FIND OUT WHICH CHICKEN LAYS THEM!

If you follow us on instagram, you may have seen our photos of all our beautiful coloured eggs. We have so many people asking us which hen lays which coloured eggs and do they have a different taste – so here’s a master class!

A LITTLE MORE INFO ON COLOURED EGGS:

The colour of the shell is down to the genetics of the chicken itself. One hen will lay the same coloured egg throughout her lifetime, although the hue may darken as she gets older and comes to the end of her egg laying cycle.

Even though the colour of the shell differs on the outside, on pretty much all colours, the inside of the shell is white. This isn’t the case with blue eggs though; these are blue all the way through! The colour of the egg doesn’t change the nutrients of the eggs and will all taste the same providing they are all on the same feed in the same environment.

HOW DOES A HEN LAY A COLOURED EGG?

The journey of an egg through the hens oviduct takes approximately 26 hours, the shell takes about 20 of those hours to be complete! Hens that lay the blue eggs have the pigment oocyanin deposited on the egg as it travels through the oviduct. This pigment permeates the shell which enable to shell to be blue all the way through. Hens that lay any other colour of egg deposits the pigment protoporphyrin on the eggs much later in the process which stops it permeating the whole shell, therefore leaving the shell white inside.

EGG COLOURS

So which hen lays which colour egg? We have the following birds in our flock:

BLUE EGGS - CREAM CRESTED LEGBARS

These lovely birds are one of the few varieties that are auto sexing at day old with the males

being distinguishable by being a lighter shade with a yellow spot on their heads and the

females have a darker back and darker stripes. They are a very friendly chicken which do

well free range. They are very much in demand due to them laying blue or olive coloured

eggs, of which they lay around 180 to 200 a year. Hardy, great characters and active foragers and frugal eaters. It is quite unusual for them to go broody.

DARK BROWN EGGS – COPPER FRENCH BLUE MARANS

Copper French Blue Marans are the more friendly and less flighty than our pen of blacks superb specimens and lay the most amazing dark brown eggs. Our stock came from the best Welsh stock available.

DARK BROWN EGGS - COPPER FRENCH BLACK MARANS

The breed are friendly creatures that are very suitable to roam free range or for runs. The hen birds are black with gold edging to their hackle feathers along with some reddish brown on the chest

while the cockbirds have a lovely coppery head, saddle and shoulders. The hens have lightly feathered legs. Our hens lay a lovely dark brown egg which will wow your neighbours, family and friends.