Which hen lays white eggs

Remember Foghorn Leghorn the cartoon? Yep, this bird is one and the same. Seasoned pros know that Leghorn is pronounced "Leggern". I thought my favorite Italian contribution to the world was pizza, or maybe pesto, that is until I found out that Leghorn chickens originated from rural Tuscany, Italy.

There are almost too many Leghorn chicken colors to list. The White Leghorn is the most popular and readily available of all the colors. The White Leghorn, which is the most common, lay large, white eggs practically every day! Other color varieties aren't as prolific but still good layers. You can expect between to of these white eggs per year from your typical leghorn chicken. Leghorn chicken egg production is impressive as far as quantity is concerned, but oddly enough, despite all the eggs they lay Leghorn chickens aren't too fond of incubating their eggy-offspring!

Very few Leghorn chickens exhibit a tendency to brood. Whites are said to be nervous, but some say their White Leghorns have been the sweetest, most tame of all their chickens! They are just so high energy and darn curious about everything, I love it! Cold : They are hardy in winter, however, use petroleum jelly on their large comb to prevent frostbite. Photo: MyPetChicken.

Polish are a very special and unique breed of chicken with their huge bouffant crest of feathers and v-shaped comb. The Minorca is also bred in buff and white varieties with the Buff Single Comb being the most commonly found after the black variety.

The White Minorca is very rare. The buff variety will be smaller than the Black and a bit finer made as well. The challenge with the Minorcas will be to find good birds with which to build a line. Good Buff Minorcas will have a strong undercolor right down to the skin and I have been a part of discussions on this color that have literally gone on for an hour or more as producers share their thoughts on how to manage this color.

The Ancona is a mottled, largely black with white tipping evenly distributed on the feathers that is also bred in single and rosecomb varieties. The rosecomb variety is not widely available. However there have been some small size issues with this breed.

This was once a good sized, hard ranging breed that would forage well and had the mottled camouflage needed for additional predator protection. Ancona have a reputation for producing proportionally large, chalk white eggs in relation to hen size, but this breed has languished for a great many years.

I acquired a few not long ago and while the single comb gene pool for this breed is of some size — the birds had size, coloring and laying issues. Flock builders need to do some basic selection for size and vigor, beginning from the instant the chicks are removed from the hatcher tray.

The reason why some chickens lay white eggs, and some lay green eggs or blue eggs, is old-fashioned chicken genetics!

Different breeds lay different color eggs. Chicken DNA! Mother nature is a mad scientist — especially when it comes to designing and coloring chicken eggs. Would you like to learn how easy it is to raise your own healthy, productive chickens?

This course by The Grow Network explains how to do it! Learn how to choose the right breeds for you, how to raise chicks, how to design and build a great coop, how to identify common health concerns, and how to treat them. There are hundreds of breeds of chickens, and many of them lay white eggs. Several Mediterranean chickens lay white eggs reliably and make perfect homesteading companions if you want loads — and baskets of fresh eggs.

They can usually tolerate warm weather without stress and will happily produce baskets and cartons of delicious, white eggs. I find that many of the Mediterranean breeds are superb at evading predators. However, I always recommend that you keep your chickens safely nestled in their favorite chicken coop come nightfall. We wrote an excellent guide about how to build the best chicken coop without breaking the bank. I also found a vintage chicken guide about Mediterranean chicken egg production from the USDA that I thought was an excellent read.

Find more info on that below! Read this Vintage Chicken Guide from ! Written by Amy Fewell with a foreword by Joel Salatin, this book teaches you how to hatch your own chicks, prevent and treat common chicken ailments, start a poultry business, cook delicious recipes with your fresh eggs, and much more.

For some wild reason, there are loads of misconceptions and FAQs regarding brown-feathered chickens vs. And their eggs! Several of my chicken farming and homesteading friends think that brown eggs are healthier than white eggs. The only real difference is the color of the shell — not the egg.

But the only difference between these eggs of a different colour is the pigment in the shell. Which chicken breeds lay white eggs? Why are organic eggs brown? Eggs labelled organic are not necessarily brown. The colour of the eggs is entirely dependent on the breed of hen from which the eggs come and frequently the breeds raised on organic farms are those which lay brown eggs. Are blue eggs safe to eat?

Yes, blue eggs are perfectly safe to eat. The blue hue is once again simply the pigment in the shell and entirely dependant on the breed of chicken. Breeds that lay blue eggs are the Araucana, Ameraucana, Dongxiang and Lushi. What are the healthiest eggs to eat? The colour of the eggshell does not affect the health value of the egg inside. All eggs are high in protein and relatively low in cholesterol making them a healthy choice when eaten as part of a balanced diet.

Hens with more access to sunlight lay eggs that contain more vitamin D, making free-range eggs higher in vitamin content. Hens fed a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids will produce eggs that contain much higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids.