Egg's getting lighter in colour for the entire flock??

[melonplum]

I hope this hasn't already been covered. I did search for it! I have Marans, araucana's & Australorps. All of their eggs have gotten significantly lighter over the last 3 weeks. My beautifully dark Maran eggs are now just a brown. My bright blue araucana's are pale and even my Australorps have gone from cream to almost white what's happening??? They were all hatched at the same time or within 6 weeks of each other at least. I have increased protein and have given them extra shell grit. The only thing that has changed is we had someone watch our rooster for 6 weeks while we organised a crow collar and we got him back in roughly the time their eggs started to go lighter. Although they lightened pretty much the day he arrived and got consistently lighter from there. It wasn't a sudden change in colour. It's been getting more and more obvious over the last few weeks. I will take a photo tomorrow morning of some fresh eggs with some I have kept from 2 weeks ago.

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

It is normal for eggs to lighten up in color as the season progresses. The darkest eggs are the first eggs of each season. So perfectly normal.

 

[melonplum]

I had heard that, but thought it would be a more gradual throughout the season type thing. Not in a couple of weeks? How long is a laying season and when will the next one start? I good my rooster back hoping to sell some fertile eggs but the colour of the Marans is terrible compared to what they were. I don't want people thinking they aren't good quality?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The few Marans I had did lightened up pretty quickly too. I don't know if certain strains don't. Maybe there's a Maran thread on here to ask them about it.

The first laying season can be changeable depending on when they began to lay. Most hens older than a year will quit in the fall to molt and recover than they will begin laying again which would be there second season. Most start back from December to April.

 

[donrae]

How old are they? If they're heading into a molt, it's pretty usual.

 

[Hen o die Hane]

Hi there. I have a similar problem and its very concerning..started out with beautiful buff orpingtons 4yrs ago..they laid pretty brown eggs. A month later a black mixed breed hen joined the flock(she flew into our yard) . 2weeks later my chickens eggs went from medium brown to cream and never changed back. They also had some sneazing for about 2weeks,but otherwise they were in perfect health. Never lost a bird and got 4 eggs a week from 6 ladies. Never replaced the entire flock because none died or ever looks sick and only egg colour has been influenced. All offspring produces the light egg colour- but eggs themselves are perfect with firm whites and dark yellow yolks. The flock has grown to 60 birds,all mixed breed(orpington x australorp x RiR and indigenous strains). We want to start an egg laying business but now egg colour is an issue. The hatchery we use also have the same "symptom" as their eggs are also too light in colour for brown layers. Im concerned because whenever we introduce new birds their pretty brown eggs also change to beige in a few weeks. I am guessing its a sexually transmitted issue..but also wondering if its bronchitus because nearing winter and start if spring theres always a few sneezers but it never lasts longer than a few days and the birds dont act sickly and egg quality stay consistently good. All our birds have been routinely vaccinated against NCD and IB except last year since we had a shortage of vaccine in our area. Al the birds are still in perfect health,baby chicks running around lively and growing uniformly..no sign of lathargy or any kind of illness or deformaty. Would love to hear if anyone else has hada similar experience. Thinking of getting pure breeds in seperate closed environments and then only using their eggs for new stock,but if its contagious like bronchitus then the new chicks will have the same egg colour problem as soon as the come in contact with the "infected" hens.

So Im not sure what to do.The indigenous strains are also suppose to be brown egg layers. They are called Boschvelders-an indigenouse breed bred by a South African. So all in all we are suppose to only have brown to darker brown eggs,yet egg colour ranges from a very light brown to a cream colour and sometimes even an off white.