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Slowly stocks in my local supermarket are returning to something nearer normal (whispers.... I even bought some yeast earlier this week)
One aspect the shop has struggled with more recently, rather than in the early lockdown panic buying, is eggs. For quite a while now they've had nearly-no eggs by the time I shop at about 9.30
Whilst not paying attention to the telly I caught mention on some sort of BBC 4 informative thing, that in the 70s or 80s some guy developed a technique to get hens to reliably lay brown eggs. And this was an advance because shoppers would pay more for brown eggs that they would for white eggs.
The next time I went into sainsburies - loads of white eggs on the shelves.
Given the apparent shopper-distrust of a white eggshell I guess white eggs have previously gone to catering and food production rather then shops.
But why? Why would shoppers be distrustful of a white egg shell? That bias is obviously so ingrained that shops won't even offer them, let alone offer them for less - It took quite a few weeks for the supermarket to resort to selling white eggs instead of having empty shelves - the white ones must be available in abundance just now with many catering businesses closed.
I've just eaten two - and so far I'm fine, I think. But I presume we're all unwittingly eating them whenever we buy pre-prepared food.
Would you chose a brown egg over white?
Corrie mains farm eggs only in this hoose Mac, not far from you either.
I thought they had to feed the chickens in a particular way to get white eggs... In the US they wouldn't know what a brown egg was!
People assume brown eggs are nice healthy, organic eggs from free range chickens.
They also assume white ones are battery farmed.
In reality the colour means nothing
Nope. Genuinely couldn't care less what colour the shell is. Does it make any difference to the contents?
It depends on the colour of a chciken's ear lobes what colour eggs they lay.
True dat.
This is an interesting one. I was born in the 50s (just) and I remember as a child going to the local farm to buy eggs. They were all white. Brown eggs cost more. In the late 60s it all changed and eggs on sale to the public became brown - associations with wholemeal, healthy foods were behind the change. But eggs farmed for industrial or catering use were still white, I think because yields are slightly higher. With the pandemic reducing the catering trade demand, some of those eggs are now finding their way into the retail market.
Corrie mains farm eggs only in this hoose Mac, not far from you either.
I knows it!
People assume brown eggs are nice healthy, organic eggs from free range chickens.
They also assume white ones are battery farmed.
The white ones I just bought are free range. But neither of those presumptions would have mattered to shoppers 40 years ago
Apparently... hens that lay brown eggs are more aggressive than hens that lay white and have to have their beaks trimmed 😕
#whiteggsmatter
We keep chickens, shell colour is down to the breed, nothing do with what they are fed (though that can affect the colour of the yolk). We have blue, brown, white and speckled egg layers. So far as I can tell, they all taste the same but far superior to shop bought eggs which can be up to 2 or 3 weeks old by the time you buy them.
Interesting factoid, a chicken's ears (yes, they do have them) will be the same colour as the eggs they lay.
Our local chooks run about outside, have loads of space, look in really good condition and lay white eggs....
From an internet earlier today:
Chicken egg colours explained:
White eggs: all eggshells are made of calcium carbonate and the white ones have no pigment added
Brown eggs: caused by protoporphyrin IX, from the hen's haemoglobin, and is coated on the outside of the egg as it moves through the oviduct
Blue eggs: have the pigment oocyanin, which does permeate the shell, so the blue colouring will be all the way through
Green eggs: if a brown layer and a blue layer are crossbred, chances are you will get a green egg when the protoporphyrin IX layer is deposited over the blue oocyanin shell
Pink eggs: comes from the bloom or cuticle, a natural coating that seals the eggshell's pores. The bloom is often washed off before eggs are sold commercially
Speckled eggs: can be laid by any hen with pigmented shells and comes from the egg rotating slower than normal during the pigmenting stage
Interesting factoid, a chickens ears (yes, they do have them) will be the same colour as the eggs they lay.
So if I keep chickens and want different coloured eggs all I need to do is swap the heads.
Good to know.
What about the Crystal Egg of peace?
