding, prolapse, and internal laying are the trade-off named on the Golden Comet, ISA Brown, and Black Star guides, and they apply to this SKU for the same reason. Steady layer feed, constant clean water, and not pushing extra light year-round all help. For an unexplained sharp drop, a hen straining to pass an egg, or any sign of illness or injury, consult a licensed poultry veterinarian or your local extension service.

Cold, heat, and frostbite

Hoover prints cold and heat hardy and a single comb. The comb can frostbite in hard freezes; dry bedding and ventilation protect the tips. That is ordinary single-comb care, not a Gem-specific study.

How Sapphire Gems compare

First-year production under normal backyard conditions. Every annual figure below except Sapphire Gem is from our breed data (breeds.json). Gem has no row, so 280 is ours — the same Normal as this page — not a silently invented breed-page number.

Every mismatch originally flagged among breeds linked from this guide — including Golden Comet and Barred Rock — has since been re-sourced; all now match their breed pages and none remain open.

The honest verdict: a Sapphire Gem is the pick when you want near-hybrid brown-egg numbers from a hardy, blue-grey bird and you are willing to order Hoover’s SKU. At 280 she matches our Black Star and Golden Comet planning figures and sits below ISA Brown. She is not a conservation breed, does not breed true, has no breed page on this site, and is not scored by the breed selector quiz — neither are Golden Comet or ISA Brown. Use this guide directly when the Gem SKU is the goal. If you want olive eggs from a similar-looking grey hen, that is Sapphire Sky or Sapphire Olive Egger™, not this page.

Frequently asked questions

How many eggs does a Sapphire Gem lay per year?

About 280 extra-large brown eggs for a confirmed Hoover Sapphire Gem® — our Normal. No institution publishes an annual count. Hoover’s product page prints 290. Tractor Supply’s retailer guide prints 260–280. Hoover’s Assorted Sapphires box prints 260–290 and may not even be a Gem.

How many eggs does a Sapphire Gem lay per week?

Five to six extra-large eggs a week at peak on the stats card. Formula peak is 6.0; averaged across a full year, plan on about 5.4.

When do Sapphire Gems start laying eggs?

No hatchery first-egg age exists on Hoover’s product page. Tractor Supply says about six months. Our planning figure of about 20 to 24 weeks is ours.

Do Sapphire Gems lay blue eggs?

No. Hoover prints extra-large brown eggs. The confusion is the plumage plus the name. Sapphire Sky lays olive or light brown. Sapphire Olive Egger™ lays olive. Meyer’s Sapphire Jewel is bred for blue, with a chance of brown.

Are Sapphire Gems a real breed?

No. They are a sex-linked hybrid SKU trademarked by Hoover’s Hatchery, not an APA-recognized breed. Flockjourney says they are not accepted by the APA. They are not on the Conservancy CPL and do not appear in Skinner A2880 as a breed. This site is not adding a breed page for the same reason: she is a single-hatchery trademark, not a breed or a generic hybrid class.

Will breeding two Sapphire Gems give Sapphire Gem chicks?

No. Flockjourney states they do not breed true, so two Sapphire Gems will not reliably produce more Sapphire Gems. Extension says the offspring of a sex-linked cross cannot themselves be used in a second sex-linked cross. Keep ordering first-generation chicks from Hoover’s SKU.

How many eggs will 6 Sapphire Gem hens lay per year?

Roughly 1,680 in a typical first year at Normal, with a realistic spread of about 1,560 to 1,740 depending on whether the box was a confirmed Gem, a mixed Sapphire assortment, winter light, and age. Run your own numbers with the egg production calculator.

Do Sapphire Gems lay eggs in winter?

Yes, with a modest short-day dip. Hoover prints cold hardy; the month curve is ours, not an institutional winter-layer claim. Protect the single comb from frost.

What color and size are Sapphire Gem eggs?

Extra-large brown, on Hoover’s product page. Shade can lighten across a season and with age, as it does for other brown-egg hens.

Why did my Sapphire Gem stop laying?

The most common reasons are short winter days, the annual molt from year two, age — this class wears after year two — or heat stress. If laying stops suddenly outside those patterns, or you see signs of illness or injury, consult a licensed poultry veterinarian or your local extension service.

