I borrowed this picture from online just to show just a few of the different colors of eggs produced by different breeds of hens.
Egg colors come in a variety of colors as seen on this wheel of eggs that I took of some of the colors our hens produce.
The eggs we sell are always a selection from different breeds.
So how does the chicken make their eggs a certain color? As the egg moves down the oviduct a few things can happen depending on the breed. The egg moves down and squeezes against glands. These glands then produce the color. If the egg stays stationary for too long it will be spotted. The pigment can permeate the shell in some cases, but in other cases like the Black copper Maran chicken, it simply coats the outer part of the shell in the deep rich brownish red color. Chickens have been bred and cross bred for years to get these effects in color. White eggs will be white all the way through, browns are white inside, blues are all the way through and green are blue on the inside but green on the outer part of the shell! So all in all, it depends on the breed, the pigment the chicken produces and the age of a chicken can also be a factor. A chicken could loose her "tint" as she gets older.
This egg is interesting, at first I thought she ran out of color but under quick inspection, there is a build up of calcium around part of it and can be easily chipped off. This could be from her getting too much calcium but who knows.
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