One hen two different colored eggs or two hens?

[DucheneEGG]

Last week my 6 month old chickens started laying eggs. I have 1 barred rock and 1 RIR and 2 americana's. The dark brown ones are all the sane size and same color. I noticed that my rooster kept on joining the barred rock so I figured the dark brown eggs were hers. Then the other day I was home and the barred rock was making a lot of noise and a couple minutes later I check on her and she is sitting on the light brown egg. I had to move her out of the way to get and it was really warm like she just layed it. Today I got one dark brown egg and one light again just like the one I got from the barred rock. So I was wondering if my barred rock is laying two different colored eggs or is my RIR laying the dark brown eggs. I know it's not the americana's because they would be blue or green. Can some one plz explain this mind boggling theory to me? Thank you.

 

[LRH97]

Egg color is linked to breed, therefore a single hen can't change egg color. Different hens of the same breed may have slightly different shades, but you can pretty well tell which eggs are coming from which breed of hen. Also, I've found that my BR's lay lighter colored eggs, so I'd say that the lighter ones are your BR's.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Also a hen may vary the shade or the richness of the color of her eggs because of physical reasons or towards the end of her laying cycle when her pigment stores are low, but like LRH97 posted one hen can never lay a different color egg. All of the eggs in your photo are brown eggs. To lay a pure white egg the hens' ear lobes must be white. To see what I mean look at the brown leghorn picture under "Breeds" in this forum. Or look at the Rosecomb hen's picture currently on the right of this page.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

The pale eggs are from the Barred Rock. The dark eggs are from a RIR. Your EE is most likely not laying yet.

As others have mentioned, the eggs might get paler in color the longer into a laying cycle you go, but they'll never lay a completely different color egg.

Ear color is correlated with egg color, but is not a 100% accurate way to predict egg color. After all, EEs and Ameraucanas usually have red earlobes and lay blue or green eggs, Silkies have blue earlobes and lay white or extremely pale brown eggs, and Penedesencas have white earlobes and lay dark brown eggs.

 

[DucheneEGG]

Thanks to all that answered. I am a newbie to chickens this is my first flock and the first time they layed eggs. I appreciate all the quick replays. It makes sense to me that there's are two breeds laying eggs.