Question: What determines the color of an eggshell?
Answer: Egg color is determined by a hen’s genetics, with each breed producing distinct hues—Leghorns lay white eggs, Orpingtons brown, and Ameraucanas blue. Olive Eggers, a cross between brown- and blue-egg layers, produce green eggs. All eggs begin white; pigments added during their 26-hour journey through the oviduct create color. Blue eggs contain the pigment oocyanin throughout the shell, while brown eggs get a surface layer of protoporphyrin, leaving the interior white. Olive eggs form when brown pigment overlays a blue shell, deepening the green tone as the brown pigment darkens. Interestingly, hens with white earlobes usually lay white eggs.