I think I've read somewhere that all the white eggs the country produces (until recent events changed things) were hoovered up by McDonalds?
People assume brown eggs are nice healthy, organic eggs from free range chickens.
They also assume white ones are battery farmed.
What people is that?
I'm currently working in the local supermarket and they daren't send their white eggs out for home delivery as they get so many refused and brought back! Doesn't seem an issue in-store so everyone that orders online gets sent the more expensive Happy Egg Co. boxes rather than the normal ones.
I really thought it was only in the US where anyone cared about eggshell colour. You live n learn eh.
shoppers would pay more for brown eggs that they would for white eggs.
My grandma wouldn't buy brown eggs. She wasn't a big fan of brown people either. The only good thing about her is that she was so crazy that her nastiness wasn't deliberate.
I understand there's no difference and buy brown eggs every time.
I suppose I'm at least a self-aware conditioned idiot.
I have white chickens and brown chickens.
White chickens lay white eggs and brown chickens lay brown eggs.
They all get fed the same feed.
The colour of the egg doesn't change the taste or contents.
Some rare bread hens lay blue eggs - they get taken up by the likes of Fortnum and Masons as they are deemed exotic and therefore worthy of more money and are somehow better.
They still have the same contents though.
I think the breed of hen determines the colour of the egg.
That Adam fella from Countryfile had a rant about brown & white eggs a while back. According to him, it's all our (the consumers) fault. Regardless of the fact that the only place I can buy white eggs locally is Waitrose, and I CBA dealing with the rude old biddies that cluck around there. If they were on sale in my local Sainsbury's/ Aldi/ Lidl/ Asda I'd happily buy the white ones.
Pink eggs: comes from the bloom or cuticle, a natural coating that seals the eggshell’s pores. The bloom is often washed off before eggs are sold commercially
Presumably that's off an American internets. It's illegal to wash them prior to sale here.
In the US they wouldn’t know what a brown egg was!
The US is a wild place where 'common sense' has long won the battle over scientific knowledge and based on the words and actions of my American in-laws I suspect they're all massive germphobes.
I think they would rather think that eggs are a manufactured product not natural, so something completely white would appeal to them. They also wash them before sale to make them more HI-GEN-IC, of course science had shown us that doing so makes them far more likely to give you food poisoning than leaving them as nature intended (bird poo and all) because it washes off the eggs bacterial barrier, they disagree and no amount of studies showing how many Americans are killed by salmonella a year will persuade them that buying eggs (or any colour) unwashed isn't "ikky".
I just buy free range in the size I need, a few weeks ago they happened to be white. Never seen them before and not yet since.
What about white dog eggs?
I thought they had to feed the chickens in a particular way to get white eggs… In the US they wouldn’t know what a brown egg was!
Nope, determined by breed.
It depends on the colour of a chciken’s ear lobes what colour eggs they lay.
True to a certain extent.
Interesting factoid, a chicken’s ears (yes, they do have them) will be the same colour as the eggs they lay.
Slightly true (see above). However, to the best of my knowledge there aren't any breeds with dark brown, green, or blue earlobes
I have white chickens and brown chickens.
White chickens lay white eggs and brown chickens lay brown eggs.
Not the blanket truth I'm afraid. We've had white hens that lay blue eggs, ones that lay white eggs, and ones that lay pink eggs. Is all in the genes!
Afaik the no white eggs thing is, as said above, due to a perception of 'healthy' that stems from the perception of bread colour and the health benefits!
As far as I'm aware there are still masses of white eggs that are produced, but they are sold predominantly as ingredients for the food industry, so nobody ever gets to see the shells.
So if I keep chickens and want different coloured eggs all I need to do is swap the heads.
You don't need to go to all that effort, you only need to swap the earlobes.
Apparently… hens that lay brown eggs are more aggressive than hens that lay white and have to have their beaks trimmed
In my experience that's total bollocks. There's an ex caged hen in our garden that can frequently be found falling asleep on a 7 year old's lap!
