Chicken Egg Colors: Which Breeds Lay Which Color?

Chicken egg colors go well beyond white and brown. Hens can lay cream, pink, chocolate, blue, green, and olive eggs, depending on the breed. With the right mix of hens, you can fill your basket with a whole rainbow of eggs.

Eggshells are made of calcium carbonate, which is white. What makes one hen’s eggs blue and another’s chocolate brown is which pigments her breed adds, and when.

There are only two pigments behind all those colors. Brown eggs have a brown pigment on the outside, blue eggs have a blue pigment all the way through, and green eggs have both.

Each hen lays one basic color her whole life, though the shade can lighten or darken over a season. So the colors in your egg basket come down to the breeds in your coop.

Every color has its own guide, with full breed lists for chickens that lay white eggs, chickens that lay dark brown eggs, and the rest. For a first flock, my list of egg laying chickens for beginners is a good place to start.

How Chickens Make Different Egg Colors

An egg takes about a day to form, and it spends about 20 hours of that in the shell gland, near the end of the oviduct. That’s where the hen builds the shell, out of calcium carbonate, which is white.

A white egg layer stops there. Her shell gland doesn’t add any pigment, so the egg is white inside and out.

A brown egg layer adds a brown pigment called protoporphyrin, mostly in the last few hours. Much of it ends up in the cuticle, the thin coating that goes on about 90 minutes before the hen lays the egg, so a brown egg is pale on the inside.

A blue egg layer makes a blue-green pigment called biliverdin. It goes into the shell while the shell is forming, so a blue egg is blue all the way through.

Green and olive eggs are blue eggs with a brown coating on top. Crack one open, and the inside of the shell is blue.

Why Egg Color Comes Down to Breed

Blue eggs come from a single gene, and it’s dominant, so a hen only needs one copy. Researchers have traced it to the same kind of change happening twice, once in chickens in Chile and once in China.

Brown is more complicated. More than a dozen genes play a part, which is why brown eggs come in so many shades, from cream to chocolate.

You can’t feed a hen into laying a different color. Her feed changes the color of the yolk, but her breed sets the color of the shell.

That’s also why mixed breed hens are harder to predict. An Easter Egger might lay a blue egg, a green egg, or now and then a rose one, depending on the genes she inherited.

Chicken Egg Color Chart by Breed

Here’s every common egg color, with the main breeds that lay it. Egg color varies a bit by line and by hen, so treat the shades as a guide rather than a promise.

Breeders who select for egg color give you more reliable eggs, especially for blue and dark brown. Hatchery birds can lay a shade or two lighter.

White Eggs

White eggs come mostly from lean, active Mediterranean breeds. They lay a lot of eggs on little feed, and most of them won’t go broody.

We raised White Leghorns for our rainbow flock. They’re great egg layers, but they’re flighty, fast, and not personable, so they weren’t a fit for my kids.

• Leghorn: Large white eggs, and lots of them. My White Leghorn breed guide has more.
• Ancona: White eggs from a mottled black and white Italian breed.
• Minorca: Very large chalk white eggs.
• Polish: Medium white eggs from the breed with the pompom crest.

Andalusians, Hamburgs, Hollands, and Sicilian Buttercups lay white eggs, too. My list of chickens that lay white eggs covers them all.

Cream and Pink Eggs

Cream, tinted, and pink eggs are pale brown eggs with only a little pigment. The coating on the shell can give them a soft pink cast, and the shade can change over the laying season.

No breed lays true pink eggs every time. These breeds give you good odds, and our own Orpingtons laid a pretty, light pink egg.

• Salmon Faverolles: Tinted to light brown eggs that can look pink. My Salmon Faverolles breed guide has more.
• Light Sussex: Cream to tan eggs that can lean pink.
• Croad Langshan: Pinkish brown eggs with a heavy bloom when they’re newly laid.
• Silkie: Small cream or tinted eggs. My Silkie breed guide has more.

Some Orpingtons, Bielefelders, and Easter Eggers lay pink-tinged eggs, too. My list of chickens that lay pink eggs goes through each one.

Brown Eggs

Brown eggs come from most of the classic backyard breeds. They’re hardy, friendly birds, and their eggs range from light tan to medium brown.

