Who laid this egg? Dark brown!

[WyoChick1]

Our 20 week old flock just started laying. We've had a lot of these green eggs already, from the Easter eggers. We've had 2 of the light brown, pretty sure from the Barred Plymouth Rock. Today we got our first dark brown egg and I didn't expect that! Would that be our ISA Brown, perhaps? Or New Hampshire Red?

I don't think the Buff Orpington or the Favorelle are laying yet.

 

[sybonbon]

ISA or RIR could lay those. My ISA or Comets laid the brown one.

 

[WyoChick1]

Our Isa Brown is extremely squatty for us lately, so I bet it's her!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Our 20 week old flock just started laying. We've had a lot of these green eggs already, from the Easter eggers. We've had 2 of the light brown, pretty sure from the Barred Plymouth Rock. Today we got our first dark brown egg and I didn't expect that! Would that be our ISA Brown, perhaps? Or New Hampshire Red?
I don't think the Buff Orpington or the Favorelle are laying yet.

The problem is that brown egg layers are supposed to lay a certain shade of brown by breed but they don't. That shade of brown can vary a lot. If the breeder uses the shade of the egg as part of the criteria for picking which chickens get to breed then in a few generations the egg shell color and shade can be fairly consistent within a flock. The breeder is more likely to choose for feather color and pattern, comb type, body size and conformation, leg color, and all the things that makes them look like that breed than they are to use egg color. As a result you can get a wide variety of egg shell colors of the same breed.

You have something else going on. When they first start to lay the eggs are going to be as dark a brown as they will ever lay. The longer they lay the lighter the eggs often become. The eggs gradually get larger so if the pullet makes the same amount of brown pigment it is spread on thinner so the egg looks lighter. Also it seems that when a pullet is getting ready to lay or a hen stops laying to molt she builds up a reserve of the brown. The longer they lay the lighter the eggs become even if they don't get much larger. By the end of the laying season some light brown eggs can start looking almost white.

It's hard to use egg shell color to know exactly which hen or pullet is laying it but sometimes you can get some good clues. So get ready for a very interesting looking egg basket than can change a bit over time. Yours should be pretty.

 

[Whigru]

Looks like the shade I got from my ISA so could be her!

 

[GirlsHuntToo]

ISA brown laid it

 

[Clucks and Giggles]

My Commercial Red lays eggs exactly that color and sheen, and they are extra large in size.