egg color

[BillDuer]

We've had a cold snap and egg production dropping off? Also
color changing from dark brown to almost pink. Feed or
weather or ?

 

[Ridgerunner]

Welcome to the forum! Glad you joined us!

Chickens use pigments to color their egg shells. They get those pigments from what they eat. So a change in diet due to the weather changing could help contribute.

But what I really suspect is that hens recharge their systems when they molt. One of the things with that recharge us that they store up pigment in their system. When they start laying after a molt or when they first start to lay as pullets, the eggs are as dark and brown as they are going to get. Gradually the egg shells become lighter the longer they lay. Just before a molt, I've seen eggs that are almost white, though that hen was laying nice dark brown eggs right after her molt.

If it is just one egg and not a gradual trend, it could be an aboration. The shelll color is the last thing to go on before they lay. If may be she was stressed and the egg popped out quicker than it normally does. It would be whiter than normal.

It could be something else but if it is a gradual trend I'd bet a lot of your money and a tiny bit of mine that she is just using up her stored pigment.