For our first 8 to 10 years of keeping chickens, our whole flock was Barred Rocks. One of our oldest productive hens was a Barred Rock, and she still laid around 5 eggs a week at 7 years old.

Brown egg breeds include plenty of friendly birds for a family flock. These four are easy to find at most hatcheries.

Hatcheries also sell brown egg hybrids, like Golden Comets and Black Sex Links, which lay more eggs than most heritage breeds.

• Rhode Island Red: Large brown eggs from a hardy, productive breed.
• Barred Rock: Large brown eggs from a calm, cold hardy bird. My Barred Rock breed guide has more.
• Orpington: Large light to dark brown eggs, and some hens lay pink-tinged ones. See my Orpington breed guide.
• Wyandotte: Light to medium brown eggs from a cold hardy, rose-combed breed.

Big, cold hardy breeds lay brown eggs, too. These are calm birds that do well in a northern winter.

• Brahma: Medium brown eggs, with most of them laid from October to May. See my Brahma breed guide.
• Cochin: Large brown eggs, though not many of them. See my Cochin breed guide.
• Jersey Giant: Extra large eggs, from light cream to dark brown. See my Jersey Giant breed guide.
• Australorp: Tinted to light brown eggs, and lots of them.

Barred Rocks may not be the fanciest bird in the yard, but they’re utilitarian, healthy, hearty, and great layers. My littles loved snuggling our fluffy, personable Barred Rock hens.

They lay brown eggs, though some older lists call them pink egg layers.

Bielefelders lay a light brown egg, often with pink undertones and a few speckles. Ours were so friendly that my kids picked up and snuggled the roosters.

My Bielefelder breed guide covers what they’re like to raise.

Sussex, Delawares, Buckeyes, and Dominiques lay brown eggs, too. My list of chickens that lay brown eggs has the details on each.

Many brown egg breeds are dual-purpose birds, kept for both eggs and meat. My list of dual-purpose chicken breeds covers those.

Dark Brown Eggs

Dark brown eggs, or chocolate eggs, carry much more of the same brown pigment. Only a few breeds lay them reliably, and the color varies a lot from line to line.

Marans were the breed we added for dark eggs, and they really did lay very dark eggs.

• Marans: Very dark reddish brown eggs. My Marans breed guide has more.
• Welsummer: Dark terracotta eggs, usually speckled. See my Welsummer breed guide.
• Penedesenca: Very dark reddish brown eggs from a rare Spanish breed.
• Barnevelder: Dark brown eggs in a good line, but many lines lay lighter. See my Barnevelder breed guide.

For the darkest eggs, buy from a breeder who selects for egg color. My list of chickens that lay dark brown eggs covers the Marans egg color chart and how to keep the color dark.

Speckled Eggs

No breed lays only speckled eggs, but some lay them more often than others. Dark speckles are spots where the brown pigment went on more heavily.

Breeds that lay darker eggs tend to lay more speckles, so Marans and Welsummers often lay speckled eggs. Bielefelders often do, too. Some Silverudd’s Blue hens lay green eggs with brown speckles, too.

White, raised specks are different. They’re extra bits of calcium on the shell.

A few odd eggs are normal in any flock. My guide to chicken egg deformities covers the other shapes and textures you might find.

Blue Eggs

Blue eggs come from breeds that carry the blue egg gene. The color goes all the way through the shell, so the inside is blue, too.

We added Ameraucanas for blue eggs. Time and time again, they were the breed I came back to when I read up on blue egg layers.

Ameraucanas are an American breed, despite a lot of lists saying they come from Chile. Araucanas are the Chilean breed, and they’re rare.

Many chicks sold as Ameraucanas or Americanas at farm stores are Easter Eggers. They’re good birds, but their egg color is less predictable.

• Ameraucana: Pale blue eggs, often with a hint of green. My Ameraucana breed guide has more.
• Araucana: Blue eggs from a rumpless, ear-tufted breed.
• Cream Legbar: Sky blue to light green eggs from an English breed.
• Easter Egger: Blue or green eggs, and now and then a rose or brown one.

Blue egg layers are also the starting point for green eggs. My guide to chickens that lay blue eggs explains how to tell these breeds apart.

Our Ameraucanas earn their keep in other ways, too. They’re such good foragers that they cut down on our feed bills, and they’re incredibly predator aware.

