Chick talk Easter: Chickens color the eggs themselves
Chickens lay white and brown eggs, you already knew that. But did you also know that you can tell whether a hen lays brown or white eggs by the color of her earlobes? Hens with white earlobes lay white eggs, while hens with red earlobes lay brown eggs in various shades and... yes... sometimes also green, blue, or olive-colored eggs! While in many households and primary schools, white eggs are painted and decorated in various ways just before Easter, there are chicken breeds that give their eggs a color themselves.
Chicken talk
7 April '23 • 2 min reading time
Brown Eggs
Most chicken breeds with red earlobes lay light brown eggs, sometimes these are almost white, but for example, the Barnevelder lays truly brown eggs and the Welsummer lays brown eggs with dark brown speckles. The French Marans takes the crown with very dark brown eggs. The brown shell color occurs because during shell formation in the oviduct, varying amounts of brown pigment, protoporphyrin, are added.
Blue and Green Eggs
But what about blue and green eggs? Here, too, a pyrrole (dye) plays a role, namely biliverdin, a bile pigment. Hens that lay blue to green eggs carry the gene Oöcyan. This gene is responsible for the green bile pigment ending up in the shells and shell membranes of the eggs. As a result, it acts as a pigment, which in turn results in many different shades of blue and green eggs. We also refer to the hens with this gene as green layers, blue layers, or Easter egg layers.
Dominant Color Gene
Chickens with the gene Oöcyan have inherited it from their parents. Moreover, this gene is also dominant. This means that the chicks of these chickens will most likely lay colored eggs, even if this is a cross with a chicken that lays white or brown eggs. However, there is a significant difference when crossing a chicken with the gene O with a chicken that lays white eggs, or a chicken that lays brown eggs. A cross with a chicken that lays white eggs will produce blue eggs, while a cross with a chicken that lays brown eggs will produce green eggs.
Green is just as tasty
Aside from the color of the eggshell, there is actually no difference between green, blue, white, or brown eggs. The inside is the same as 'normal' eggs and the taste is also the same. Only the eggshell may sometimes be a bit thicker, which reduces the chance of harmful bacteria entering an egg. Unfortunately, the commonly heard remark that green eggs contain less cholesterol is a myth.
Various breeds are color layers
Chicken breeds with the Oöcyan gene include the Araucana (a Chilean hen often with ear tufts and a round tail), the Ameraucana (Araucana from which the ear tufts have been bred out because they are linked to a lethal gene, causing some of the chicks to be non-viable), the Dutch Schijndelaar (bred from the Araucana, the Sumatra hen, the Brabant farmer's hen, and the Leghorn), and the Cream legbar (a Plymouth Rock cross with Leghorn and Araucana).
Olive Layers
A separate group consists of the olive layers. This is not a breed but an F1 cross of green-egg-laying hens with a rooster of a breed that lays dark brown eggs, such as a Marans or Barnevelder rooster. The result is olive-colored or khaki-colored eggs.
Closing
Happy Easter and tap a colored egg! Hans Krudde
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