Of the standard brown egg laying breeds, which breed lays the large darkest brown egg? This is without exception of the Marans, only the standard breed.
All chicken eggs are white on the inside, were the good part of the egg touches the shell. Don't take my word for it, look inside the next brown egg you break out and see for yourself. The color and depth of color on all hen eggs depends on how much pigment she has stored in her body. As the year goes on the color or depth of color will lighten. Furthermore all shell pigment is added two hours or less from the time that the egg is laid. The reason that people covet brown shelled eggs is because the chicken farmers of a 100+ years ago spread the misinformation that if you ate white eggs then all your children would be born butt naked or some other BS. These old timers were set in their ways and instead of staying up with the times they instead looked around for ways to keep their inefficient duel purpose birds. The main reason that brown eggs cost more than white ones is because of the increase in feed costs for feeding brown egg laying hens verses a white shell layer.
I think that "the cost of the feed" depends on the size and breed of the chickens that are eating it, and if they are free ranged or not.
Yep, the inside of many of my Easter Eggers eggs are almost as blue as the outside! I agree with Wellsummers for a pretty bird with a lot of personality and nice, dark brown eggs!
INMO they cost more because they where originally marketed as less common and better than white eggs and that marketing has worked... at one time the white eggs where rare and the more expensive egg, so farmers moved to breeding and improving the white egg layers to get more bucks... now the same energy is being put into brown layers for the same reason. Any chicken breed can have it's laying improved by proper selection or destroyed by improper selection... many breeds where once popular egg layers but have been ignored in this area for generations because they had brown eggs.
That's interesting to get the back story. Odd, how marketing works I think it's funny how a lot of people still think there's a difference between brown and white eggs..Some people assume brown means organic or something. My ex husband wouldn't touch brown eggs if I bought them; he thought they were from dirty chickens lol
Also, white egg layers are Mediterranean birds, with the breeds known for "high production" almost all having big floppy combs. Those birds excel in the south, where they can be raised with far less housing expense compared to the north. Brown egg layers have been preferred in the north. Their combs are a bit smaller, thus less prone to frost bite. Housing for birds in the north is more expensive. Thus cost of production is higher. I may be stepping out on a limb with this theory. But, there has been a geographical preference for white eggs in the south, and brown eggs in the north. I think over the years, this is becoming less so.
