What makes it pink?

Salmon Faverolle eggs are described as “pink”. What makes them pink? One of our pink eggs had some straw stuck to the shell, and when I picked away the stalks, there was brown underneath. Which indicates that the pink color comes from a white layer that overlays the brown.

Pink egg (top) showing brown beneath the white

The inside of these eggs shells are white. The brown color is deposited in the oviduct near the end of the egg’s journey. So it looks like in Faverolles, the bloom (which is a protective coating deposited before the egg is laid) is more opaque, thus looks white, than other brown eggs. As an interesting aside, blue eggs are the result of a pigment spread throughout the shell, so the inside of a blue egg shell is blue. A green egg has the blue pigment over laid with a brown coating. Ah the interesting egg!

Perfect eggs

Four beautiful eggs from my hens

The shells are smooth and clean and these four eggs are a happy sight. I rather like the variation in shades, without having different breeds. My hens are still social and friendly (except for Taco), as Faverolles should be. They do raise quite the ruckus when they think I’m not moving fast enough to the mealworms, which is anytime I head to the coop.

Pretty egg

Speckled egg from my hatchery quality Salmon Faverolle hen

Faverolle hens are suppose to lay pink eggs. The “pink” comes from a white coating over the brown coating, as far as I can tell from personal observation. Some of my hens lay these pink eggs, some lay brown eggs, and one lays these speckled brown eggs. The speckles are always different, and definitely not consistent, but they are my favorite. Especially when they have a beautiful speckle pattern like the one pictured above. Since I don’t plan on ever showing my chickens, the “hatchery quality” doesn’t bother me. I did luck out that their temperament is consistent with the breed, and the variation in egg color is a bonus.

Eggs!

We had a record egg day! Eight! My eldest found eight eggs in the nest boxes. We have nine chickens, so all but one laid an egg. This does not compare to other breeds that consistently lay an egg a day, but for my hatchery-quality Faverolle, 36-hour-ish layers, it was a peak production day. Here is an unusual camera angle on my nearly full egg tower, ‘cause you gotta have a pic, and I like spirals.

View from the top of the egg tower

Egg!

And we have an egg! My eldest went out to check the chickens, and they have started laying again after almost 5 months. Phew! I still have powdered egg in the freezer, so the experiment to see if we could last without fresh eggs was successful, but I don’t think we will repeat it next year. I may save some powdered eggs, and I may try glassing some, but I’m not above buying fresh eggs when the hens have their hiatus.

First egg after the hen’s winter break