Seriously, there are five other nests, girls. I know this is typical hen behavior, and I have seen two of my hens trying to lay in the same nest box before, but three? Chaos. After the picture they all were lifted out to get some air and treats. Later, my eldest found three eggs in the box, so they managed to all eventually lay there.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Critters and Craft 