Brown egg color washes off???

[peeplessinNC]

Yesterday at a local farmers' market, I heard a young girl (age 13 or so) tell a customer that the brown color was put on the egg by the chicken as it was laid and that the color could be washed/rubbed off. There was no mention of the chicken's ear colors determining the egg color.

This teen and her mother have been raising chickens for some time. They have Black Austrolops, leghorns, EE, RIR, in their flock. They sold both brown and white eggs - nice size -- I bought a dozen brown from the 6 dozen they had for sale.

Not raising chickens myself yet, I was not going to question her statement, but I had never heard this and wanted to ask the question here. Does the brown wipe/wash off?

 

[Dar]

if i have a stubborn poo spot on my brown eggs that wont come off i will rub a bit harder at the one spot and yes i can get the colour to come off but thats a lot of work


she may be thinking the the bloom make the egg take the colour...

 

[write2caroline]

Do any of you remember the episode of little house on the prarie where Ma is selling her brown eggs to Mrs Olsen and Mrs Olsen won't pay her as much for browns as she pays for white eggs even though some were double yokes and the next day she comes into town with a basket full of white eggs much to the chagrin of Mrs Olsen?

My Grandmother used to do something to the eggs to make hers white too but I can't remember what she did. I think she used vinagar but I really don't remember.

Anyway was thinking about it with the post.

Cal
Jax FL

 

[briesberrypatch]

I have had the brown rub off of eggs if they're rubbed with a wet cloth.

 

[Akane]

Some of the color can be washed off some eggs. Not all brown eggs will get lighter if washed. It's more often that spotted eggs can have the spots or a bit of the color wiped off. It does happen but you can't wash a brown egg to white and many brown eggs won't do it at all. I would guess it might be one particular brown gene that does it. There are many brown genes that cause the variety of shades of brown we can get. There are also occasions where an extra layer of calcium can get laid down over the outside of the egg. When you apply water you will be able to see through the layer of calcium. When the egg dries it will go back to how it was. This can give the appearance of something being washed off the egg and can cause odd colors like purple eggs and odd color changes.