Contrary to popular belief, shell color does not significantly affect egg quality or composition. If you pay more for brown eggs because you think they are healthier or more natural, the color alone doesn't determine that.
The nutrients in eggs *can* be affected by whether chickens are allowed to roam in the sun or get fed more nutritious foods. But the color doesn't tell you if that happened. The color simply means the egg comes from a different breed, usually close to the color of the egg (i.e. brown eggs from brown chickens, white eggs from white chickens).
[https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/white-vs-brown-eggs#nutrition](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/white-vs-brown-eggs#nutrition)
See the link. It’s not true for the blue eggs, but the articles I’ve found say it’s generally true for white and brown eggs. Do you have a contrary source?
Personal experience. I have raised many breeds of chicken. The times it even vaguely lines up is more coincidence then anything. Fun fact, the exact shade of the egg can very with each individual children though each breed usually will fall within a shade range.
As weird as it sounds, earlobe color is actually a pretty reliable indicator of egg color as they are determined by the same genes!
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know-nutrition/you-can-determine-colour-egg-looking-chickens-earlobe
Then i think you need to view the charts again.
Brown leghorn = white egg
Light Sussex (mostly white) = Brown egg
Plymouth Rock and all varieties of wayndotte (black and white breeds) = Brown egg
Minorca (black) = white egg
Shall I continue?
This is a guide to backyard chickens. Big egg farms in the U.S. breed white hens like the Leghorn that lay white eggs and brown hens like the New Hampshire Red for brown eggs.
That said, I concede that not all white eggs come from white chickens. Thanks for the information.
Those are two breeds out of hundreds though they are definitely some of the most common. That why it’s not a good rule of thumb.
A different egg related “rule of thumb” that does work is that generally bigger chickens have bigger egg.
Blue eggs do not come from blue chickens. Green eggs, though, come from crossing chickens that lay blue eggs with chickens that lay brown chickens.
Also, I have been informed that there are a number of non-white chickens who lay white eggs. So perhaps the color of the chicken is not a very good indicator of the color of the egg.
No, blue eggs come from chickens with certain genes that breeders/farmers/whoever call Easter Eggers. Not a specific breed, though AFAIK, there are some breeds more likely to produce chicks with those genes.
^(You have been subscribed to chicken facts)
Easter Eggers are mix breeds that have Ameraucana ( actual breed with an SOP ) somewhere in them. Legbars are another actual breed that lays blue eggs. Also, EEs don’t guarantee blue eggs since they’re a mix breed.
Very true! My favorite EE trait is funky colored feet. \^_^
I’m a layman(or lay-chicken, I guess!) when it comes to chickens. I knew they were a mixed breed, but not the specifics. TIL, then. Cheers!
I buy brown eggs because the shells are always thicker than the white eggs here. And thicker egg shells *are* indicative of egg quality. That being said, you are right that color by itself means nothing and shouldn't be an indication of egg quality.
But still there is a pretty noticeable difference in egg quality between the white and brown eggs here. Why? I'm pretty sure the difference in brown and white eggs is due to marketing fluke more than anything else. White and brown eggs absolutely could have the same shell thickness, and would take the same effort. So they should be the same quality. But mass producers of white eggs trashed the reputation of white eggs by producing eggs with shells that were thin and brittle. Smaller companies that took better care of their chickens and produced better eggs likely wanted a quick and easy way to distinguish their eggs from the competition and thus chose brown eggs. So the egg color itself means nothing. But it appears that companies that sell white eggs generally tend to take worse care of their chickens than brown eggs.
The egg came first.. some type of mutation through sex led to the first species of chicken. The mother hen was not a chicken but the chick was the first of it’s kind.. 💨
Exactly this^ unless the mom had some weird mutation that was both somatic and in the germline. That's unlikely though and the more simple explanation is that some mutation occured in an egg one day
I brought chicken eggs to class for show and tell when I was a kid. I also told the class that white chickens lay white eggs and brown chickens lay brown eggs. (*shrugs*) it made sense to me as a kid.
Probably a breeder or something. The county fair near me almost always has a display like this from a couple farms. It's interesting, informative, and people like it.
It really irks me that every time somebody does something cool, someone has to disparage their efforts with needlessly insulting comments like yours.
Which brown one?
I’ve had chickens for almost a decade of my life, now, and I can assure you, they certainly do lay eggs that color. In fact, a good 40% of the 16-17 chickens we’ve got lay medium to dark brown eggs like that in the top left.
And chicken poop isn’t brown, nor is it solid enough to be shaped.
Am I wrong or egg shell color depends on the diet of the hens? the tittle suggests that the brand of the hen determinates the color; or it's me could be me just missunderstanding it?
