I boiled the brown right off my eggs!!!

[mamabigbird]

The color on a brown egg is just that, color. It's one of the last steps in the production process. I suppose the vinegar loosened it. A blue egg is blue all the way through.

Are you sure about the blue eggs? Mine look white on the inside just like the brown ones.

 

[Maggie C]

I gonna wash that grey right outta my hair,wash that grey right outta my hair.........oops.... wrong thread.

 

[Jan54]

Ok, so I'm new to the raising chickens and egg laying business and found this thread. I was washing the eggs tonight (I usually use a baby wipe) and noticed the brown came off. Used no vinegar but I'm wondering if the alcohol in the wipey caused the brown to come off maybe?

 

[revkenq]

Today we hard boiled some FRESH eggs from our chickens - fresh as in laid today. In the past peeling hard boiled fresh eggs has been a pain so we looked up some tricks to make them easier to peel. We saw a lot of comments about two solutions - adding vinegar to the water, and adding salt to the water while boiling. So we figured, we'll do both.

When I checked to see if the water with the eggs had come to a boil I noticed some little brown specks floating in the water. I thought it was odd and asked my wife if the pot had been clean to begin with. We figured since vinegar is a good cleaner, perhaps it dissolved some cooking oils that regular washing hadn't been able to remove from the pot.

These are brown eggs. And as I ran cold water over them after they were cooked, I noticed they looked odd and started rubbing them with my thumb AND THE BROWN CAME OFF! IT CAME COMPLETELY OFF. I rubbed some more and before long I had a white egg shell.

Can someone please explain what happened?

Thanks

-rainy

 

[sweaterthebroodyrooster]

All egg shells are either white or blue. The hen colors the shell before laying.

Are you sure about the blue eggs? Mine look white on the inside just like the brown ones.

What breed of blue layers do you have? Only some breeds lay the blue shell. Most are just 'painted'

 

[revkenq]

Today we hard boiled some FRESH eggs from our chickens - fresh as in laid today. In the past peeling hard boiled fresh eggs has been a pain so we looked up some tricks to make them easier to peel. We saw a lot of comments about two solutions - adding vinegar to the water, and adding salt to the water while boiling. So we figured, we'll do both.

When I checked to see if the water with the eggs had come to a boil I noticed some little brown specks floating in the water. I thought it was odd and asked my wife if the pot had been clean to begin with. We figured since vinegar is a good cleaner, perhaps it dissolved some cooking oils that regular washing hadn't been able to remove from the pot.

These are brown eggs. And as I ran cold water over them after they were cooked, I noticed they looked odd and started rubbing them with my thumb AND THE BROWN CAME OFF! IT CAME COMPLETELY OFF. I rubbed some more and before long I had a white egg shell.

Can someone please explain what happened?

Thanks

-rainy

The process of egg formation takes approximately 26 hours from start to finish. The longest part of the process (approximately 20 hours) is spent in the area of the chicken that forms the shell. Some chicken are "wired" to produce white eggs some brown eggs, even blue egg. Anyway, all egg start out with a white shell. However, for chickens that produce brown eggs the very last thing added to the shell is a pigment. In other words, it sort of like building a house, and the last thing you do is paint it. This is what brown egg laying chickens do. White egg lays chickens (hens actually) skip the paint job and sends the egg on its way. You will notice, that the brown chicken egg is actually white on the inside of the shell, not brown. I hard boil brown eggs nearly every day, but have never seen the brown come off, but then I have never added salt or vinegar to the water and no doubt that acidity is what caused the pigment to come off the egg.

 

[aart]

Are you sure about the blue eggs? Mine look white on the inside just like the brown ones.

Very old post...but....if you peel the inner membranes(which are white) out of the egg immediately after opening(when it's easiest), you'll see the real shell color.

All egg shells are either white or blue.

Correct!

Anyway, all egg start out with a white shell.

Incorrect.


The very basics of egg color:
There are only white and blue shells.
Brown eggs have brown coating on white shells.
Green eggs have brown coating on blue shells.

The brown coating can be very light or very dark, and can vary day to day.
Then the bloom can add another aspect to the egg color.
Pink/purplish eggs are usually from the bloom on a brown egg.