Green and Olive Eggs

A green egg is a blue egg with a brown coating on top. The more brown, the darker the green, so eggs run from soft mint to deep olive.

Most green egg layers are crosses. Olive eggers come from a blue egg breed crossed with a brown egg breed, and Easter Eggers often lay green, too.

Silverudd’s Blue is a purebred breed that reliably lays green eggs. It comes from Sweden, and hatcheries in the United States often sell it as the Isbar.

Making olive eggers means hatching your own chicks from a blue egg parent and a brown egg parent, so it takes some planning. Our plan was a friendly Bielefelder rooster over our Ameraucana hens.

• Olive Egger: Olive to sage green eggs. My guide to olive egger chickens covers how to make them.
• Easter Egger: Green or blue eggs, and now and then a rose or brown one.
• Silverudd’s Blue: Moss green to olive eggs. See my Isbar breed guide.
• Favaucana: Sage green eggs from a Faverolles and Ameraucana cross.

The darker the brown parent’s eggs, the darker the olive. A Marans cross gives a deep olive, and a lighter brown layer gives a softer green.

Green eggs can change shade over the season, too. The blue part stays the same, but the brown coating fades.

Are There Purple or Black Chicken Eggs?

No chicken lays a truly purple egg. Eggshells only have brown and blue pigments, in different amounts.

Some eggs look purple, though. A thick bloom can make a dark brown egg look purple, and the Livestock Conservancy says some Langshan eggs are very dark brown with a purplish tint.

No chicken lays black eggs, either. The Ayam Cemani has black feathers, skin, and even bones, but it lays cream colored eggs.

What Changes a Hen’s Egg Color?

A hen’s basic egg color doesn’t change, but the shade does. Brown eggs are usually darkest at the start of a laying cycle and lighten as the season goes on.

Hens also lay lighter eggs as they age. Their eggs get bigger, but they put down about the same amount of pigment, so the color gets spread thinner.

Stress, illness, and some medications can lighten brown eggs quickly. The color often comes back once the cause passes, though problems from some diseases can last much longer.

Do Different Egg Colors Taste Different?

No. The USDA says the nutrients in brown and white eggs aren’t significantly different, and poultry extension specialists say they taste the same.

What a hen eats and how fresh the egg is make the difference you can taste. My guide to storing farm fresh eggs works for every color.

Brown eggs usually cost more at the store because the hens that lay them are bigger and eat more. Feed is about three quarters of the cost of producing eggs, according to the University of Florida.

Can You Tell Egg Color from a Hen’s Earlobes?

Often, but not always. Hens with white earlobes usually lay white eggs, and hens with red earlobes usually lay brown, but it’s a pattern from how breeders defined breeds, not a genetic rule.

There are plenty of exceptions. Ameraucanas and Araucanas have red earlobes and lay blue eggs, and Dorkings have red earlobes and lay white to cream eggs.

Penedesencas have white earlobes and lay some of the darkest brown eggs there are. So the breed is what really tells you the egg color.

Planning a Rainbow Egg Flock

For a rainbow basket, pick one or two breeds for each color you want. Leghorns for white, Faverolles for pink, and Barred Rocks for brown are a good start. Add Marans for dark brown, Ameraucanas for blue, and olive eggers for green, and you have the whole range.

You won’t see the colors until your pullets start laying, usually somewhere between 18 and 30 weeks, and later for big breeds like Jersey Giants. Each hen lays one color for life, so once you know, you know.

If true egg color matters to you, buy from a breeder who selects for it. My list of egg laying chickens for beginners and my guide to raising chickens are good places to start.

For winter laying, my list of cold hardy chicken breeds helps, and my list of chicken breeds from A to Z covers the rest.

Chicken Egg Colors FAQs

Here are quick answers to the questions people ask most about egg colors, including one reader’s question about which colorful layers suit beginners.

More Egg Color Guides

Full breed lists for each egg color.

Which Chickens Lay Blue Eggs?

Olive Eggers: Which Chickens Lay Green Eggs?

Which Chickens Lay Dark Brown Eggs? (Chocolate Eggers)

Raising Chickens

More ideas for raising a healthy backyard flock.

How to Make Eggshell Powder (& 10+ Ways to Use It)

Bielefelder Chickens Breed Guide

Ameraucana Chicken Breed Guide