Sources

No institution publishes an annual egg figure for Sapphire Gem. We checked and found none of: a Livestock Conservancy breed page; a row in the 2026 Heritage Chicken Breed Comparison Chart (full-text extract: zero hits for Sapphire or Gem); a Conservation Priority List entry (2026 CPL PDF, full-text extract: zero hits); APA recognition; Rare Breeds Survival Trust; Poultry Club of Great Britain; an Oklahoma State breed page; or a Sapphire Gem entry in Skinner’s A2880. The believed parents are Plymouth Rock variants; the SKU is not. The guide’s authority is sex-link genetics plus disclosed commercial products. Each source below is named for the specific claim it supports.

• Primary commercial source — Hoover’s SKU: Hoover’s Hatchery — Sapphire Gem: Sapphire Gem®; Czech; grey to light grey plumage (industry “blue/lavender”); close to Old Andalusians; Purpose Egg Layer; Production: 290 X-Large Brown Eggs/Year; Temperament Docile, Easy to Care For; Mature Weight 6–7 lbs.; Cold and Heat Hardy; Broodiness: Occasionally; Single Comb. Does not name parents, does not say sex-link, does not print first-lay age. Hoover’s — Assorted Sapphires: could include Gem®, Splash®, or Olive Egger™; 260–290 large to XL brown or olive; 6–7 lb. Hoover’s — Sapphire Splash®: rebel rendition of Gem; 290 large brown; 6–7 lb; Occasionally broody. Hoover’s — Sapphire Olive Egger™: 290 XL olive; ~5% brown escape; 6–7 lb; tufted. Hoover pages fetched with a Chrome user-agent.
• Hoover education brand — genetics, trademark, and “does not breed true”: Flockjourney — All About the Sapphire Gem Chicken: hybrid trademarked by Hoover’s Hatchery; believed Czech from Blue and Barred Plymouth Rock stock; resemblance to Old Andalusian; does not breed true; sex-linked (females solid blue-grey with faint necklace; males white head spot and some barring); up to 290 XL brown; hens around 6–7 lb; docile; occasionally broody; single comb; cold and heat hardy; not accepted by the APA. Flockjourney breed card: prose 6–7 lb and 290 XL brown; table Weight 5–6 lbs. / 290 extra large brown — cite the product page for weight. Flockjourney fetched with a Chrome user-agent.
• Retailer guide using the Gem name, not a second hatchery SKU: Tractor Supply — Sapphire Chicken Breed Guide: 260–280 eggs/year; brown, large; begin laying at about six months; garbled weekly line; weights 4 lb hen / 5 lb rooster (not used; contradicts Hoover 6–7). Direct urllib fetch of that URL timed out even with a Chrome user-agent; the full page body was retrieved on a second fetch of the same URL.
• Lookalikes so they are not collapsed into this SKU: Townline Hatchery — Sapphire Sky: 250–260; olive or light brown; 22–24 weeks; APA not recognized; female 5–6 lb. Myers Poultry — Sapphire Sky: similar in appearance to Sapphire Gem; 250–260; olive-green with possible tan / light brown / blue; APA No; will not breed true. Meyer Hatchery — Sapphire Jewel: exclusive hybrid; 6+ eggs/week (prose 6–7); blue, chance of brown; Laying Maturity 18–20 weeks; will not breed true; parents undisclosed. McMurray’s 2020 blog names Blue Sapphire Rock and White Sapphire as McMurray products, not Gem.
• Extension — sex-link mechanism and production-hybrid class, not a Gem annual: Poultry Extension — Sex-Linked Traits in Poultry (Jacquie Jacob, University of Kentucky): barring gene B on the Z chromosome; hens ZW, cocks ZZ; the cross must be non-barred male × barred female; reversing it does not produce a sex-link; males inherit the mother’s barring and hatch with a white head spot; offspring of a sex-linked cross cannot themselves be used in a second sex-linked cross; black sex-links also known as Rock Reds; red sex-links (Golden Comet, Cinnamon Queen) named as a sister class. Poultry Extension — Sexing Day-Old Chicks (Jacob): the same required-direction cross. Poultry Extension — Selecting a Chicken Breed for Small or Backyard Poultry Flocks (Jacob): dual-purpose American breeds (Rock, RIR, NH, Wyandotte) “lay reasonably well”; sex-linked crosses “bred for egg production” and available at most US hatcheries; hens from breeds developed specifically for egg production can produce more than 300 eggs a year. That page also points to Purdue AS-518-W as further reading — see dropped sources below. Poultry Extension — Raising Chickens for Egg Production (Jacob): hatcheries sell sex-link crosses so chicks can be colour-sexed; commercial-type hens may give a higher level of production initially, but other breeds tend to lay for more years; 14 to 16 hours of light to hold lay. No cooperative-extension page we opened publishes an annual egg count for Sapphire Gem.
