When I read through the journal notes of Dorking breeders in England in the late 1800's/early 1900's, one of the criteria they used in judging the "pureness" of a Dorking was the color of the egg. The eggs were not expected to be pure (Leghorn) white, but if they were anything more than lightly tinted the hen was suspected of having some mixed genetics.
This became a huge issue because the judges at the local fairs started putting too much emphasis on size, and not enough on the other characteristics of the Dorkings. So to win, and thus be able to sell their stock at a higher price, farmers started crossing their birds with the larger Asiatic breeds. Apparently it became so bad in some areas that birds of obvious mixed breeding were still winning the Dorking ribbons. That worked great for a few decades, until the Dorking blood became diluted enough that the meat became coarser. Then demand fell, and prices with it. Very few purebred flocks were left, and the ones that were laid ivory white to very lightly tinted eggs. Most of the mixed flocks had more heavily tinted eggs. So breeding quality hens (and their clutchmate roosters) were often sold after they started laying to improve their price.
I only have seven Dorking hens, which is not enough to be statistically significant, but I have noticed that egg color in my small group does correspond to the overall quality of the bird. The hens with the heavy cinderblock frames on shorter legs lay ivory eggs that are largish medium to large size, whereas the thinner birds with the longer legs lay lightly to medium tinted eggs that are large to jumbo size. Again, not statistically significant with such small numbers, but maybe something for people with larger flocks to watch for???
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