ALL of my eggs are now a different color YES EVEN MY EE's!

[aart]

doesn't talk about why it lessens though!

Yes, but RR knows more...not sure he'll respond to a tag tho.

 

[Ridgerunner]

First, there is one gene pair that determines if the egg shell has a base color of blue or white. Since blue is dominant if just one of those two genes is the blue shell gene, the shell will be blue throughout. If neither is blue, the shell will be white throughout. Most of the time that white will be pure white, but occasionally it will have a slight off-white tint.

A brown egg is simply pigment laid on top of that white base shell. A green egg is brown laid in top of that blue base egg. There are a lot of genes that influence brown, that's why you can get so many different shades of brown or green.

Both the brown color and the blue color are made from recycled red blood cells through chemical reactions inside the hen's body. Red blood cells are always wearing out and dying and the hen is always making new ones. She just recycles the dead ones. Nature does a lot of recycling.

If the hen is depositing any brown on the egg (not a pure white or blue egg) that egg will be darkest right after she starts to lay, either as a pullet or after an adult molt if she is a grown hen. The longer she lays the lighter that brown becomes. One explanation for a pullet's eggs to get lighter so fast is that the eggs increase in size as she lays. The same amount of pigment has to cover a larger egg. Makes sense, but that does not explain why a grown hen's egg will get so light the longer she lays. I don't have a good explanation for that. My guess is that the hen or pullet stores up extra pigment when she is not laying and it runs out as she lays. It's possible she stores up something that acts like a catalyst for that chemical reaction to change red blood cells to brown.

I've had brown egg laying hens start out the laying season laying a fairly dark egg but before they molt they are laying a really light egg. It's not really white when you compare it to a white sheet of paper or a true white egg, but sometimes they get pretty close. Same kind of stuff happens to green eggs.

The egg spends most of the time in the hen’s internal egg factory in the shell gland where the shell is put on around the eggs. If the hen adds brown it’s put on during the las half hour or so before it is laid. If something happens to cause the hen to lay the egg early, she may not have put that brown on it. These are “oops” eggs and are pretty rare. If you get one occasionally it’s no big deal, we are all entitled to an oops every now and then. If it is an everyday occurrence it’s not an oops.

Eggs cannot change from blue to white, it just doesn’t happen. But eggs can get lighter the longer the hen lays. You can occasionally get one that is dramatically different in shade. Just because something is impossible doesn’t mean something else is going on that just looks impossible. I don’t know what is going on. It could be totally normal eggs getting lighter. It could be an oops if it isn’t regular. One thing I often ask in these is whether someone is playing a practical joke on you. Across the internet I just don’t






know.

 

[MysteryChik]

First, there is one gene pair that determines if the egg shell has a base color of blue or white. Since blue is dominant if just one of those two genes is the blue shell gene, the shell will be blue throughout. If neither is blue, the shell will be white throughout. Most of the time that white will be pure white, but occasionally it will have a slight off-white tint.

A brown egg is simply pigment laid on top of that white base shell. A green egg is brown laid in top of that blue base egg. There are a lot of genes that influence brown, that's why you can get so many different shades of brown or green.

Both the brown color and the blue color are made from recycled red blood cells through chemical reactions inside the hen's body. Red blood cells are always wearing out and dying and the hen is always making new ones. She just recycles the dead ones. Nature does a lot of recycling.

If the hen is depositing any brown on the egg (not a pure white or blue egg) that egg will be darkest right after she starts to lay, either as a pullet or after an adult molt if she is a grown hen. The longer she lays the lighter that brown becomes. One explanation for a pullet's eggs to get lighter so fast is that the eggs increase in size as she lays. The same amount of pigment has to cover a larger egg. Makes sense, but that does not explain why a grown hen's egg will get so light the longer she lays. I don't have a good explanation for that. My guess is that the hen or pullet stores up extra pigment when she is not laying and it runs out as she lays. It's possible she stores up something that acts like a catalyst for that chemical reaction to change red blood cells to brown.

