Eggs in the nest boxes are few and far between these days.  Maybe one a week.  And, all of a sudden, they are the wrong color!

It happened again yesterday – a white egg in the north nest box.  We have only three chickens now – a Barred Rock, a Russian Orloff, and a Rhode Island Red.  They are all brown egg layers, according to all of the Chicken and Egg Experts.  And,  since we have had these girls – upwards of four years for the Little Red Hen and two-to-three for the others – they have faithfully followed the rules.  Until a month or so ago, all eggs have been in the brown tones – darker for Clara (the Barred Rock), a medium brown for Slutvana (the Russian) and Little Red (the Rhode Island gal.)

“Could a visiting chicken be sneaking into the coop?” one of my friends asked.  Highly unlikely, I’d wager.  The nearest chickens, as far as I know, belong to neighbors about a mile south of us – a long commute for a chicken.

“Do eggs change color as the layer ages?” someone else asked.  “Like hair or fur going gray over time?”  Not that I’ve ever heard of.  As far as I can learn from Farmer Nyel’s Chicken Book Library, one egg color for life is the rule for hens.  Generally, there are brown egg-laying breeds, white egg-laying breeds and two “Easter-egger” breeds who lay blue or green eggs.

And then the other day, Vicki sent me information about a gorgeous breed of black chickens who lay black eggs!  Seriously. Called the “Lamborghini of poultry,” the Ayam Cemani, a rare Indonesian chicken is completely black – black feathers, skin, beak, comb and all internal organs and bones are black, as well. The chickens are extremely rare and sell for $199 to $400 per bird.  A breeding pair recently sold for $5.000.  (And, no, we won’t be adding that particular breed to our flock.)

But, so far, I can find no reports of chickens changing the color of their eggs. Only in Oysterville, apparently.