# Coloured eggs, not Easter



## bullseye (Sep 15, 2006)

A neighbour of mine has given me a dozen free-range chicken eggs from her own chickens; they are extraordinarily vari-coloured.  The shells are red, pink, blue(ish), green, and brown/tan.  I think that these eggs can be used as any other egg.  What can I expect, colour-wise, from whatever I cook with them?


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## pdswife (Sep 15, 2006)

From the little I know about eggs...( correct me if I'm wrong, it happens once ever hundred years or so) they are all the same on the inside.

Just the shells are colored differently.


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## Gretchen (Sep 15, 2006)

Yes, they are "eggs" from chickens that lay colored eggs.


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## Michael in FtW (Sep 15, 2006)

The color of the shell has nothing to do with what you will find inside - they all have a yellow yolk and a mostly clear white ... same as white eggs. What will make the yolks darker (from pale yellow to sometimes almost an orange color) and richer tasting is a matter of their diet. They all cook the same.

The color variations of the shells come from the breed of chicken.


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## Shunka (Sep 15, 2006)

Araconda chickens are the ones that lay the different color shelled eggs. The eggs are just like any other chicken eggs.


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## bullseye (Sep 15, 2006)

Thanks; I thought so, but you guys are such a great resource, I thought I'd check with the experts.  Thannks!


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## Michael in FtW (Sep 15, 2006)

Just for grins - here is an Eggshell Colour by Breed of Hen chart.


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## bullseye (Sep 15, 2006)

Michael in FtW said:
			
		

> Just for grins - here is an Eggshell Colour by Breed of Hen chart.


 Holy moly!  I thought I was egg-aware, buying free-range in various shades of white and brown.  Who knew?


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## VeraBlue (Sep 15, 2006)

From my understanding, the colour of the shell is a direct response to the type of feed.  The innards of the egg will be as you expect.


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## Caine (Sep 15, 2006)

VeraBlue said:
			
		

> From my understanding, the colour of the shell is a direct response to the type of feed. The innards of the egg will be as you expect.


 
Except the blue ones have chocolate candies inside!


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## bullseye (Sep 15, 2006)

Caine said:
			
		

> Except the blue ones have chocolate candies inside!


I've got two blues.  They're now for my omelette tomorrow!


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## pdswife (Sep 15, 2006)

chocolate omelettes... um... lol...


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## Michael in FtW (Sep 17, 2006)

VeraBlue said:
			
		

> From my understanding, the colour of the shell is a direct response to the type of feed. The innards of the egg will be as you expect.


 
Actually - primarily the shell color is from the breed, although feed might make a minimal difference in intensity or shade ... but feed differences are most pronounced in the color of the yolk (from pale yellow to golden orange). And, the color of the shell is no indication of the color of yolk inside.

Trivia - I first heard this when I was a kid (I really always thought my uncle was pulling my leg - he had an egg farm) - but if you want to know what color eggs a hen will lay - check the color of her ears. I recently ran across the same information in _CookWise_ by Shirley Corriher.


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## Gayle (Sep 17, 2006)

Feed has no effect on the color of the shell whatsoever. The more natural the feed (ie: bugs, lizards, plants, etc) the deeper the color of the yolk. The color of the shell depends entirely on the breed of hen. 

I raise Araucanas who lay shades of blue, green, pink, brown, and, occasionally, white eggs. I, also, raise Buff Orpingtons who lay various shades of brown - from very light, almost white, to deep, rich brown. 

A way to tell if the egg is fresh, once you break it, see how high the white (yes, the _white_) of the egg stands up. It should not run much, except near the edges. The whites of my eggs stand higher than the yolks of store-bought eggs.


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## Lynan (Sep 17, 2006)

Wow!! Naturally coloured eggs how cool is that? 

I remember when I was around 4 or 5 years old being taken to the ' City' just before Easter and being totally blown away by Woolworths window display. There were a few hundred live chicks cheeping away on a very large bed of straw. But....they were pink, blue, green and all the colours inbetween!!! Now we know that these days there is NO WAY we are gonna see that again but it was so magical for a wee girl!
I have since found out the shell is injected with a food dye and did not harm the chicks. They all looked pretty happy to me!!  

Sorry, nothing to do with eggs but we all know what came first right!!! 

lolol


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## Constance (Sep 17, 2006)

They used to dye the chicks when I was a little girl, too, Lynan, but that's been outlawed a long time ago here in the States. I think it was more a problem of giving them to little kids for toys than the dye thing. You how how toddlers torture animals. 

I had a dear friend, sort of an adopted mother, who had the prettiest, cleansest chickens I ever saw. Some of chickens were the special breeds that lay "Easter Eggs". The colors were quite pastel, but very pretty. All of her chickens laid double yolked eggs much of the time. That, I understand, is from the diet.


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## BreezyCooking (Sep 17, 2006)

Constance - it's an unfortunate fact that the practice of selling dyed chicks & ducklings has definitely NOT been outlawed in the U.S.  While there may be individual states where it is not allowed, this cruel & unfortunate practice continues, apparently due to the morons who find this "cute & endearing" instead of barbaric & continue to purchase them.

The Ideal Poultry Breeding Farm in Cameron, Texas, is one such hatchery who continues this practice.  They sell both dyed chicks & ducklings for Easter.  How very very sad that the state of Texas allows this, but the humane society I corresponded with there said that there's nothing they can do outside of discouraging people from buying them.  The dying (which in itself is supposedly nontoxic) is meant to encourage people to purchase these babies on "impulse", rather than researching exactly what it takes to keep them properly, & only adds to the after-Easter problem of dumped Easter gift pets (chicks, ducklings, & bunnies).  This is an issue that I'm rather passionate about, & one can only hope that the consumer/public will wake up & put this practice out of business.

As far as naturally colored eggs are concerned, I raised Aracauna chickens for several years & they are definitely a hoot!!  Very friendly & good layers of colorful eggs.  As others have already posted, what chickens are fed has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on shell color.  Shell color is indicative of the particular breed.  The only bearing feed has on eggs is 1) depth of color of the eggyolk; 2) the thickness of the shell, depending on the amount of calcium in the birds' diet.


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## sparrowgrass (Sep 18, 2006)

Vera Blue, the color of the shell has to do with the breed of the hen, not the feed. The color of the yolk IS affected by the feed. 

Hens with white earlobes lay white eggs--brown earlobes, colored eggs. (Who knew hens even had earlobes?)

I have multi-cultural hens--a carton of eggs from my house has all shades from almost white to almost chocolate.

edited to add:  Sorry, didn't mean to repeat what the other posters said--didn't realize there were 2 pages.  Duh.


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## shpj4 (Sep 18, 2006)

One of my girlfriends raises chickens and the color of the eggs depend on which chicken lays the egg.

She said that regardless of the color all the eggs are good for eating.

Jill and Jolie


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