Egg color???

[henmommy]

I have 14 hens born this spring. Many have started to lay within the last week. My question is based on egg color can I determine who is laying? I have two EE's, so that's easy. I am getting 1-2 med. greens eggs a day. I was getting a nice dark brown large from my RIR, but appears to have gotten lighter over the last few days. Does that happen? The rest of the eggs I am getting are light-pale brown, also large. Are those coming from my BO's or BR's? My other hens are California Whites. I am getting 1 small white egg a day. Any info. would be appreciated! Thank you!

 

[redoak]

Egg color from my 6 buff orpington hens doesn't vary much. I do have one hen that lays a very dark brown egg compared to the other hens. Egg shape and size does vary day to day. Sometimes the same hen will lay a small round egg and other days she will lay a large long egg.

 

[gritsar]

Hi Henmommy!
If you haven't seen it already, you can look at this chart which will tell you the approximate color to expect from each breed:

http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

The color can vary in darkness from hen to hen in the same breed and even from the same hen. I only have one breed but get everything from dark brown to pale pink from them.
The small egg is most likely a new layer.

 

[Lee]

My two NH Reds are like 2 peas in a pod, yet one lays a light brown egg and the other one about 2 shades darker. And they are identical in shape and size.

 

[henmommy]

Thank you, Gritsar! Very helpful link. I am thinking the pale brown egg is coming from one of the Barred Rocks.

 

[bkbuz1987]

My BO's all lay different shades, I am now able to tell who layed which egg because one lays an almost pink egg, one lays a taupe color, one a light brown, and the last a med brown.

Even my two RIR lay different colors, one is a perfect large brown egg every day and the other is light brown with spots on the top.

My Ameraucanas keep playing games with me (I'm sure I ony have 1 that I can call a true Ameraucana because her Wheaton color is perfect and she lays a Tiffany blue egg) the other three have me wondering because their egg color keeps changing and one, Bertha, is too small.

I was going to ask about color and the ability of the egg color changing almost daily. They go from wonderful blue to sometime olive.