July 4, 2011
Today most store-bought eggs come in white or shades of brown, but blue to green chicken eggs are possible. These latter shades come from a Chilean breed called Aracuana. Araucanas have also been crossed with others to produce the Americauna, the Easter Egger.
The average weight of twenty eggs laid by fowls of different breeds is two and one-eighth pounds. The breeds that lay the largest eggs, average seven to a pound, are Black Spanish, Houdans, La Fleches, and Creve Coeures. Eggs of medium size and weight, averaging eight or nine to a pound, are laid by Leghorns, Cochins, Brahmins, Polands, Dorkings, Games, Sultans. Hamburgs lay about ten eggs to a pound. Thus there is a difference of three eggs in one pound weight. Hence it is claimed that in justice to the consumer eggs should be sold by weight.
The Grocers’ Hand-Book and Directory, Artemas Ward, Philadelphia Grocer Publishing, Philadelphia, 1886 (p. 67); emphasis added.
The difference in shell color has no effect on the egg inside. Pigments are deposited on the egg as it passes through a hen’s oviduct and their exact ratio is dependent on genetics.
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