Why does my chicken lay brown and white eggs?

[tdmason]

I haev a mix hen that layed a brown egg yesterday and a white egg today. She has the red ear lobes and she is for the most part a rhode island red and cochen mix. She is my only hen so I know both of the eggs are hers. She is solid black with a large (for a hen) red crown and has feathers on her feet. The eggs were totally different in color and not just a shade. One is solid paper white and the other is a deep brown. I talked to a couple of people and they had never heard of it so I was just wondering how often it occured. Last year she did the same thing. She will lay normally one egg a day and stays on the same feed and stays in a large chicken coop with tons to eat. I have one rooster but he is in a seperate pen from her. Any ideas because it has me really curious.
Thanks!

 

[ArizonaNessa]

Well a brown egg is nothing more than a white egg with brown pigment. There is a pigmentation process toward the end of the egg cycle. I can't tell ya much more than that about it but maybe she has a glitch in the pigment department

There are only 2 colors of eggshells with chickens...white and blue that's it and that's all. All those other colors come from the pigmentation process.

Brown = white eggshell with pigment
Green = blue eggshell with pigment
White = white shell with absence of pigment
Blue = blue shell with absence of pigment

 

[Over Easy in Adna]

Quote:
It takes 26 to 32 hours for a chicken to lay an egg from the time it laid the last one. You must have something else laying. Chickens only lay one egg a day.

I have 1 (one, singular) hen that lays white eggs. From time to time she will lay 2 white eggs in one day. I will show her your post, I am sure that she would like the extra time to do something else besides sit in the nest box.

 

[stargazer1974]

Quote:
op sais in first post she only has ONE hen

and a roo

do roos secretly lay eggs?

If the OP is new to chickens, they may have an older hen, not realizing that hens grow combs and wattles too, as mentioned above. I'm sorry, but you're not going to have a single hen lay both a brown AND a white egg every day, it just isn't happening.

The OP also says that the rooster is in a separate pen from the hen. So if the rooster is really a hen and laying the other egg, it must be sneaking over to the other pen to do it!

Sneaky Chicken!!!

 

[mistyfeather]

its not that its laying 2 different colors its that the second egg laid usualy doesnt get as much pigment as the first egg, its probably like when a hen lays a double yoker but both yoks , 2 eggs get released but encased in the same shell, with a hen laying two eggs its just 2 being released but one slightly behind the other , hence its not enclosed in the same shell its just ferther behind in the process , it would posibly be an ovary defect causing multiple eggs to be released, however in the pigment process not enough pigment would be present to pigment 2 eggs. hence my friends rir that ocationaly lay 2 eggs the 2nd is much lighter then the first but also smaller as well

 

[Billyj]

I had a similar situation. I have a hen that has been laying for about 3 months now. All of a sudden, she went from brown eggs to white eggs. I also asked and people said I crazy and chickens could not change the color of their eggs. All I know, is I used to get 4 brown eggs a day, and now I get 3 brown and 1 white so someone needs to tell her she can't do that. I don't think she knows.

 

[tdmason]

LOL! That's the same thing I told these people, they said I was crazy and that it belonged to another hen and she was sitting on them. I told them unless a wild hen dug into my pen, layed an egg, and then dug back out, that wasn't possible! LOL! She is really young but she just gets whatever comes out of the fridge, lettuce, cabbage, bread etc, laying crumples and scratch. Who knows! Maybe its a rare breed of Heinz 57! LOL! Do you know what breed your is?

 

[snowflake]

interesting post, you learn something every day. Is she consistent, every other day? THat is cool!

 

[tdmason]

Yeah, she is keeping it up now and laying two a day one white and the other either creme or brown. It's different but at least I am getting some eggs out of it! LOL

 

[bigstack]

Well, This is a lil off topic but... I have argued with people for years! They all say an egg is an egg is an egg!!!! only the shell color is different! BULL!!!!!!!! My dad can eat a brown egg and have nothing happen. But if he eats a white egg he is sick in less than 5 minutes!!! We have experimented! We took 2 eggs 1 white and 1 brown. Both fried in the same pan same grease ( bacon) We even tried cooking them in the reverse order! Every single time he eats the white egg, He gets sick!!! We did not tell him which was which before he ate them! NO matter how they are cooked, every single time he eats a white egg he is sick in less than 5 minutes! Now of course we never tried them from the same chicken! LOL But this is very interesting. I hosetly don't know what the cause is or what the chemical difference is, but every one says there is NO difference in them except for the shell! Then you explain why they make him sick! even when he does not know which is which!

Sorry didn't mean to hijack but this just brought up an old arguement! LOL

God Bless!