• Parent context — Conservancy, not a count for the hybrid: The Livestock Conservancy — Plymouth Rock Chicken: around 200 large brown eggs; Barred is the original variety; Blue is a later variety; graduated 2023; APA 1874; barring described as a dominant sex-linked gene (males two copies, females one). If Flockjourney’s Blue × Barred stock claim is right, both parents are Rock variants on that page. The cross itself has no Conservancy page.
• Class lifespan context, not a Gem measurement: Meyer Hatchery Blog — How Long Do Chickens Live?: production layers such as Black Sex Link ~2–3 years in a commercial setting; backyard may live and lay longer.
• Institutional absences (named so they are not silently omitted): Livestock Conservancy breed page — none; 2026 comparison chart PDF — no Sapphire / Gem / sex-link / ISA row (full-text extract); 2026 Conservation Priority List — not listed (full-text extract); APA — not recognized (Flockjourney; no Cackle field); RBST — no page; PCGB — no page; Oklahoma State — no breed page; UW–Madison Extension — Skinner A2880 — no Sapphire or Gem breed entry (page body searched).
• Not available under this name (named so they are not silently omitted): Cackle Hatchery search returned HTTP 403 even with a Chrome user-agent; no Cackle Sapphire Gem product appears in public search. Murray McMurray search URL returned HTTP 500; McMurray’s named Sapphire products are Blue Sapphire Rock and White Sapphire, not Gem. Mile Four search: 0 results (page body). Townline search: no results for “sapphire gem”; they sell Sapphire Sky. Lafeber has no Sapphire Gem breed page.
• Ours, not published: the Low / Normal / High anchoring, the month-by-month split, the age and season multipliers, and the ~20–24 week first-lay planning window. The Low of 260 is Hoover’s Assorted Sapphires floor and Tractor Supply’s retailer floor, defined as lower prints and heavier or off-type grey stock — not age decline, which the year-over-year table already models. The Normal of 280 sits 10 below Hoover’s 290, matches Tractor Supply’s ceiling, and is what 6.0 × 46.8 reconciles to. The High of 290 is Hoover’s SKU Production field. The multipliers are our standard site-wide curve; Years 3–5 are flagged as optimistic for this class. First lay is labelled ours because Hoover prints no field and Tractor Supply’s six months is a retailer claim.

Two classes of source were checked and deliberately not used. Content farms: Chicken Starter (chickenstarter.com) and The Happy Chicken Coop (thehappychickencoop.com) were the old italic Sources line; both are aggregator pages of the class discarded on every guide in this series. Purdue Extension was the other old name. The paper that matches that URL is AS-518-W, Choosing a Chicken Breed: Eggs, Meat, or Exhibition (Akers, Akers, and Latour) — a general small-flock breed-selection publication. Direct urllib fetch failed SSL (CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED); the PDF body was retrieved via a second fetch. It names White Leghorns, Golden Comets, and Red Sex Links for egg production. It does not mention Sapphire Gem. Dropped as a Gem source; cited here only so the old Sources line is accounted for. Guide Normal rows that disagreed with their own breed pages among breeds linked from this guide have since been re-sourced. Every mismatch originally flagged here — including Golden Comet and Barred Rock — now matches its breed page and none remain open. For health concerns about your flock, consult a licensed poultry veterinarian.

Last reviewed August 2026.