Add Some Colour To Your Egg Basket

For those that only buy eggs from a supermarket it would be easy to believe that eggs only come in two colours; brown and white (and some may also assume the brown ones are healthier – not true). In fact there is a wide range of colour variety between the different breeds and you can end up with a very colourful egg basket if you pick and choose your breeds for the colour of their eggs.

In a lot of cases you can get an idea of what colour eggs will be laid by looking at the colour of their earlobes. For instance there are several colour varieties of the leghorn breed of chicken but they all have white earlobes and lay white eggs. Sadly one of the exceptions to the ear lobe rule are silkies who have metalic blue earlobes but lay a pale egg (metalic blue would have been great!)

Here are the eggshell colours of some of the most common chicken breeds:

Ameracauna: blue to blue-green
Ancona: white to cream
Australorp: brown
Easter Eggers (a hybrid breed bred from Ameracaunas) : blues, greens, pinks etc.
Leghorn: white
Marans : brown, chocolate brown
Orpington: brown
Plymouth Rock: light to medium brown
Rhode Island: medium brown
Silkie Bantam: light (whiteish, beige, pinkish, creamy)
Wyandotte: light, medium, or dark brown

While the eggshell color has everything to do with your chickens’ breed, the color of the yolk has everything to do with what your chickens eat. One very noticeable thing to those who first start eating their own fresh home grown eggs is the colour of the yolk – so much darker and orangey. This is because chickens that are allowed to free range eat a wider variety of plants and grubs. It is not altogether surprising that healthier chickens that are enjoying a wide range of foods and able to enjoy some fresh air and exercise lay healthier eggs. Eggs from free range chickens reportedly have less cholesterol, more omega-3 fatty acids, and more vitamin A and E than eggs with paler yolks. So if you want stronger yolk colours let your girls forage for grass and grubs and you will soon see (and taste) the difference 🙂