Why are my white chickens laying brown eggs ?

[poopnroost]

any idea if my hen on the right could be having a problem ?? she secludes herself from the others and that hump thing is still there Im not sure if its the way she stands but she isnt acting right either although she will still walk around but seems to waddle more

 

[yo burrill]

Way to little to late but your hen was egg bound. Warm baths and rub mineral oil on the vent to help the egg pass.

 

[chicken farmer]

I have a white hen that lays brown eggs as well. Not sure what kind she is, but from the TSC list of possible pullets, I think she's a Tetra Tint. She's our favorite girl, and here's her picture:

What breed of chicken is this....anyone???

 

[Chicks Galore3]

It looks like a white rock or maybe a leghorn to me.

 

[JanetS]

Warm bath with Epsom salt. Also give her some olive oil. This usually gets things moving. She probably has a soft shell egg that she's having a hard time getting out. I've had this problem with my hens before. I learned to be more careful with what treats we feed them and they've been doing much better. I have 2 white chickens but they both lay white eggs. Good luck.

 

[NYREDS]

It's not the color of their feathers that dictates the color of the egg, but the color of their ears. Red ears lay brown eggs, white ears lay white eggs.

True except when it's not. White & Barred Hollands have red ear-lobes & lay white eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

It's not the color of their feathers that dictates the color of the egg, but the color of their ears. Red ears lay brown eggs, white ears lay white eggs.

True except when it's not. White & Barred Hollands have red ear-lobes & lay white eggs.

Isn’t it amazing how myth and mythology take hold and never go away? That's a real popular myth on this forum.

There is no genetic link between ear lobe color and egg shell color, white, brown, blue, or green. A lot of chicken breeds do follow that which is probably where the myth started, but you can look through Henderson’s Breed Chart and find several examples where this is just not true with purebred hens, not just the Hollands. When you start crossbreeding and dealing with mutts, it’s not even close to true.

Henderson’s Breed Chart
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

 

[aoxa]

Isn’t it amazing how myth and mythology take hold and never go away? That's a real popular myth on this forum.

There is no genetic link between ear lobe color and egg shell color, white, brown, blue, or green. A lot of chicken breeds do follow that which is probably where the myth started, but you can look through Henderson’s Breed Chart and find several examples where this is just not true with purebred hens, not just the Hollands. When you start crossbreeding and dealing with mutts, it’s not even close to true.

Henderson’s Breed Chart
http://www.ithaca.edu/staff/jhenderson/chooks/chooks.html

I'm glad you brought that up, because I was going to. I have had a few mutts with white earlobes who laid brown eggs. Also, there are hens with blue earlobes that lay tinted eggs (would that be considered white or brown? I'd lean more towards brown).

 

[larcie]

Stupid thing to ask but can the colour of the egg a chicken lays change? I have a white sumatra who up until now laid small white eggs. Now I'm finding tiny light drown eggs, the rest of my flock lay green,mid drown or maroon coloured eggs.

 

[Ridgerunner]

No a hen cannot change the basic color of her eggs. If she lays white, she lays white. If she lays brown, she lays brown. If she lays blue, she lays blue. If she lays green, she lays green. That’s genetic. The material for all those colors come from recycled dead red blood cells, so she never runs out of raw materials.

That’s the simple answer. Now a more realistic one. A white egg will stay white. A blue egg will stay blue. But the shade of brown and green can change. Brown or green is simply the addition of brown to a white or blue egg. Think of it like this.

White + no brown = white
White + brown = brown.
Blue + no brown = blue.
Blue + brown = green.

The shade of brown can change. Typically the longer a hen lays since a molt or start of laying the lighter the brown will be. I’m not sure why. The basic raw material is there but I think she stores up something as a catalyst when she is not laying and that gets gradually used up the longer and more frequent she lays.

Most brown is added after the egg is formed. You can usually scratch off the brown and fine white or blue underneath. If the egg is laid early before the brown is totally put on the egg, it can be lighter than normal. Sometimes an egg that is normally dark brown can be almost white. This is pretty rare but some kind of stress might cause her to pop it out early.

Occasionally a hen lays an unusually small or unusually large egg but she only makes a certain amount of brown pigment per day. A small egg may be really dark and a large egg may be unusually light because of how thick that brown is spread.

Now to your specific case. Your Sumatra lays a white egg. She is not going to lay a brown egg. If you find one strange egg, one of your other hens probably had an “oops” egg. If you are regularly finding a small light brown egg, one of your hens has just started laying. Expect the eggs to get larger over time but don’t expect them to get darker.