[Sca-cooks] A question about eggs

[Morgan Cain]

> A friend and I were discussing a possible arts exhibition entry in a food
> category and the topic turned to the color of natural eggs.  Does anyone
> know what makes a hen lay a brown egg vs. a white egg (or vice versa)?

Near as I can tell, the colour of the eggshell is a breed thing.  You may
have heard, chickens are also being bred for shells in blue and green and
pink and so on.  But most breed lay either white- or brown-shelled eggs and
you can choose your breeds depending upon which you prefer.

If you go to a poultry seller's information, they will tell you for each
breed what colour the egg shells will be.  For example,
http://www.ideal-poultry.com/  and look at "CHICKS" they tell you whether it
is brown or white, and you can even order "assorted."  If you go about eight
pages in, they start having "tinted" which are the coloured eggs, and the
Araucanas specifically lay green- and blue-shelled eggs.  (I think it has
been nicknamed "the Easter Egg Chicken" as a result.)

More chicken trivia than you probably needed to know (including some about
coloured eggs):  http://www.dashlink.com/~rockingt/chickenfacts.html

Contrary to popular belief, the colour of the shells has little or no effect
on the quality of the contents.

> Are white eggs "less period" than brown eggs?

No idea.  I'm not that old.  <s>   I am betting, with the prevalence of
chicken breeds that lay white eggs, and some of the artwork, literature,
etc. of the period, that white-shelled eggs are perfectly period.

                                                ---= Morgan


====================================================
"Chilli....if they take too much, hath bad effects, for itself is very hote,
fuming, and pierceth greatly, so as the use thereof is prejudiciall to the
health of young folkes, chiefely to the soule, for it provokes to lust."
                                             ---= Father Jose de Acosta
(1590)