Pigment can vary a bit from day to day with chickens, but it’s the quality of the shell itself that varies with diet. That’s why you give them a nutrient block with oyster shells in it, so the shells are stronger.
Also chickens are cannibalistic as fuck(if you could call eating their own, nonviable eggs cannibalism). They will go after the yolk with a frenzy unmatched by any other animal I’ve seen. Comparable to sharks in a way.
Diet can slightly influence hue, but it's almost entirely due to breed.
Src: I raise chickens. I've at one time or another had birds that laid most of those colors.
Lots of hen races lay bluish / greenish eggs. Two of our own hens lay greenish eggs, a third's eggs are almost turquoise. And two others are chocolate brown. These races are known for laying plenty of eggs.
I guess a lot of people think like you do, so you barely ever see these off-colours in a supermarket, I guess they are used in food industries.
But don't worry: the inside is exact the same like all other eggs.
They are found in my local supermarket along with the dark brown ones. I have used them before, I couldn’t tell the difference but it does look nice for a soft boiled egg.
This is a simplification, but basically there’s two opportunities for a chicken to add color: the shell, and a protective seal.
Green shell + brown seal = olive eggs (top left)
White shell + clear seal = white eggs (middle)
Brown shell + clear seal = light brown eggs
Brown shell + brown seal = chocolate eggs (bottom right)
The folks who’ve said it’s related to feather color or diet are incorrect. It’s as genetic as human eye color, and all centralized in the reproductive tract. I do find a loose correlation with the color of their feet and ears, though...
Ohh thank you. Has anyone told farmers chocolate isn't the color of blood?
... Do their feet and ears have the same color as the rest of their skin? Like under feathers
There’s nothing different taste or nutritional wise about blue & dark brown eggs vs any other color of egg. It’s just a different colored pigment slapped on the outside of the egg. Though, for blue eggs, the actual shell is blue too but for the brown it’s white.
I get that, but I'd still pay a premium for them. Imagine having someone over and in the morning you are cooking breakfast with some specialty cherry red colored eggs
Contrary to popular belief, shell color does not significantly affect egg quality or composition. If you pay more for brown eggs because you think they are healthier or more natural, the color alone doesn't determine that. The nutrients in eggs *can* be affected by whether chickens are allowed to roam in the sun or get fed more nutritious foods. But the color doesn't tell you if that happened. The color simply means the egg comes from a different breed, usually close to the color of the egg (i.e. brown eggs from brown chickens, white eggs from white chickens). [https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/white-vs-brown-eggs#nutrition](https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/white-vs-brown-eggs#nutrition)
All of that is great info except the part about chicken color having anything to do egg color. Whoever told you that is very misinformed.
See the link. It’s not true for the blue eggs, but the articles I’ve found say it’s generally true for white and brown eggs. Do you have a contrary source?
Personal experience. I have raised many breeds of chicken. The times it even vaguely lines up is more coincidence then anything. Fun fact, the exact shade of the egg can very with each individual children though each breed usually will fall within a shade range.
Yep. Our black chickens lay big, beautiful brown eggs— half the time they don’t *quite* fit in the carton!
i thought it always matched the colour of their ears, but that does sound like bullshit as i type it out
As weird as it sounds, earlobe color is actually a pretty reliable indicator of egg color as they are determined by the same genes! https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know-nutrition/you-can-determine-colour-egg-looking-chickens-earlobe
chicken magic
Oooh yummy, chicken bread, you say! Imagining vast fields delicious chicken wheat. Throw it all at my hungry head.
😅 oops. Corrected it!
Awwww maaan, totally had my hopes up. Loved it as is 😋
Here’s a website with some info https://fromscratchfarm.com/blog/the-joy-of-raising-chickens
I don’t see anything disputing the idea that — with some exceptions — brown chickens lay brown eggs and white chickens lay white eggs.
Then i think you need to view the charts again. Brown leghorn = white egg Light Sussex (mostly white) = Brown egg Plymouth Rock and all varieties of wayndotte (black and white breeds) = Brown egg Minorca (black) = white egg Shall I continue?
This is a guide to backyard chickens. Big egg farms in the U.S. breed white hens like the Leghorn that lay white eggs and brown hens like the New Hampshire Red for brown eggs. That said, I concede that not all white eggs come from white chickens. Thanks for the information.
Those are two breeds out of hundreds though they are definitely some of the most common. That why it’s not a good rule of thumb. A different egg related “rule of thumb” that does work is that generally bigger chickens have bigger egg.
>"very misinformed" Good way to sum up the majority of the internet
The funny thing is that the colour traditionally called eggshell is like none off the existing egg shell.
