Grow Your Own Magazine

sorry for all the questions!maybe one day you'll have all turned me into an expert & i'll have some answers too!!?
I always thought that different patterns/colours on eggs went with different breeds,however we have 10 runofthemill hybrids but everyday brings a new egg.they're all from same flock yet some lay normal brown eggs others slightly speckled & some totally speckled.is this a normal wonder of chook keeping or are we going wrong somewhere with food?they all as tasty as each other & as long as we're not missing signs of poorly chooks then more than happy with the wonderful variety,just need some reassurance that it's the norm & nothing to worry about!cheers.

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I've noticed differences in the eggs my chooks lay too. Think it depends on what they've been eating mostly. Speckledy ones might be because they've eaten more dark coloured gritty bits? They still taste good though

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View my blog - http://chooksandveggies.blogspot.com/ updated November 1st 2008

If they are hybrids then whatever the parent breeds might have produced will be possible, and any 'intermediate' shades too (ie if your hens are a cross between a breed which lays dark brown eggs, and one which lays white eggs, they can do ANYTHING from white to dark). Once you get to know the patterns you may start to see that one hen lays light brown eggs, one lays darker, and a third lays speckles. There is also a tendency for the last egg before a 'day off' to be a bit different from that hen's usual colour.
Hope this helps.