Make up your mind

[redheadfarmer]

We recently added 3 chickens to our flock...a black sex link, red sex link and a white mutt. On day 2 they all laid eggs. I got a darker brown, lighter brown and white egg so I thought it would be easy to guess who was laying. We haven't had another white egg since then (almost 10 days ago) and we are consistently getting 2 brown eggs although the colour appears to be pretty consistent. I assumed that the 2 sex links were responsible. The tonight we got a third egg out of the pen...so my question is this:

Can a white chicken lay a white egg on one day and then a light brown egg on all other occasions? I don't know what they were getting to eat at their old place, but everyone is getting layer mash, pumpkin and squash and cracked corn now.

Thanks

 

[ChicKat]

Generally chicken egg color doesn't change much. Sometimes the earlobe of a chicken can signal the egg color (there are exceptions). If your white chicken has a white earlobe then probably white eggs, if red, then probably brown eggs. Both your sexlinks are brown layers most likely. When a chicken first starts, sometimes the egg mechanisms need a little shakedown cruise to get it right. It could be all three are brown layers, but the brown coating didn't produce on that first white egg.

on my BYC page, I have a pretty good close up of a white chicken with a white earlobe if you go to the jottings. It looks like white leather. She is a pretty prolific white-egg layer. If you can determine the breed of your white hen...it may help you know what to expect, but if she is a mixture, then it could be a roll of the dice. .......