Silver Homestead

A One Acre Farmhouse

Chickens Colored Eggs Natural Chicken Keeping

Natural Chicken Egg Colors {and the hen breeds who lay them}

Let me show you all the colorful eggs our chicken flock has been able to produce! None of these are dyed; they all come from the hen’s body in a rainbow of earthy hues. Some are even speckled! Here are all the natural chicken egg colors that backyard chickens can lay:

a pulp egg carton with a rainbow of speckled green, olive, blue, white, pink, peach, dark chocolate, and speckled brown eggs

Natural Chicken Egg Colors

If you see someone holding a handful of bright blue and vibrant green eggs, they’re real! Hens really can lay blue, green, olive, cream, terracotta and dark brown eggs. A few hens even carry genetics that apply heavier tint overlays or a bloom so their eggs look dark chocolate, reddish toned, purple or pink!

The Natural Color of Eggs

Many people believe that brown is the natural color of chicken eggs. The truth is that chicken egg shells can be one of two colors: blue (dominant) or white (recessive). Most breeds familiar to Europeans and European settlers were white, tinted (light brown) and brown egg layers. Brown colored eggs are made by the hen’s body applying a brown-pigmented tint overlay shortly before laying the egg. Green eggs are made by a hen who carries the dominant blue egg shell gene and deposits tint overlay before the egg is laid, which turns them a shade of green. (13+ brown tint overlay genes determine how light cream or dark chocolate the overlay can be.)

Natural Chicken Eggs Really Do Come in a Rainbow of Colors:

Natural Chicken Egg Colors in blue, aqua, turquoise, green, olive, speckled brown and heavy bloom pink eggs on a white background
The brown speckled eggs in this image are laid by purebred Welsummers. The blue eggs are from Easter Eggers while the sage-toned eggs are laid by Olive Eggers. The pink eggs were laid by a rare heavy bloom Rhode Island Red.
powder blue, blue, aqua, green and sage Easter Egger eggs in a kitchen scene where some are in a white pulp carton and others are in a shallow white bowl or sitting on a white tea towel
The eggs in this image were laid by 9 different Easter Eggers and 4 Prairie Bluebell Eggers!
a white dough bowl is holding very unusual and rare eggs that are peach speckled with red-brown spots, terracotta, green with brown speckles, jade green, and dark brown speckled eggs to show a range of Natural Chicken Egg Colors
We breed speckled olive eggers by crossing speckled brown laying breeds with blue and green egg layers.

Click to See 50+ More Images of Chicken Egg Colors Labeled By Breed!

Chicken Eggs Can Be Speckled

It is possible for some laying hens to produce speckled eggs that resemble wild bird eggs! This is caused by the egg turning too slowly in the egg gland where the tint overlay is deposited. Instead of the overlay being applied smoothly, it instead has dots of thicker pigment.

two green eggs with light brown speckles, one olive egg with dark brown speckles and a chocolate egg with fine dark brown speckling are sitting on a pile of whole grain chicken feed

Chicken Eggs Can Also Be Really Dark

Marans, which was originally a French breed, can lay incredibly deep russet red or dark chocolate eggs. Black Copper Marans tend to lay the darkest eggs, with some Blue Copper Marans lines also being quite dark. They are popular among backyard chicken keepers who want to create rainbow egg cartons.

a pulp half dozen carton full of dark chocolate brown copper marans eggs

Photoshopped & Filtered Images

These definitely DO exist online. Some phone cameras will naturally brighten and enhance the color of objects in the image. While this can make for a beautiful picture, it may not match reality. Eggs photographed in clear, mid-day, indirect outdoor light generally show the natural chicken egg colors best. “Neon” eggs tend to have some type of color filter applied:

two speckled olive, one heavy bloom olive, one speckled sea foam and one khaki drab eggs are all on a white surface photographed in natural daylight while next to it is the same image with photoshop filters applied that make the eggs look shades of vibrant green and neon aqua blue

Blue Eggs Sometimes Photograph Green

Naturally blue chicken eggs tend to photograph green. I sometimes have to filter out yellow tones from my images so my blue-in-real-life eggs will actually look blue in the picture. Fun Fact: the pigment that gives blue eggs their color is called biliverdin which is Latin for “green bile” and it is in fact a shade of aqua green inside the hen’s body!

five eggs that are shades of light blue in real life are clustered in front of antique blue and green glass mason jars on a white surface which makes the eggs look pale aqua green
The eggs in this image are Easter Egger shades of blue but they photographed aqua greenish, especially against the antique glass jars.

Do The Colors Taste Different?

Surprisingly, no! The outside shell color of a chicken egg does not affect the flavor of the yolk and whites inside. If you’d like more reassurance, you can read in detail how blue & green eggs taste.

So Many Natural Chicken Egg Colors!

There truly is a HUGE range of hues which a hen can lay! Dark tint overlays, heavy blooms and speckling (both under the bloom and on top of the tint overlay) provide an infinite number of color combinations. While true red and true purple eggs do not exist, I hope this has given you a good idea of what is real and what is enhanced when you’re viewing online egg images!

a pulp egg carton with a rainbow of speckled green, olive, blue, white, pink, peach, dark chocolate, and speckled brown eggs to show a range of natural chicken egg colors
a row of 15 different colored chicken egg graphics with text that reads click to view labeled chicken egg colors by breed

You Might Also Enjoy Reading:

Easter Egger Egg Shell Color Genetics

How to Breed Brighter Laying Easter Eggers

Hatcheries with the BEST Colored Egg Layer Chicks

Pin for Later:

a pulp egg carton with a rainbow of speckled green, olive, blue, white, pink, peach, dark chocolate, and speckled brown eggs photographed in natural daylight with text that reads natural chicken egg colors

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