White Egg Layer

[kylie]

Hi everyone,

I have 16 hens right now and I need some help. 8 are from last summer and have been lying for a while now, but I got 8 more 2 months ago and more of them are starting to lay. They are all red sex links accept for a buff orpington and one I suspect to be a Rhode Island Red. Of the new ones, 4 look like standard red sex link (red and white), 3 are more gold and white, and then there is the all dark red one I think is a Rhode Island. All my old chickens (7 red and white red sex links and the buff orpington) lay brown or tan eggs and so far that's what the new ones have been laying too, but a couple days ago I got a white one. I got two in a row and I haven't gotten another one yet (It's been 2 or 3 days). Any idea which hen could be responsible? I think the three golden hens are a different cross than the red ones but why would they lay white eggs?

Here are the 4 standard new ones

Here are the 3 gold ones

Here is a gold one next to a normal one

Here is the road island red

 

[jamie7100]

Those are all brown egg layers. If the egg in the top picture is your white one, it looks like it is actually a very light brown or tinted one. Doesn't look like a "white" egg.

 

[kylie]

One of them does look very slightly tinted but the other one looked completely white, but you may be right, they could have both beed lightly tinted. Even so, I thought that only certain breeds laid tinted eggs. Can the tinted egg gene just pop up in hybrids bred from brown egg layers?

 

[jamie7100]

I have all standard purebred classic brown egg layers and I get some very light eggs sometimes. My speckled sussex lays the lightest egg of all. I think "tinted" laying breeds are known for their light eggs, but any egg laying chicken breed has variation on the tone of the brown. Even Marans, which lay the dark chocolate egg, have variation on exactly how dark the individuals egg is laid. You should get ahold of a typical white leghorn store bought egg and compare it. We got the kids some for easter egg coloring and realized just how stark white they really are.

 

[kylie]

Thanks jamie, I will.

 

[donrae]

As hens get farther in their laying cycle the color of the eggs can lighten, and then as they age they can lighten. I'd think it's one of your older hens. It may just be a one-time type thing, and she'll go back to normal, or she may lay these light eggs until she molts and resets her system.

 

[kylie]

I don't know, my old hens have been laying scince January uninterrupted, but It could be possible. I actually have a solution, i'm going to put my tracking camera out in the nest (it films when it senses movement). that way I can see exactly which hen is responsible