Break trimming is done to try and stop hens injuring each other. In a nutshell, in a normal environment, hens establish a pecking order pretty quickly (by, err, pecking!) so any initial aggression between birds (usually father plucking or nips on the crest)wanes quickly as they work out where they stand. In a commercial barn/large scale free range flock, there are so many other birds that they can't tell who's who, so feather plucking and injury can be a real problem. Break trimming reduces the injury caused by this.
They also wash them before sale to make them more HI-GEN-IC, of course science had shown us that doing so makes them far more likely to give you food poisoning than leaving them as nature intended (bird poo and all) because it washes off the eggs bacterial barrier,
The fundamental difference here being, we inoculate our chickens, the US does not. Hence in the US washing eggs is arguably a net benefit, whereas here it would be worse for reasons exactly as you say.
Some rare bread hens lay blue eggs – they get taken up by the likes of Fortnum and Masons as they are deemed exotic and therefore worthy of more money
I'll raise your blue eggs...
£2 for four pullet eggs at waitrose
Yep, the ones they throw away are now more expensive than the ones they don't.
I'm glad you raised this. Waitrose have since lockdown started selling (and making a thing of it) white eggs as their cheapest option (£1 for 6). Now it makes sense.
I thought that dedicated egg laying breed layed mostly white eggs (some exceptions with blue/ green etc) and that the types of chicken used first for egg laying and then for meat as they become less reliable layed brown.
edit -
HI-GEN-IC
I say, should that be said in Foghorn Leghorn's voice?
I have white chickens and brown chickens.
White chickens lay white eggs and brown chickens lay brown eggs.
We have a black chicken who lays brown speckled eggs, and a silver chicken who lays blue eggs.
Because I am in middle class heaven, I poach their eggs and have them on my homemade sourdough.
Slightly true (see above). However, to the best of my knowledge there aren’t any breeds with dark brown, green, or blue earlobes
We have cream legbars and a russet blue who are blue egg layers and have very pale blue ears.
Not the blanket truth I’m afraid. We’ve had white hens that lay blue eggs, ones that lay white eggs, and ones that lay pink eggs. Is all in the genes!
We had an Amber, which is of course un-obviously actually white, that laid brown ones. Big ones too. She laid double yokers of 90-100g for about a year... poor girl.
Just to add, my white chickens that I have had have all layed white eggs and the brown have all layed brown eggs. I'm not saying they don't lay other colours but I've not seen a brown hen lay anything other than brown eggs. White hens are different as some are all white, some are mostly white and some are only a bit white, but the ones I've had have only layed white eggs.
As above - the breed will determine the colour, rather than the colour of chicken determining the colour of the egg. The breed will determine the colour of the bird and the colour of the egg.
As far as I'm aware the main breed of hen for egg laying is the Warren, the standard brown hen. Well at least that's the ones we've had from rescue places when we've took commercial hens at the end of their commercial laying lives.
What about white dog eggs?
They start out brown and gradually turn white.
Today I have learnt things about egg colour. Thank you STW, every day is a school day
Just to add, my white chickens that I have had have all layed white eggs and the brown have all layed brown eggs.
In the pursuit of science you're now doing to have to swap their heads.
I’m not saying they don’t lay other colours but I’ve not seen a brown hen lay anything other than brown eggs.
How do you know the chickens aren't swapping them when you're not lookin?
We have cream legbars and a russet blue who are blue egg layers and have very pale blue ears.
Well I never! The one we had had very white lobes.
Our Faverolles had very white ears and laid pink eggs.
Our Marans had very red ears, and should have lays very dark brown eggs though. But that turned out to be a rooster. FML.
Curiouser and curiouser
We keep hens, here are a few along with their eggs.
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@bruceonabike we have a cream legbar and a copper black maran. Just acquired 4 buff opingtons and also have Norfolk grey, speckeldys, white Sussex, bluebells and a russet blue.
White eggs are a Kosheer thing. They're easier to candle and therefore spot developing embryos. It's a biblical health and hygiene thing like most of the kosher and halaal rules I reckon.