ok, what does it mean (if anything) if a brown egg is lightly specked with white? what is the difference in a barred rock egg and a buff orpington egg? they both are brown.
Hey there. I have a barred rock that lays light brown that are often speckled with brown, a Wyandotte that's eggs have little bumps all over them, and our BO lays darker brown eggs that have little wrinkles at the narrow end. Don't have any idea why our hens lay eggs that are "imperfect". I like to think of it as like the organic vegetables I produce, "the imperfections" just mean it was raised naturally. If the hen is healthy, don't worry about imperfections and enjoy!
I have 3 buff orpingtons. One lays an egg speckled in white, one lays an egg with tan "egg bits" on it, and one lays an egg with a "ring" around it. It's as though the egg starts out one size and halfway through ends up a bit smaller. Just means they're individuals, I suppose.
My understanding is that egg shells are two colors: white and blue. Brown eggs have white shells that are "painted" with brown at the end of the egg laying process. Sometimes this brown "paint" doesn't get evenly distributed so you see the white shell coming through the brown. I have mostly "brown" egg layers, but all of their eggs, at least by breed, are different from one another. My Golden Comet eggs look like your typical store bought brown eggs, my Cherry Eggers are much lighter, almost like coffee with a lot of cream, and my Cuckoo Marans eggs are darker, more orange even, though I had hoped they would be really dark.
It doesn't mean anything except that they're young girls and putting some excess calcium bits on their eggs. It's perfectly normal and in most cases will stop as they get older. Buff Orpington and Barred Rock eggs are practically the same. Both are supposed to be a brown color, but vary a lot in most cases, especially hatchery birds.
The brown is an applied color over a white shell. If you have white speckles it can be white showing through or it could be calcium deposits which would be sort of like grains of sand on the outside of the egg which you can scratch off with your fingernail. The ,past likely cause though is just a heavy bloom layer. Does the white wipe off with warm water leaving brown behind? If so, it's just heavy bloom.