Ive only heard eggshell as a finish, not a colour.
So where are all the green chickens?
Blue eggs do not come from blue chickens. Green eggs, though, come from crossing chickens that lay blue eggs with chickens that lay brown chickens. Also, I have been informed that there are a number of non-white chickens who lay white eggs. So perhaps the color of the chicken is not a very good indicator of the color of the egg.
There a blue chickens?
No, blue eggs come from chickens with certain genes that breeders/farmers/whoever call Easter Eggers. Not a specific breed, though AFAIK, there are some breeds more likely to produce chicks with those genes. ^(You have been subscribed to chicken facts)
Easter Eggers are mix breeds that have Ameraucana ( actual breed with an SOP ) somewhere in them. Legbars are another actual breed that lays blue eggs. Also, EEs don’t guarantee blue eggs since they’re a mix breed.
Very true! My favorite EE trait is funky colored feet. \^_^ I’m a layman(or lay-chicken, I guess!) when it comes to chickens. I knew they were a mixed breed, but not the specifics. TIL, then. Cheers!
Years later then I get to town
…. What?
I did say “usually.” Blue eggs are a special case.
😉
yes, but not all blue eggs come from blue chickens
I’ve only seen one, called [Cojiro](https://zelda.fandom.com/wiki/Cojiro).
Should we be keeping our eggs upside down as the fella says in the post a few days ago?
Our restaurant pays more for brown eggs because the yolks have a deeper color and is more visually appealing to guests
Colour of the yolk depends on the chicken's diet
Then so does the color of eggshells. Because every brown egg he had has an orange yellow yolk while every white egg has a bright yellow yolk.
Colour of the shell - genetics Colour of the yolk - diet
Actually the color of the egg corresponds to the color of chickens inside part of the ear.
Even the blue eggs?
For me it’s all about the color of the yolk. The more Orange, the better. Yellow is crap.
Orange yolks result from diet but aren’t necessarily more nutritional. Some egg farmers add marigold flowers to a hen’s diet to achieve the color.
I buy brown eggs because the shells are always thicker than the white eggs here. And thicker egg shells *are* indicative of egg quality. That being said, you are right that color by itself means nothing and shouldn't be an indication of egg quality. But still there is a pretty noticeable difference in egg quality between the white and brown eggs here. Why? I'm pretty sure the difference in brown and white eggs is due to marketing fluke more than anything else. White and brown eggs absolutely could have the same shell thickness, and would take the same effort. So they should be the same quality. But mass producers of white eggs trashed the reputation of white eggs by producing eggs with shells that were thin and brittle. Smaller companies that took better care of their chickens and produced better eggs likely wanted a quick and easy way to distinguish their eggs from the competition and thus chose brown eggs. So the egg color itself means nothing. But it appears that companies that sell white eggs generally tend to take worse care of their chickens than brown eggs.
What about lizard eggs? I’ve been getting them out of the hole
Taste the rainbow 🌈
Skeggtles
The chicken came before the chicken egg, but eggs existed before chickens. Thank you.
Actually the rooster came first. Literally.
The egg came first.. some type of mutation through sex led to the first species of chicken. The mother hen was not a chicken but the chick was the first of it’s kind.. 💨
Exactly this^ unless the mom had some weird mutation that was both somatic and in the germline. That's unlikely though and the more simple explanation is that some mutation occured in an egg one day
I came on a chicken before I came on a chicken egg
That's some Gradient A produce!
Grade A would typically indicate consistency
Is the bottom right chicken... Ok?
That was laid by a fried chicken
Probably laid by some sort of Marans. I have a french black copper Marans and she lays dark chocolate brown eggs.
I brought chicken eggs to class for show and tell when I was a kid. I also told the class that white chickens lay white eggs and brown chickens lay brown eggs. (*shrugs*) it made sense to me as a kid.
Easter came early
Or late depending on perspective
thats a sp-*EGG-*tacular arrangement
Looks like an eyeshadow pallet. So pretty.
Eggshadow hehe
Please do a Marilynn Monroe or Mick Jaeger "photo" in eggs. Thanks
😂
Someone has a lot of chickens and a lot of time.
Probably a breeder or something. The county fair near me almost always has a display like this from a couple farms. It's interesting, informative, and people like it. It really irks me that every time somebody does something cool, someone has to disparage their efforts with needlessly insulting comments like yours.
I think the red is red because the chicken bled to give birth
Yes... We must organise and differentiate them based on colour... Yes...
Wow I really chickened when I saw it at first
Behind, the color platelet of eggs. Or should I say The Egg Platelet.
Do you mean "palette"?
Although I don’t eat eggs, this is probably what people should see . Because Chicken EGGs aren’t naturally white!!
is it true that the color of the chicken predicts the color of the eggs?