I've had brown egg laying hens start out the laying season laying a fairly dark egg but before they molt they are laying a really light egg. It's not really white when you compare it to a white sheet of paper or a true white egg, but sometimes they get pretty close. Same kind of stuff happens to green eggs.

The egg spends most of the time in the hen’s internal egg factory in the shell gland where the shell is put on around the eggs. If the hen adds brown it’s put on during the las half hour or so before it is laid. If something happens to cause the hen to lay the egg early, she may not have put that brown on it. These are “oops” eggs and are pretty rare. If you get one occasionally it’s no big deal, we are all entitled to an oops every now and then. If it is an everyday occurrence it’s not an oops.

Eggs cannot change from blue to white, it just doesn’t happen. But eggs can get lighter the longer the hen lays. You can occasionally get one that is dramatically different in shade. Just because something is impossible doesn’t mean something else is going on that just looks impossible. I don’t know what is going on. It could be totally normal eggs getting lighter. It could be an oops if it isn’t regular. One thing I often ask in these is whether someone is playing a practical joke on you. Across the internet I just don’t






know.

Thank you that is a lot of very great information! you really know your stuff! I took a pic of one of my white eggs today, and you are correct. it isn't as WHITE As I thought when I put it on a styrofoam plate! But (and maybe it is my eyes) but I don't see any shade of the green or blue I was getting from them before, if anything maybe a peach tint? Please I'd love your advice. I wish I had taken more pics of my green eggs, and my blue ones that I was getting. But I didn't unfortunately so I only have the pic i posted previously, and this is what they look like now. I'm not sure if this egg is from one of my two "green layers" or my one blue layer...

 

[aart]

Nope, doesn't look blue at all...guessing it did not come from one of your EE's.

 

[MysteryChik]

Nope, doesn't look blue at all...guessing it did not come from one of your EE's.

Thats what makes NO sense. It did come from one of them. When I noticed I stopped getting colored eggs, I took my 3 EE's .. (2 layed green and one layed blue) and took them AWAY From all my other hens. In their own coop. This is the only egg I am getting from those three. NO way it could be from one of the other hens.. only 3 have access to this coop, and laying box.. this is why i am so confused!! Not only did I stop getting colored eggs pretty much within a week, It appeared as though maybe only one of those three were laying.. Which is why I separated them. I thought.. "well maybe the hens are noticing the eggs are a different color and are pecking and eating them before I can collect".. (stupid I know but I'm still learning) So I knew if I separated I could get to the bottom of it.. and this is the outcome. I'm so confused, so I know you guys probably are too!

 

[Ridgerunner]

I have no reasonable rational explanation for that. If that is from one of your colored egg layers my guess is that the inside of the shell should be the same color as the outside, not a true white.

Are you absolutely sure no one is playing a practical joke in you?

 

[aart]

When I noticed I stopped getting colored eggs, I took my 3 EE's .. (2 layed green and one layed blue) and took them AWAY From all my other hens. In their own coop.

Or maybe you had the wrong egg attributed to the wrong bird before the separation?

 

[Ridgerunner]

That finally occurred to me also, three hens laying colored eggs, three hens locked up. Is it the correct three?

 

[MysteryChik]

I have no reasonable rational explanation for that. If that is from one of your colored egg layers my guess is that the inside of the shell should be the same color as the outside, not a true white.

Are you absolutely sure no one is playing a practical joke in you?

I really don't think anyone is playing a joke on me but I guess you never know. I just know I loved my colored eggs and now I don't get them anymore! But I'm positive this is from one of my colored egg layers. I THINK it may be from one of my green layers. My other "EE" was actually sold to me from a feed store as a buff orpington but when her feet ended up looking green rather than yellow, and she had more white on her than my other buffs, I put a pic of her on her and everyone told me she was an EE. When she finally started laying hers we're the pretty blue one.

 

[MysteryChik]

Or maybe you had the wrong egg attributed to the wrong bird before the separation?

With the kinds of birds all my others are, they don't lay diff colored eggs. Just variations of brown and the pinkish browns