White chickens lay white eggs, and brown chickens lay brown eggs.
Not true! The color of the egg is determined by the color of the hen’s ear lobe. White ear lobes indicate white eggs, and red or pink earlobes indicate brown, blue or green eggs, depending on the breed. Some brown breeds, like Rhode Island Red, will lay brown eggs, but other varieties of brown hens don’t. Cuckoo maran hens, which have black and white speckled feathers, lay dark brown eggs, with shells so dark in color they are called “chocolate” eggs.
So does that mean that green chickens lay green eggs?
Sort of. Araucana hens will lay green, blue, and pinkish beige eggs. They do not have green, blue or pink feathers. Look at their feet! Instead of white, yellow or gray, their feet are blue or green, ranging from pale to deep in color.
Speckled eggshells mean the hen was stressed.
Maybe. Certain breeds consistently lay speckled eggs. Or the dark brown speckles could be tiny flecks of blood that were deposited on the egg as it traveled through the oviduct. It just happens sometimes, no worries. The hen is ok and the egg is good to eat. If a hen is stressed, such as when she is moulting (seasonally shedding feathers) or getting henpecked (ever hear of pecking order? it’s real), she will stop laying eggs for a while.
Farm interns Donna and Jon pack eggs.
A blood speck next to the yolk of an egg means that the egg is fertilized.
Not true! It means that a little bit of blood got inside the shell as the yolk was developing. You can tell if an egg is fertilized only if you hold up the egg to light (candling) to see if an embryo is forming. The egg needs to be incubated in warmth (under the hen in a nest, or in an incubator) for the embryo to develop.
An orange yolk is more nutritious than a yellow yolk.
Mostly true. But, some breeds, like the araucana, lay eggs with a light colored yolk. A deep yellow or orange yolk egg generally comes from a pastured or free range hen, which has a chance to eat a variety of nutritious things, including plants and bugs. Marigolds have carotenoids which make egg yolk color darker. An orange yolked egg is not necessarily fresher than a lighter yolked egg.
Great article. Stunning photography. Thanks!
Hi, glad to see this! We’re working on an egg story for Spring Edible South Florida too… seems with more choices in the markets, there’s more confusion about colors, nutrients, storage…! Nice job.
Oh, what a fun post! A little correction: The Araucana breed can only lay blue eggs. “Easter Eggers,” who are essentially chicken “mutts” with a blue-egg gene somewhere in their family tree, lay blue, greenish, or pinkish eggs.
The Ameraucana breed (an entirely different breed from the Araucana) also lays blue or blueish eggs but never green or pinkish. Most people think their easter eggers are araucanas, but there are some important genetic differences between all three breeds. In the U.S., there are also some important physical differences. True araucanas are still relatively uncommon, as far as I know.
My favorite chicken breed at the moment is the isbar, which lays a moss-green egg. They are dangerously close to extinction but, as of last year, a handful of American breeders received the first imports, so I hope that we eventually see some of these around.
Oooooh, moss green eggs, sounds pretty! Very knowledgeable reply. Do you have chickens, Yvette?
Thanks! Glad to be an inspiration to all you folks over at Edible!