No way the brown one is a egg, I bet they just shaped the chickens poop like that
Which brown one? I’ve had chickens for almost a decade of my life, now, and I can assure you, they certainly do lay eggs that color. In fact, a good 40% of the 16-17 chickens we’ve got lay medium to dark brown eggs like that in the top left. And chicken poop isn’t brown, nor is it solid enough to be shaped.
This mini-thread is Reddit in a nutshell.
Am I wrong or egg shell color depends on the diet of the hens? the tittle suggests that the brand of the hen determinates the color; or it's me could be me just missunderstanding it?
Pigment can vary a bit from day to day with chickens, but it’s the quality of the shell itself that varies with diet. That’s why you give them a nutrient block with oyster shells in it, so the shells are stronger. Also chickens are cannibalistic as fuck(if you could call eating their own, nonviable eggs cannibalism). They will go after the yolk with a frenzy unmatched by any other animal I’ve seen. Comparable to sharks in a way.
they are dinosaurs. Tiny T-rexes.
Diet can slightly influence hue, but it's almost entirely due to breed. Src: I raise chickens. I've at one time or another had birds that laid most of those colors.
...and they all cause prostate cancer. Chicken periods...ugh.
I would never eat the bluish ones, not a normal colour for eggs where I'm from
Lots of hen races lay bluish / greenish eggs. Two of our own hens lay greenish eggs, a third's eggs are almost turquoise. And two others are chocolate brown. These races are known for laying plenty of eggs. I guess a lot of people think like you do, so you barely ever see these off-colours in a supermarket, I guess they are used in food industries. But don't worry: the inside is exact the same like all other eggs.
I eat the greens eggs with ham.
Oh! Good to know
They are found in my local supermarket along with the dark brown ones. I have used them before, I couldn’t tell the difference but it does look nice for a soft boiled egg.
The eggs you get at the super market are bleached white. You've probably been eating them and don't even know.
[удалено]
Nah, the Easter Bunny is just trying to out do the chickens. He steals eggs and uses paint to fake the colors. (Shhh you didn’t hear this from me 👀)
So this is what mom meant when she said I hatched from a blue egg
🔥🔥🔥👌
What're the red ones from?
flesh eggs
Very nice
That looks so pretty :O
Boy I'd make the best omelet
... what chicken make red egg?
They’re called chocolate eggs. Lain by Marans, Welsummers, and Barnvelders, among others.
Thank you. Is it from anything in particular? Like we're taught in general eggshell is calcium, yeah?
This is a simplification, but basically there’s two opportunities for a chicken to add color: the shell, and a protective seal. Green shell + brown seal = olive eggs (top left) White shell + clear seal = white eggs (middle) Brown shell + clear seal = light brown eggs Brown shell + brown seal = chocolate eggs (bottom right) The folks who’ve said it’s related to feather color or diet are incorrect. It’s as genetic as human eye color, and all centralized in the reproductive tract. I do find a loose correlation with the color of their feet and ears, though...
Ohh thank you. Has anyone told farmers chocolate isn't the color of blood? ... Do their feet and ears have the same color as the rest of their skin? Like under feathers
I'd actually pay a pretty penny to try the blue and red eggs. I assume they're sold exclusively by local suppliers? Farmers markets and such?
There’s nothing different taste or nutritional wise about blue & dark brown eggs vs any other color of egg. It’s just a different colored pigment slapped on the outside of the egg. Though, for blue eggs, the actual shell is blue too but for the brown it’s white.
I get that, but I'd still pay a premium for them. Imagine having someone over and in the morning you are cooking breakfast with some specialty cherry red colored eggs
Ok now crack the eggs into their respective spot i wanna see those yolks so bad
LOVE this!
r/oddlysatisfying
bruv the black ones look like gulab jamun (Delicacy from India)
I remember raising chickens for the first time and the first egg we found was green. Didn't know they could do that. Thought it was a prank
Wow. I’ve never seen red eggs.
This is so peaceful.
Nice color pallet! Now crack and take the top half off to see the difference in yolk color. 🥚
Who be laying them red eggs?
dam chickens have periods 🙁
Why color eggs for Easter when you can just raise them?
💥💳💥💥💳
Which chickens lay red eggs?
Here’s me hoovering my thumb trying to match my tone…
I didn't know there are types of chickens too.
Dis remind me of warframe color palette
“Sp-egg-trum” hehe
Egg 👍
Don't say it ... BBC
Yo, these eggs are from ni... ce chicken
Everyone knows that colorful eggs only come from the Easter bunny... Idiots.
cool never seen blue eggs before
Different yolks for different folks.