Chicken eggs come in several colours, but the most common colours are brown and white.
For a long time, it was believed that white-feathered chickens laid white eggs and brown-feathered chickens laid brown eggs.
While the colour of the feathers may play a role, a stronger indicator than the feathers is the colour of the earlobes.
If the earlobe is white, the chicken’s eggs will likely be white, and if the earlobe is darker, eggs will likely be brown.
But there are exceptions to this rule as well.
Eventually, it boils down to the breed of the chicken, i.e., some breeds lay white eggs while others lay brown eggs.
It takes 26 hours for a chicken egg to form, and all eggs are white to begin with.
An egg’s journey starts as a yolk in the hen’s ovary.
Then it moves to the oviduct tube, where it spends three hours developing egg white.
After that, the egg enters the shell gland, where it spends 20 hours forming the shell — the last stage in shell formation is the addition of pigments (colouring of the egg).
Now, some breeds are not genetically programmed to perform this last step, and the egg comes out without colouration.
The white egg-laying chickens are said to produce more eggs on cheaper diets, unlike most brown egg-laying hens that require higher quality food and more of it.
That is why white eggs are usually cheaper than brown eggs.
However, with the right care and food, the white eggs could be as nutritious.
